Pay Per Click Marketing: Using PPC to Build Your Business
What is PPC marketing (pay-per-click)?
You know those sponsored ads you frequently see at the top of Google’s search results page? That’s pay-per-click marketing (specifically Google Ads PPC, which we’ll discuss below). Pay-per-click marketing uses search engine advertising to generate clicks to your website rather than “earning” those clicks organically.
Here’s how it works
Whenever your ad is clicked, and a visitor comes to your website, you pay the search engine a small fee. If your PPC campaign is well developed and works smoothly, this fee is insignificant because the visit deserves more for your business than the amount you pay for it. For instance, if you pay $10 for a click, but it results in a $300 sale, PPC is a no-brainer.
Ultimately, pay-per-click marketing is beneficial for everyone involved
- It’s good for searchers: Research shows that searchers click on paid search ads more often than any other form of digital advertising. That means people don’t mind being advertised to, provided the products and services advertised meet the searchers’ needs. And since we use search engines when we search for products and services, the results, including the ads, are usually very relevant to what we are looking for. Moreover, Google has developed an excellent formula to ensure that PPC ads meet users’ needs.
- It’s suitable for advertisers: Advertisers are given a unique opportunity to target their message to a target market that is actively and specifically searching for their product. As searchers reveal their intent through their search query, advertisers can measure the quality of traffic that results from search engine clicks.
- It’s suitable for search engines: PPC allows search engines to target searchers and advertisers simultaneously. Most importantly, search engines want to deliver relevant results while offering a highly targeted, revenue-generating advertising channel. Searchers make up their user base, while advertisers are their source of revenue.
The unique benefit of PPC marketing is that Google (and other ad networks) reward the highest bidders for ad space and the highest-quality ads (i.e., the most popular ads with users). Google rewards excellent performance. The better your ads are, the greater your click-through rates and the lower your costs.
Google Ads for Pay Per Click Marketing
Google Advertisements, formerly known as Google AdWords – by far the most popular PPC platform – operates on a pay-per-click model, where clients bid on keywords and pay for each click on their ads.
Each time a search is launched, Google scans the pool of bidding advertisers and selects a collection of winners to appear in the ad section on the search results page. The “winners” are selected based on factors, including the quality and relevance of their keywords and ad copy and the number of their keyword bids.
That is a metric calculated by multiplying two key factors: CPC bid (the most significant amount an advertiser is willing to spend) and Quality rating (a value that considers your click-through rate, significance, and landing page quality, among other factors). Your Quality Score, in turn, affects your actual cost per click or CPC.
Is Pay Per Click marketing proper for you?
As we’ve already established, PPC advertising offers a unique opportunity to:
- Grow your customer base: Connect with searchers looking for products and services like yours, and respond to that requirement by providing an offer relevant to their search query.
- Generate leads at a low cost: Since pay-per-click marketing allows you to reach leads and potential customers just as they are researching and looking to buy, it’s a highly effective way to drive interested visitors to your website. Moreover, you will enjoy an algorithmically generated discount from the search engines if you make their users happy.
The truth is that pay-per-click marketing is suitable for almost any type of business, whether you want to sell products through an e-commerce website, generate leads for a service or software company, increase brand awareness, or even drive traffic and calls to your local store.
The difficulty is in the execution. You need to follow some best practices to get the most out of your pay-per-click marketing campaign.
Keyword research for pay-per-click advertising
Keyword phrase research for PPC can be time-consuming, but it’s also essential.
Your entire PPC campaign is based on keywords. The most successful Google advertisers are continually expanding and refining their PPC keyword list (ideally using various tools, not just Keyword organizer). If you only do keyword phrase research once you develop your first campaign, you’re likely missing out on numerous valuable, low-cost, highly relevant long-tail keywords that could drive traffic to your site.
An effective PPC keyword list should be:
- Relevant: Obviously, you don’t intend to pay for web traffic that does not do with your business. You want to discover targeted keywords that will result in a high PPC click-through rate, low cost per click, and higher profits. The keyword phrases you bid on must be closely related to the offers you sell.
- Comprehensive: Your keyword research should not only include the most popular and most searched terms in your niche but also extend to long-tail search terms. Long-tail keywords are more specific and infrequent but collectively account for most search-related traffic. They are also less competitive and therefore less costly.
- Expansive: PPC is iterative. You intend to constantly refine and expand your campaigns, creating an environment where your keyword list grows and adapts.
Your pay-per-click keyword strategy should also include identifying negative keywords regularly – negative keywords prevent your ads from appearing for search queries that are not relevant to your business and are unlikely to have a conversion rate.
Managing your Pay Per Click campaigns
Once you’ve created your new campaigns, you need to manage them regularly to ensure they continue to be effective. Regular account task is one of the best indicators of account success.
You should continually analyze the performance of your Google Ads and your account – even 20 minutes a week can make a substantial difference – and make the following adjustments to optimize your campaigns:
- Include PPC Keywords: Increase the reach of your pay-per-click campaigns by adding keywords that are relevant to your business.
- Include negative keywords: Add non-converting terms as negative keywords to improve the relevance of your campaigns and avoid unnecessary spending.
- Split ad groups: Boost click-through rate (CTR) and Quality Score by splitting your ad groups into smaller, more relevant ad groups that you can use to create more targeted ad copy and landing pages.
- Review expensive PPC keywords: review expensive, underperforming keywords and turn them off as needed.
- Refine landing pages: change your landing pages’ content and calls to action (CTAs) to match individual search queries and increase conversion rates. Don’t send all your visitors to the same page.
