If you’re a business owner, then you’ve probably heard the term “PPC marketing” floating around. But what does it mean? And more importantly, should you be using it for your business?
Pay-per-click (PPC) advertising is essential to any effective search engine optimization (SEO) strategy because it can offer immediate results.
Did you know? Creating well-crafted PPC ads can boost your brand awareness by up to 80 percent, and 65 percent of customers click through on paid advertisements.
In this blog post, we’ll break down everything you need to know about PPC marketing, including what it is, how it works and why you should consider using it.
So whether you’re a rookie entrepreneur or a seasoned business pro, read on to learn all about PPC marketing!
We will look at all the essential ingredients for creating a successful and sustainable PPC campaign strategy. Here’s what our ultimate PPC guide will cover:
PPC: Important Terms
Benefits of PPC campaigns
Types of PPC campaigns
PPC Platforms
PPC vs Organic
1) PPC: Important Terms
If you’re new to the world of pay-per-click (PPC) advertising, there are a few key terms you need to know.
Cost-per-click (CPC), which is the amount you pay each time someone clicks on your ad. Then there’s the click-through rate (CTR), which is the percentage of people who click on your ad after seeing it.
Quality Score is a metric used by Google to measure the quality of your keywords and landing pages. A high Quality Score means that your keyword is relevant to your ad and
landing page, and that searchers are likely to find what they’re looking for when they click on your ad.
Keywords are the words or phrases that you bid on in order to trigger your ad to show up on Google. You can have up to 10,000 keywords per campaign, and each keyword can have its own individual Quality Score.
Last but not least, there’s the conversion rate, which is the percentage of people who take the desired action after clicking on your ad. These metrics are essential for assessing the performance of your PPC campaign.
2) Benefits of PPC campaigns
PPC campaigns can be a great way to generate leads and sales for your business. Here are some of the benefits of running a PPC campaign:
1. You can target a specific audience with your ads. This allows you to focus your marketing efforts on the people who are most likely to be interested in your product or service.
2. PPC campaigns are relatively easy to set up and manage. Unlike other marketing strategies, you don’t need to invest a lot of time or money into developing and implementing a campaign.
3. PPC campaigns can provide an immediate return on investment. Because you only pay when someone clicks on your ad, you can quickly see whether or not your campaign is successful.
4. PPC campaigns can be flexible and adaptable. If you see that certain keywords or ad copy aren’t performing well, you can quickly make changes to improve your results.
However, it is important to keep in mind that a successful campaign requires careful planning and ongoing management.
3) Types of PPC campaigns
There are four main types of PPC campaigns: search, display, video, and shopping.
Search campaigns are the most common type of PPC campaign. They target people who are actively searching for a product or service online. Search campaigns can be very effective in driving targeted traffic to your website.
Display campaigns are designed to reach people as they browse the web. Display ads are typically text or image-based and are served through ad networks such as Google AdSense. Video campaigns are similar to display campaigns, but instead of static ads, they use video content to reach people as they browse the web or watch videos on YouTube.
Shopping campaigns are designed to promote products on ecommerce websites. Shopping ads are typically served through Google Shopping and allow potential customers to see product pricing and other details before clicking through to the website.
4) PPC Platforms
We’ve studied the key types of PPC ad content, now let’s look at the three main pay-per-click platforms you can leverage for your campaigns.
Google Ads/AdWords
Google Ads or AdWords is an essential platform for creating and launching your search engine-based PPC strategy content.
This intuitive platform allows you to conduct detailed PPC keyword research, set campaign budgets, and build targeted ads in text-based search, display, video, banner, and shopping formats.
Budget: The average cost per click (CPC) for Google Ads-based campaigns is between $1 and $2.
Bing
While it’s not quite as well-trodden as Google, Bing remains one of the world’s most popular search engines. That said, launching PPC marketing content on the platform will give you the tools to connect with a broader audience that you can convert into paying customers.
Formerly named Bing Ads, the search engine’s PPC platform is formerly named Microsoft Advertising.
The platform is easy to navigate and shares many of the same characteristics as Google Ads. The best thing about Microsoft Advertising is the fact that you can import campaign content, details, and data from Google Ads or AdWords directly into Bing. As such, you can run similar campaigns concurrently across both PPC platforms for maximum engagement.
Budget: The average cost for a paid Bing or Microsoft ad in terms of CPC is $1.54.
Facebook is still popular across many user demographics worldwide and as such, it’s a popular (as well as potentially rewarding) social media-based PPC platform.
Setting up campaigns with Facebook ads is a simple process, with dropdown boxes and text boxes that allow you to set your target demographics, target locations, ad lengths and budgets, and of course, ad content.
Budget: The average cost of a paid Facebook ad is $1.72. But, this cost does vary slightly according to niche, industry or sector.
5) PPC vs organic
The debate between PPC and organic traffic is one that has been around nearly as long as the internet itself. And, like many debates, there are pros and cons to each side.
Paid traffic, or pay-per-click (PPC), is the process of paying for advertising space on a website. As we have seen above, this can be done through platforms like Google AdWords or Bing Ads.
The main advantage of PPC is that it is immediate; you can launch a campaign and start getting clicks right away. The downside, however, is that it can be expensive; you’re effectively paying for each individual click, so it’s important to have a well-targeted campaign in order to avoid wasting money.
Organic traffic, on the other hand, is the process of earning clicks through search engine optimization (SEO). This means creating content that is relevant and interesting enough to rank highly in search results. Because it relies on earning clicks rather than buying them, organic traffic can take longer to generate but is generally more sustainable in the long run.
So which is better?
Ultimately, the answer depends on your individual needs and goals. If you’re looking for quick results, PPC may be the way to go. But if you’re interested in building a lasting audience, organic traffic is worth the investment.
Conclusion
PPC marketing is a form of digital marketing in which advertisers pay each time a user clicks on one of their online ads.
It’s a way to get your brand and products in front of people who are already interested in what you have to offer, and it can be an effective way to drive traffic to your website or e-commerce store.
If you’re thinking about using PPC for your business, make sure you understand how it works and what potential pitfalls there are before getting started.
Thanks for reading!
