No matter the business, digital marketing is necessary for business growth. There are many methods to use to get your business in front of customers. One of those methods is Pay-Per-Click (PPC) advertising. PPC is the fastest way to get ranked on the first page when customers perform a search. And you only pay when a customer clicks on your ad and goes to your landing page.
How it Works
There are three major components in a PPC campaign. They are your keywords, the ad, and a landing page. The goal of the keywords is to match the words or phrase typed into a search engine by a potential customer and have your ad displayed as a response. Your ad is the vehicle that entices the prospect to visit your business’ landing page, and the landing page turns those potential customers into valuable leads and loyal customers.
Keywords
This is the key to any successful campaign. You will need a list of key search words that are relevant to your business, product or service.
Selecting the right keywords is important and can be time-consuming. And if you find yourself not knowing where to start we suggest using this free Google Trends keyword tools site that can get your campaign started.
A good PPC campaign doesn’t stop at a list of constructive keywords. If you want to make the most of this process you should also organize those keywords into groups of tightly related keywords. This will improve your account’s relevance.
In addition, negative keywords need to be compiled into a list as well. This will filter out any unwanted searches that you do not want your ad displayed. Once all your keywords are gathered into a detailed list, you must remember to continuously analyze and reconstruct your list.
Your budget is important, and you should only spend it on the keywords that are working for your campaign. If you compile the right words, your result will be a high-ranking campaign at a low-cost.
Landing Page
A successful PPC campaign depends on click-through rates. This rate is greatly influenced by landing pages. A landing page is a subpage on your website that will give more information based on your target ad. Once a customer clicks on your ad they will automatically be directed to this page, keeping their attention and providing a higher chance that a prospect will generate into a lead. Here are some other benefits of having a landing page:
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Increases brand awareness
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Increases your E-mail subscription list
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Generates valuable data and insight into your campaign
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Increase conversions rates
PPC Campaign Options
When most people think of PPC they think of Google AdWords. While this is a very popular option, there are a few others to consider. The PPC platform that you choose may depend on your budget, company size and geographic.
Paid Search Marketing
This type is one of the most common advertising tools. A PPC campaign would be set up through providers like Google for them to display your ads. With this campaign, you would also want to set up a landing page on your website as well.
Display Advertising
This is a good method of promoting brand awareness more than obtaining clicks. With display advertising your ad would be promoted on another website as a banner, image or text. You can target your market through interest targeting and specific demographics as well.
Social Media Advertising
This method of advertising is increasingly growing in popularity. There are many types of social media platforms that your company can choose from like, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn, and Snapchat. The ads on these platforms can be adjusted to target a specific audience by demographics, interests, and more. This method of PPC advertising will increase your click-through rates and brand awareness.
PPC Benefits and Dangers to Consider
Benefits
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Controllable Cost: You can customize the amount you spend on each ad click
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Target Audience: The flexibility that PPC campaigns have are enormous. You can choose when your ads run, where they are seen and by what type of customer. These details in the targeting process will help get your product or service in front of the right audience.
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Measurable: Everything you do in a PPC campaign is measurable. You will be able to see what ad words are working for your campaign, amount of clicks, website visits, costs, and more. You can obtain these reports from any program or agency. These reports will help keep you informed on your ROI (return on investment).
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Fast Results: Results are what any campaign is about and PPC is perhaps the only campaign method to produce instant and trackable results.
Dangers
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Time Consuming: PPC campaigns need to be constantly analyzed and adjusted to optimize your results and reduce costs. If you set up your campaign and don’t invest the time you can lose money, fast.
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Learning Curve: Most companies do not have the time to learn a new program. It does take practice to set up and run an effect PPC campaign which includes knowing your market, selecting relevant keywords and having a responsive landing page.
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Budget Waste with wasted clicks: The cost of PPC can add up quick if your campaign is undermanaged or mismanaged. If you use keywords that are not relevant to your ad or audience you can end up with wasted clicks. People who click on your ad but do not convert into a lead nor customer. Using irrelevant keywords or an underselling landing page will burn through your ad budget fast with little to no return on the investment.
Is it better to hire an agency or professional to manage PPC for me?
When it comes to all digital marketing practices you have a few choices: do it in-house or hire a professional. Both have benefits and drawbacks to consider. But, deciding which is best for you will depend on a few factors:
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Experience: PPC campaigns are more than just setting up ad words and reading the results. You must become knowledgeable in the many other factors that go along with it like, how to identify and correct issues with your campaign, how to fine-tune your ad and landing page to increase your click-through rate. Also having HTML knowledge to perform more of the complex tasks in the ad scripts, tagging campaigns and analytics tools is almost a must.
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Available time: Anyone can learn what is needed for a successful campaign, as long as you have the time. Most companies need to keep their employees free for more hands-on sales and customer service assignment. But, if you wish to have an in-house associate learn and create a PPC campaign, then Google Ads is a great place to start.
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Cost: Comparing cost for in-house PPC vs hiring a professional. The average cost of an agency will be 15-20% of the campaign spending while you would be paying an employee a full salary to tackle this task. Let’s say you spend $2500 on your PPC Ad budget a month, you would be paying an agency around $375 to manage it for you. If in-house, you could be paying am employee anywhere from $2000 to $4000 a month to run your campaign on top of the $2500 ad budget.
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Tools available: There are many tools and software programs that will help you succeed in your PPC campaign. Here are just a few: Google’s Keyword Planner, Google Trends, SpyFu, and SEMrush. You would have to research which programs would be best for your company. Some software services can be pricey, but an agency will already have access to what is needed along with additional personnel like graphic designers, project managers, and programmers.
How much does PPC cost and how is it calculated
PPC cost can vary depending on the platform you use. The two major types of PPC on any platform are Flat rate and Bid-based PPC campaigns. Flat rate campaigns are where the advertiser and the search engine have agreed on a fixed amount that will be paid per each click. This flat rate method is common on websites like eBay. While the bid-based method is when you sign a contract with search engines like Google Ads to compete against other advertisers in private auctions. How the bid-based PPC campaign cost is calculated is based on a few factors like your max bid per click, your quality score, and Ad ranking.