Continuously optimizing your pay-per-click campaigns can help you grow your customer base and increase your ROI.
Add value to your business with PPC
Pay-per-click marketing brings more value to your business than direct traffic and visit generation. Any type of business – large or small – can benefit from PPC advertising and implementing strategic and intelligent tactics.
Understanding your target audience, relevant keywords, and the right strategy will attract visitors and drive higher conversion rates. Plus, PPC advertising offers an unparalleled variety of opportunities and options for your business compared to other marketing channels.
Control your advertising budget
One of the factors PPC advertising is so popular is your control over your budget. Since closely monitoring budgets is frequently the core element of any marketing effort, PPC methods provide control and eliminate the risk of massive overspending.
First and foremost in, any PPC campaign should evaluate advertising spending. It would be best to determine how much value each click has for your business. That will save you valuable resources and prevent you from losing them if you do it wrong.
PPC offers different options depending on the platform you choose. There are automatic and manual bids for the ads that should also be considered. You can tailor your strategy to your allocated paid advertising budget. If you found that a small budget for an ad brings a small number of leads, you can increase it according to your goal. Another great advantage of working with PPC is that you can change your budget, which gives you more flexibility. You can set every day, weekly, or monthly cap on your maximum budget to stay in control.
Gain consistent traffic – quickly!
Marketing with a PPC platform is one of the simplest ways to gain visitors. You can establish your ads to appear on the first page of Google within an hour of setting up and activating the campaign. And placing a PPC ad to gain that traffic takes very little time.
Generating traffic to your website can be done organically, although it may take longer due to your SEO efforts. It takes some time to work, and it doesn’t ensure a top spot in the SERP. On the other hand, PPC is the best alternative to get traffic quickly. It also gives a steady stream of traffic instead of a short, sharp burst when you launch the campaign.
Improving your overall ROI
As with any other marketing activity, the ultimate goal with advertising is to get the best (ROI) as fast as possible. Unlike traditional marketing, all PPC metrics are measurable. That allows for in-depth analysis and good insight into how your ads perform. Based on multiple impressions, clicks, and even sales, your PPC platform can determine your ROI based upon the value of your leads or sales and scale to your ad spend.
Considering the different needs of businesses, the customers targeted also vary. Although every customer is different, PPC can make certain types of these customers profitable with minimal effort.
Customers with high lifetime value improve the overall ROI of particular industries. That can range from doctors to internet providers to colleges. Even if you spend a tremendous amount to acquire these leads, they will give you a higher ROI because of their lifetime value.
Another perfect type of customer for PPC is customers with high-profit margins on single purchases. Examples of these types of sales include cars, computer equipment, home appliances, and even services like repairs and litigation. Once you have this information, you can optimize and improve future campaigns to achieve a higher return on investment.
PPC complements your SEO technique
PPC and SEO are two intertwined advertising channels. Therefore, it makes sense to ensure that they complement each other. SEO is crucial to the long-term engagement of your business to attract visitors. It helps you find keywords that attract clicks and visitors. However, relying only on your SEO strategy can sometimes delay your online presence.
A well-performing PPC campaign reinforces underperforming SEO efforts. It typically takes months or years for your website to generate organic traffic based on your search engine optimization, while PPC generates that traffic instantly.
In addition, PPC makes it easy to maximize online profits. It provides a significant profit for a predictable amount of investment but with less time and effort. However, keep in mind that organic results are still crucial to the success of your business. But a combination of organic search results and paid ads should cover all bases.
Only pay for ads that bring results
Unlike other channels where you pay without significant results, PPC is pretty straightforward and cost-effective. Here, you only pay for clicks on your ads. These ads then lead visitors to your intended goals, such as visiting your website or filling out a form aimed at closing a sale.
However, there is no guarantee that these clicks will always result in a sale. However, you should see noticeable results if you target your campaigns to your intended audience, such as a subscriber to your core audience or a current buyer.
Use targeted ads
Targeted ads mean you only show them to your relevant audience. You can select where to display your ads. This way, you’re reaching targeted potential customers, not just every lead that comes across the ad. Remember that you pay for every click, so every penny you spend should count!
For example, you can include keywords relevant to your products in your ads. This way, you will only get visitors actively searching for your product and who have a higher potential to become customers.
If you create a PPC campaign with your ideal audience in mind and how to solve their problems, you can adjust your bids to prioritize more profitable areas.
Ad planning and geo-targeting
Ad scheduling is another way to keep your ads under your control. It allows you to choose what time or days of the week you want your ad to run. That is very effective if you know the behavior of your target audience.
Do you run a business that offers services on weekends? Do you sell more products at night – and are therefore easier to find? Consider these factors to know when your ads will work best. It saves the budget by showing your ads only to visitors who are more likely to convert based on their immediate needs.
Geo-targeting is another crucial element of your PPC campaign, as it excludes people outside of your target area. Unless you are a global vendor offering an exclusive product, your target market should be set to specific locations.
By targeting only potential customers in specific locations or areas served by your company, you can reduce your ad spend and raise the value of each lead.
The advantages of pay-per-click marketing: fast results
Pay-per-click marketing stands out for the results you can achieve in just a short time. Pay-per-click advertising is the best way to complement other long-term marketing efforts if you need more customers and more visitors to your website.
Even though you pay for traffic, you have a high level of control with any platform you choose. You can review data in real-time to ensure your ad is getting the impressions and clicks you want. You can also pause or delete your ad if you feel it’s not producing the results you want.
Read more about the advantages of pay-per-click marketing from here.
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