What is PPC?

The term PPC is an acronym for pay-per-click, which refers to an internet marketing approach in which advertisers are charged a fee each time one of their advertisements is clicked on. Put simply, it is a method of purchasing visits to your website rather than attempting to getting visits organically through search engine optimisation (SEO).

Search engine advertising is one of the most common types of pay-per-click advertising. It enables marketers to compete for ad placement in a search engine's sponsored links when someone searches for a keyword that is relevant to their company's product or service. For example, if you typed “pizza” into Google, an ad for Pizza Hut or Papa John’s is very likely to appear in first position at the very top of the Google search results page. In this case, every time the Pizza Hut ad is clicked on and a visitor is sent to the Pizza Hut page, Pizza Hut has to pay a fee to the search engine.

When PPC is properly implemented, the charge is insignificant because the visit is worth significantly more than the fee you pay for it. So, if you pay 50p for a click that results in a £25 transaction, you make a big profit.

Why use PPC?

Whether you have a huge marketing budget or not, PPC can be a cost-effective method of driving traffic to your website. As the name implies, you only pay the publisher when your ad is clicked on by a potential customer. PPC marketing, in contrast to many other marketing tactics, allows you to reach and engage with your target demographic with relative simplicity. But PPC can also help you grow brand awareness, find new clients, increase profit and measure the impact of your campaign.

Types of Advertising

Before setting up your google ads account, you should know about the different types of ads that PPC offers:

Search ads: 

When you search for something on Google (and other search engines), the top results are ads presented to you depending on the search terms used. These are text ads.

Display ads:

When you see advertising in the form of a picture or video integrated into a website, it is a display ad. They are often related to prior website surfing, which is referred to as “retargeting."

Social Media Ads:

If you use social media, you have seen those before. Social media ads are usually integrated into your newsfeed on social media platforms.

Sponsored Product Listings:

These are quite similar to search ads but tend to appear on shopping platforms like Google Shopping or eBay and Amazon. They are formatted differently to search ads as they have text but also pictures of the product advertised.

Different Platforms

Although Google Ads is by far the largest platform for PPC on the market, they are not the only firm that provides PPC advertising.

Google Ads:

Google Ads is the most widely used pay-per-click advertising platform in the world. As stated by Google, "Google Ads display advertisements appear on more than two million websites and in more than 650,000 applications". According to Google still, their engine receives around 3.5 million searches every day. Working with Google Ads provides you with the opportunity to gain exposure to a large number of people. Whenever you work with Google Ads, your advertisements will display in Google search results as well as on websites that are members of the Google marketing network and on YouTube pages.

Microsoft Advertising (previously Bing Ads):

This is the pay-per-click advertising platform that is affiliated with Amazon and their Bing search engine. According to Amazon, Bing is expanding at a quicker rate than Google, and they claim to reach 145 million searchers who are not currently accessible through Google. In addition, Microsoft Advertising collaborates with the Yahoo! search engine to put advertisements.

Facebook Ads:

These are the sponsored advertisements that appear in your news feed as well as the advertisements that appear on the edges of web pages. Despite the fact that Facebook has more than 2 billion registered users, the information it collects about them allows it to hyper-target advertisements to the people who are most interested in what you have to say. Facebook advertising may also show on other social media platforms such as Instagram and Messenger.

AdRoll:

AdRoll integrates with Google Ads and other major platforms to target customers who have recently expressed interest in a product or service similar to yours. AdRoll is a service that displays your ads on websites. With the exception of several other big PPC Marketing publishers/platforms, AdRoll has a monthly minimum that you must meet in order to remain a member of the programme.

Launching a PPC Strategy

Now that you understand what PPC is and how it works, you can run your own campaign. No matter which platform you choose to use, we advise you to follow these basic steps to get used to running your own PPC campaign:

  • Define the purpose of your ad. It must be stressed that the majority of the decisions you make when developing a PPC campaign are defined by your ultimate aim.
  • Find the right keywords to associate with your ad. Identify target keywords that are relevant to your audience, have adequate volume to reach a large internet user base, and are priced at the proper level to maximise your incoming traffic to your website. Consider your keyword's cost per click while conducting your keyword research to assist you get the most out of your budget and avoid spending too much for phrases that aren't as effective as you would have liked. Examine keywords that aren't a suitable fit for your business; they are referred to as "negative keywords.”
  • Link the ad to the desired product or service. Prior to launching the campaign, you should double-check your landing page to ensure that all the ads are linking to the right product and that your keywords fit with your ads.
  • Watch your budget. Once the ad is ready to launch, double-check that you've selected the appropriate budget amount. Remember that the point of PPC is to increase revenue.
  • Monitor results, learn and optimise. If you are running a PPC campaign, utilise your PPC tools and campaign manager to track the progress of your campaign and analyse its strengths and limitations. Make use of this input to inform future PPC ad optimisations and to increase your overall performance over time.

Your campaigns may need some adjustment as you learn to use PPC platforms and as you learn to identify the best ways to run campaigns for your business. Most PPC platforms are meant to be simple enough that anyone may utilise them to develop their business. A little time and meticulous attention to detail may turn your PPC strategy into a lucrative new revenue stream that expands both your consumer base and your company's earnings.

In Conclusion

PPC is a great tool to grow your business. Indeed, it is a simple and easy technique that can help you take your business to the next level. However, as a busy business owner, you might find yourself with no time to devote to creating and running PPC campaigns. But do not worry, we would be pleased to assist you in your PPC project. Feel free to explore our website or contact us to learn more about how we use Google Ads and other platforms to the advantage of our client's businesses.