“Marketing is not a battle of products; it’s a battle of perceptions.”
— Al Ries & Jack Trout
Your target audience’s perception is your reality. Thus, you must find creative ways to reach them. To demonstrate how effective this technique can prove to be, I offer the following:
During his march through the near east, Alexander the Great came upon a mountain stronghold known as the Soghdian Rock.
The rock itself was sheer-faced and – so its defenders believed – impregnable.
At a preliminary parley, Alexander offered the occupants safe conduct if they would surrender their fortress.
The negotiators laughed rudely and asked whether Alexander’s men could fly, adding that they would surrender to winged soldiers, “as no other sort of person could cause us the least anxiety.”
Alexander at once combed through his entire army for experienced mountaineers and found some 300. He called for volunteers to scale the sheer rock face (the defenders only guarded the one direct route to the fortress). He offered vast rewards for the first 12 men up.
Every man volunteered for the perilous operation. They made the ascent by night, an extra hazard, and 30 of them plummeted to their deaths.
At dawn, a flutter of white flags broke out from the summit above the fortress.
Alexander sent a herald to tell the defenders that if they looked up, they would see that he had found his winged men.
The Soghdian soldiers were so taken aback by this theatrical rearrangement of reality that they surrendered instantly, even though they outnumbered the mountaineers by 30,000 to less than 300 and the rest of Alexander’s men still had no path to the summit.
It was the perception that Alexander and his men could accomplish the impossible (fly to the mountaintop), and not reality (no one saw them do it) that led to victory.
What does this story have to do with Pay Per Click  Management?

• Alexander realized that just showing up was not enough to make a sale. You should too. Text Ads that ignore the benefits of your product or service and lack a strong Call to Action will show up but fail to inspire action.
• Alexander took the time (research) to understand what would motivate his target audience to buy into his offer. This allowed him to craft a compelling solution to overcome their skepticism/objections. Instead of relying on parleys, consider visits to blogs and forums to discover what people need or want as it relates to your product or service. Offers that do not address real needs will lead to defeat.
• Rather than mounting a frontal assault, Alexander found a creative – and relevant – way to make a convincing argument by leveraging imagination vs. brute force to make his point. This kind of thinking, or approach, is what can set you apart from your competitors. Let them demand that searchers “Buy, Buy, Buy,” and smile as your competition’s targets say, “Bye, Bye, Bye” and then embrace you instead.

And remember, it is not your reality – inside info or industry jargon – that matters, but your target audience’s perception of how you can solve their problem that makes all the difference.