PPC Marketing and You: Everything You Need to Know

What is PPC Marketing?

Well, to begin, PPC marketing is short for ‘pay-per-click’. Like the name suggests, rather than the advertiser paying for their ads to be displayed over a certain amount of time, in a PPC model, an advertiser will only pay when their ads receive a click. Simply displaying the ad is free of charge. In a way, you can think of PPC marketing as buying traffic to your landing page.

There are many ways your business can participate in PPC marketing. However, easily one of the most popular methods is through search engine advertising. Let’s go through what that term means next.

Search Engine Advertising

The concept of search engine advertising can seem complex, but the basics of it are rather straightforward. It is where an advertiser will essentially bid for spots in a search engine. In turn, when someone searches something that includes the keywords your business has put in a bid for, your business may show up in the search results.

It’s very likely your business will be operating with Google Ads, which does this exact service. This is a good choice; Google is a practically ubiquitous engine, so if your business can master PPC on Google’s search engine, it’s a surefire way to gather attention to your website. But how exactly does Google Ads work?

Google Ads

Like we explained, Google Ads is a method of search engine advertising, which displays ads based a variety of factors, which include:

• • Keywords. The more quality keywords your site has in relation to the search inquiry, the higher a chance it has that your website will appear in the search results. Ad text also plays a key part in Google Ad’s algorithm, so be sure to not ignore that aspect, either.
  • Landing page quality. The better your website’s landing page is- the more relevant, easy to navigate, and informative it is- the higher chance Google will choose your website over your competitors’. Several other factors also play a part, such as relevance of content and relation to a search query.
  • Bid amount. This one is simple: the more you bid, the higher of a chance that your ad will be displayed. You’ll want to outbid your competitors, while ensuring that your PPC campaign stays within your price budget. Don’t worry, since while this may seem worrisome, it’s not uncommon for the benefits to outweigh the cost of PPC marketing. In fact, in 2022, PPC marketing averaged companies around $2 for every $1 dollar spent on advertising.

How do I start a PPC Campaign?

Now that you know what Google Ads is looking for, you can start to take a look at the process of setting up a PPC campaign. For this case, let’s look more closely at how a search engine advertising campaign would typically go.

• • Decide which campaign type you want for your ads. There are a number of types to choose from, including smart campaigns, performance max campaigns, and display campaigns, but the most relevant in this example would be search campaigns.
    Set the targeting parameters for your campaign. This can range from things like a target audience (gender, age group), device, or a regional location. Doing this can help you make sure your ads are reaching the groups who actually have an interest in your product, making sure you waste as little money as possible.
  • Set your advertising budget. This is an important part, as it’s where the bidding comes in. Like we explained, you’ll want to have a strategy for bidding, since this is where you’ll be against your competitor’s bids.
  • Set your URL. When someone clicks on your ad, where will they be sent to? Typically, you’ll want your website’s landing page to be the URL you input. A good landing page will draw the viewer in, all while offering the main pieces of information they could be looking for.
  • Design the ad you’ll be running. This is a very important step. It’s what will make people actually click on your ad in the first place. There are many strategies to creating an effective ad. In this case, be sure your ad text is good.

What are the benefits of PPC marketing?

PPC marketing is already a staple of many companies’ ad campaigns, and rightfully so. But in case you needed some more convincing, here is a far-from-extensive list of benefits that come with PPC marketing.

• • You can get to the top of the search results. This is extremely beneficial for any business, since it will direct a lot of organic traffic to your website. Additionally, if your campaign is particularly good, you can get to the first ad position; something that is highly sought after, as a massive 65% of shoppers click on the first ad for a product that they see.
  • Higher click-through rates and conversions. Another important factor for any business, as getting more traffic directed towards your business means more profit from sales.
  • An easy way to reach your target audience. Once you know who your business’ target audience is, you need to find a way to reliably reach them. PPC marketing does just that. With the option to tailor who your ad campaign appears for, it’s never been easier to make sure your ads are being displayed to your audience. This makes sure you waste less money displaying ads on demographics less likely to be interested in your product.
  • More brand exposure. Just being featured high up on the search results is a great way to get new people to find out about your business. If they like what they see, you can easily make some new loyal customers.
  • Complimentary to SEO. PPC marketing is like a sister to SEO, where rather than gathering backlinks organically as a means to get to the top of the search results, you can pay Google Ads to showcase your ad at the top. Both methods are a great way to gather attention to your business.
  • Results are fast and efficient. If your campaign is good, it won’t take long at all before you start seeing increased traffic. It doesn’t take long for platforms to review your ad campaign, so if you’re looking for fast results and aren’t willing to put the time into SEO, PPC is a great option.
  • You can easily measure and track how well each campaign is doing. Being able to easily measure conversions and ROI is great information for any business to have, since it’ll be a key indicator on how well your ad campaign is doing. Moreover, Google Ads works with Google Analytics, which can help you decide what your next step should be in order to achieve your advertising goals.
  • A great way to save some money. Having your ad displayed and only paying fees if someone clicks on the ad is an easy way for smaller businesses to save some money. Like we’ve mentioned, the return on PPC campaigns is usually well worth the money it costs to run them. Moreover, even if a user ends up not clicking on your ad, even having it displayed can have great rewards in brand recognition.

Wrapping Up