Thanks for the comment, you raise two questions:

1. Does PPC advertising lessen a brand’s image?

In my opinion PPC in itself does no harm to brand’s image, if harm is done then the fault will lie elsewhere in the marketing plan. Most top brands are using it: Coca-Cola, Microsoft, GE, Toyota, Honda, Nescafe. But more importantly, keyword-driven PPC advertising on search engines is hugely powerful. If you’re able to speak directly to user’s query on a search engine you create a very powerful connection. A good landing page is also important; you want to manage peoples expectations and show them a page that is relevant to their needs. Recently we started running PPC ads for airport rideshares, our ad for LAX is good example of an ad that is combined with a very relevant landing page.

2. Is viral marketing more effective than PPC?

This is highly debatable, the main benefit of viral is that it’s free, the drawback is that it takes time to build. PPC has the advantage that you can immediately test out new ideas very quickly. At PickupPal we do both, we run PPC, but we also have several more viral initiatives: ERP Program, a Facebook Application, and in some ways this blog is way of selling our product.

So, I don’t really believe that by using PPC advertising we are guilty of buying users, part of me thinks it would be great if that were possible, but the reality is that users will only sign-up to PickupPal if they’re interested in using our product. We know this because we get very few requests to delete accounts. The other problem with the idea of buying users is that a bought user is unlikely to be interested in building a community. PickupPal relies heavily on it’s users to function, without them we do not have a product. So tricking people into signing-up would not work at all.

Thanks for the post, great to hear that PPC has been so effective for you.

To me, PPC seems like an attractive option, though I question whether or not it is the best. My gut tells me it could lessen a brand; in some way, it is like “buying” users.

In my opinion, PPC is no match for a strong viral component (that is, a viral component that has existed in the sites DNA from the beginning). I recently wrote a report on Google, Facebook and YouTube, examining how they reached critical mass so quickly with no formal advertising. One of the main conclusions is that a brand is nothing more than “trust”.

Could PPC diminish this “trust” for a website? I have no idea.
I’d love to hear your thoughts.

Michael