I was looking through a new client’s Google Analytics account the yesterday – window-shopping, you know. Fortunately, everything was in pretty good shape. Only one glaring thing stuck out: The client was spending a lot on paid search, and wasn’t getting much back in return.

ROI is a tricky thing to calculate in their particular industry, but even so their paid-search ROI was clearly a LOROI (lack of return on investment).

Naturally, that got me thinking about paid search, and when it makes sense and when it doesn’t.

Certainly there’s no shortage of organizations that think paid search is a good idea. Do a common search, like “best (Indian chicken, diaper-rash ointment, spackling compound, hula hoop, Steven Seagal movie – it doesn’t matter),” and you can barely get to the non-paid content through the ads.

Being on page one used to be something reserved for at least the top 10 organic results. With some popular search terms, you’re lucky if the top three show.

Search is a fact of our collective marketing existence – but does paid search have to be?

Not always. Here are five instances where you might be better off pocketing the money you’d spend on paid search and investing it in something solid, like paczki.

1. When you’re already at the top and don’t have significant competition.

One of our clients has a dominant position in their market, and it’s not even close. There are no threats to them coming from any direction – product, distribution, technology, anything – and they’re firmly in control of the only search terms that matter … yet they’re spending money on paid search.

What’s the result of that paid search? Their paid listing is right above two of their organic listings; it’s costing them money every time someone clicks on the paid link over one of the organic ones, and it’s messing with their Google Analytics to boot.

That’s the definition of wasted spend, right there.

If you’ve won and won decisively, congratulations. Pat yourself on the back – and stop spending money on that particular search term.

If you feel that you have to spend money on search, get a little adventuresome and try some different terms. However, paid-search spending on marginal terms is going to produce marginal results nine times out of 10.

Marketing people hate to admit when they’ve won, because they feel it puts their job in danger. However, sometimes you have to recognize a win when you see one, and find another world to conquer.

2. When there’s a strong geographic component to what you do, and you’re spending money on anything other than [geographic area] + [keyword].

Let’s suppose you’re a dentist and you’re spending money on dentist-related keywords or phrases – “best dentist,” “cosmetic dentistry,” “sanitized pliers,” whatever. Most of those are apt to be expensive – and you’re spending money to reach an audience that is probably not going to use your services because they’re in Poughkeepsie and you’re in the Piedmont.

If you’re looking to succeed in a given geographic area, frame your organic and paid search strategies around that geographic area. Don’t waste money trying to reach people who will never be your customers.

3. When your keywords are poorly defined.

If you don’t have a handle on the keywords that are really driving business in your industry or geographic area, how can you have an effective paid-search strategy?

Here’s where Google Analytics, for all its power, really can’t help you. You need to use an SEO tool like Brightedge to identify the true high-traffic keywords, identify the competition, and start attacking them, remembering that search has to work from the inside out.

You cannot pursue an effective search strategy until your site and all its components are properly aligned and optimized for search.

If you’re not sure your site is where it needs to be, don’t spend money on paid search. Get your site right, and then revisit the topic. Oh, and be ready for the questions from the higher-ups, because they’re guaranteed to not understand what’s going on.

4. When your competitors’ keywords are all over the board.

If your competitors are being doofuses and throwing money around, that’s not reason for you to follow in their footsteps.

I mean, if your competitors jumped off the Grand Canyon, would you? Huh?

I’m all for competitive intelligence. However, I am not for using competitive intelligence as a roadmap for following in your competitors’ footsteps.

Use an SEO tool and Google Analytics together to find the most impactful keywords for your business, optimize your site for those keywords, and stick to your strategy. Get your organic house in order before pursuing paid search. And when you do, stick to your guns for the time period you set for yourself when you began the process.

Hate to break the news to you creative types, but discipline is how you succeed in paid search. If you’re going to be undisciplined and your name isn’t Elon Musk, I haven’t got much for you.

5. When there’s not an ownable search term that makes sense.

If you’re looking at your paid-search options and you’re not seeing a clear-cut answer, it’s okay to punt for a while.

Think of marketing spend as your retirement account. You invest a little for aggressive growth, invest more for long-term growth, and invest some to provide that stable base in case the worst happens.

You’d never knowingly put a part of your retirement account into an investment you knew was going to lose value; why would you spend money on paid search if you knew it was going to be a money pit?

Twenty years ago I came up with a definition of marketing that at the time seemed to sum it up: “Marketing is the targeted application of common sense.”

Times have beat on that definition a little – not sure influencer marketing will ever represent the targeted application of common sense, ever – but it still holds up, especially when it comes to paid search.

Common sense, people. You can do it. And think of how much more your grateful clients will pay you when you save them from making a losing bet on paid search.

Yeah, no. But it’s worth a try.

The Five Times Paid Search Is A Horrible, Terrible, No Good, Very Bad Idea