Should I pay for listings for my shop (eg. Google Adwords) on Search Engines?

Over the past 14 years at Petals we have experienced the impact of a number of new technologies. Undoubtedly, the internet has revolutionised the way that people shop... and therefore, the way that businesses advertise.

Paid online advertising listings (for example, Google Adwords), appear on webpages and usually relate to the type of search that you're doing. In instances where people are searching for a 'flower delivery service', a whole range of Adwords will appear that may be titled 'Flowers Australia' or 'Send Flowers Online'. These words are the paid advertising. You may have seen them at some stage when you were looking at a website or search engine page.

There are usually two types of paid listings... those that are 'pay per click' and those that are 'pay per sale'. The first is where you have to pay a fee each time a customer clicks on your link (which doesn't mean they'll buy each time!)... and the second is where you only pay a fee each time a customer makes a sale through your link.

At Petals, we've always approached the concept from a purely economic angle.
We've always done our sums and ensured the exercise was going to be profitable for us before we've committed to anything. We certainly don't advise any business to go ahead with this advertising before they've confirmed that it's going to make a difference to their bottom line.

We've always worked out how the advertising will make a difference to our bottom line by doing a simple cost benefit analysis for each situation.
Firstly, you need to work out how much you make on an average order, then you need to know how much each click will cost you. If you divide the two, you'll find out how many clicks you can afford to pay for before you need to make an order. Anything over this, and you'll be losing money.

However, this is only our opinion, based on our own personal experiences.
We'd like to know what others think, and we'd love to hear from you! Add your comment today!