Pay-per-click advertising, also known as PPC and paid search advertising, is an online marketing model available to businesses of all sizes. When a potential customer uses Google, for example, to search for a soccer ball and clicks on an advertisement, the advertiser pays a fee. There is no upfront fee for the PPC advertisement, you only pay when you get potential value from it by a customer clicking.
Google is the biggest digital advertising platform globally, as it owns more than eighty per cent of the search engine market worldwide and more than ninety per cent of the market in Canada. Google Ads is the platform through which PPC advertisements are placed. There are other pay-per-click platforms such as Facebook Ads, but if you want a few billion people to see your advertisement, try Google Ads.
What are the three main goals of pay-per-click advertising? To generate leads, increase sales and promote brand awareness. When you want to step up the game and start using pay-per- click (PPC) advertising for your business, Key27 will help you get the best results. Let’s go into more detail about pay-per-click advertising.
What is PPC Used For?
PPC marketing allows your brand, product, or service to be visible to a potential customer at the most important part of their journey, when they are ready or almost ready to buy. Did you know you can display a targeted advertisement at the precise moment someone searches for a term? If you place a bid to have your advertisement put at the top of the advertising list, it will appear as soon as a soccer dad searches for “soccer ball”.
Pay-per-click advertisements are most effective when the following conditions are met.
- You have a quality product at competitive prices.
- The potential customer already knows your brand.
- Your website offers a good user experience.
How PPC Is Done
Pay-per-click (PPC) online advertising works with search engines, video (YouTube), and picture (Facebook, Instagram) advertisements. Since the online search network Google has the biggest audience, let’s look how PPC is done on Google Ads. There are five actions required to build a PPC campaign or advertisement.
Set parameters. An advertising campaign should incorporate your ultimate business goals. Setting parameters will make it targeted and effective, so think about what you want to accomplish with the advertisement and how much you are willing to spend.
Set your campaign goal. Common goals include brand awareness, lead generation, sales, increased website traffic and promotion offers. Measure them through activities including surveys, content management systems (CMS), and other analytics tools.
Select your campaign type. There are various types of paid advertising campaigns, including search ads and display ads. The one you select depends on where your audience is.
Use a keyword research tool. Each advertisement needs to be assigned a set of very relevant keywords to target, for example “soccer balls”, so search engines know when and where to display the advertisements.
Set up Google Analytics and tracking. Use a free analytics tool such as Google Analytics to collect data and provide insights into the PPC campaign.
Benefits Of PPC
Every business aims to increase sales and make a profit. What benefits does PPC hold for companies?
- PPC is cost-effective as you only pay once a potential customer clicks on the advertisement.
- Increases the visibility of your website and brand as platforms generally approve advertisements on the same day.
- You can reach your target audience quickly and effectively by choosing a specific location, demographic, or a set of behaviors, when setting up the advertisement.
- With PPC, you can test various advertisements to see which performs best over a period and eliminate aspects that are not beneficial, increasing your return on investment (ROI).
- Set a daily budget to ensure you don’t exceed your allocated spending.
- Reach your customers on their preferred device, whether mobile, desktop or tablet.
- Measure how many people see your advertisements, how many click on them, and the sales made as a result.
The Types Of PPC
Google Ads pay-per-click advertisements begin with a goal and a campaign. A campaign type, or type of PPC, is selected based on your marketing goals, brand strategy, and the amount of time you have to invest. What are the different types of PPC campaigns?
Search campaigns. These are text advertisements shown to people actively searching for your products and services. They increase online sales and leads, are easy to set up, and highly specific in their targeting.
Display campaigns. Reach your audience with visually engaging advertisements. You can also create display ads based on your data segments, to show advertisements to people who used your app or visited your website.
Video campaigns. Use video advertisements shown on YouTube and other websites to boost brand awareness, drive conversions, or get people to shop on your website.
Shopping campaigns. Product listings that appear on search results and the Google Shopping tab. If you want to promote locally, you can use local inventory advertisements to promote products available at specific physical locations.
App campaigns. Helps you find new app users and increase sales within the app. Information from your app is used to automatically optimize ads across Search, Play, YouTube, Discover and over 3 million sites and apps.
Local campaigns. PPC advertisements bring people to your physical stores and venues by including your business address, hours, local promotions, and in-store events. It is shown on Google Search, Display, Google Maps and YouTube.
Should You Consider Using PPC?
Now that you know more about pay-per-click advertising, should you consider using PPC? To decide whether it is a good fit for your business, examine what you can afford. PPC advertising is a great way to reach potential customers actively searching for terms related to your business, but do you have the budget for paid advertising, or should you focus on increasing your organic search? If you have a budget, should you spend the whole sum on PPC, or are there other types of paid advertising to consider?
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Do you want to start using pay-per-click advertising? Contact KEY27 Marketing Oakville today.
About the author:
Octavian Nastase is passionate about internet marketing and he is the KEY27’s website conversion optimization specialist. With over a decade of experience in the field, he has helped businesses getting more clients from the online world and convert more of their website visitors into customers. Octavian is known for his creative approach to solving problems and his ability to break down complex concepts into simple, actionable steps. In his free time, Octavian enjoys reading, traveling, and being part of his children’s lives.
If you’re looking for someone who can help you get the most out of your website, Octavian is the person you want to work with.