With many business owners like you also trying to get potential customers to notice their business, simply having a website is not enough. You should do more and because of tougher competition, relying on SEO alone just won’t cut it. With Pay-per-click Marketing or PPC, your ads will appear on the first page of search results for the keywords you target.
Understanding Pay-Per-Click Marketing: Why PPC Should be Part of Your Online Marketing Strategy
Being on the first page of search results is not just about having more traffic, it’s also about increasing awareness for your brand. With properly managed pay-per-click advertising, when your ads appear in the search results, your potential customers will get an “impression” of your business giving your brand extra exposure.
Understanding PPC - Pay Per Click Services
Wouldn’t Google AdWords advertising online be too expensive?
To put things simply, using pay-per-click services means you only pay when someone clicks on your advertisements. Your ads get displayed in various locations online and on the first page of search results alongside organic results, and you don’t pay unless they click on it.
You also don’t have to worry about overspending because you can set your budget and how long your campaign will run.
What Do Marketers Get from PPC?
One of the primary goals of marketers who implement PPC is to increase web traffic. Whilst SEO is still a necessary part of an online marketing strategy, it does take longer to rank in search results especially if you’ve only started recently.
A study shows that 55% of searchers online cannot distinguish between PPC ads and organic results. Implementing PPC can give your business the boost you need by having your ads appear for your targeted keywords once your campaign starts.
Unlike SEO, implementing PPC is like directly spending money on website traffic.
More Businesses are Investing in PPC
About 51% of marketers are increasing their PPC budget. E-commerce giant Amazon is the biggest spender with £157.7 million spent on Google AdWords. Following Amazon is the Priceline Group at £82.3 million and AT&T follows closely behind at £81.9 million.
The finance and insurance industry altogether has the biggest ad spend at £4 billion, followed by the retailers at £2.8 billion. As a result, the finance industry also has the highest conversion rate at 7.19%.
These only show that these companies are investing a huge amount of money in PPC because they are getting a huge return on investment.
Why PPC Should be Part of Your Online Marketing Strategy
With several options for targeting, PPC is like a dream come true for those who want instant traffic. You can ensure that your ads become visible to those potential customers with high purchase intent while keeping control of what and how much you spend.
Are you ready to take your online marketing to the next level? Pay-per-click marketing might sound simple but implementing a campaign requires high-level technical skills.
PPC Advertising: When Businesses Need More Than Just Traditional Ads
When business owners notice a drop in leads and sales, they typically launch a promotion and advertise it. They publish ads on traditional media – TV, radio, print, outdoor. And if they’re a bit technology savvy, they put promotions on their website. The problem is, that these channels don’t always bring in the urgently needed store visits or the much-awaited online purchases. Pay-per-click (PPC) advertising could have been a better option. Here’s why.
Cost and Complexity Perceptions Explained
PPC marketing can make your “instant traffic” wishes come true. Despite this, many business owners are reluctant to try it because it sounds complicated and costly. This couldn’t be any farther from the truth. PPC is simple to understand. Ads about your company are displayed online when users search particular keywords in Google, Yahoo, or Bing. Ads may also be displayed on many millions of web pages online that have to do with your product or service.
When people see your ad, they become interested and click it. They are then directed to a specific page on your website called a “landing page,” where you can convert that instant traffic into leads or even paying customers.
And as the name suggests, you only pay for ads that are clicked. Users who click are most likely the prospects interested in your products and services. The price you pay each time someone clicks on your ad is set by a bid. The higher you bid for a keyword, the higher your ad position will be on search results. If managed by a PPC professional, your campaign may drive you the most affordable and targeted traffic needed by your website and your business.
Boost Your ‘Slowly But Surely’ SEO Efforts
Search engine optimisation or SEO is needed by any website to ensure it ranks well on Google and other search engines. It is a prime necessity. There is no debate there. However, not many businesses can wait for SEO to take effect. Depending on the competition, strategy, implementation, and other factors, it may take months before your web pages appear on the first page of Google for your target keywords. Some businesses simply cannot afford to wait any longer for more traffic to come to their websites.
PPC can bring your business instant customers and generate a return on investment in a very short period. Ads about your business appear online instantly as soon as the campaign is launched. PPC is the perfect complement for SEO as it allows your business to join the competition immediately as your ads make their way to the top of organic search results.
Why Not Traditional Media Ads Instead?
Advertising on television, radio, newspapers and magazines, and billboards has been around for quite some time. Yes, they attract attention. But here’s another truth: they are also expensive. And for small businesses needing that urgent boost in traffic, leads, and sales, traditional media advertising may not be the best use of your limited marketing dollars. While they may have a wide reach, they may not send you the website or store visits you need due to a lack of targeting.
On the other hand, the PPC internet advertising model gives you much more control. There are many targeting options to reach your customers. Some of these targeting options are: by device, specific geographic location, language, days of the week, and specific times of the day. Depending on your campaign settings, your ads may also appear on various sites that are part of the Google, Bing, and Yahoo networks based on age, gender, interests, and many more.
When it comes to spending, you can set a maximum bid and budget on a daily or monthly basis. Your ads will automatically stop showing and you will not be charged further when you reach your spending limit. And because impressions and clicks can be measured, you can easily prove your campaign’s ROI.
PPC Remarketing: Get the One That Got Away
Traditional PPC lets you skyrocket to the first page of Google without waiting for months, targeting only the prospects you need, and at a budget you can afford. But there’s another form of PPC that is becoming more popular among small business owners: Remarketing.
Also known as Retargeting, Remarketing gives you another chance to display your ad to people who have visited your website and left without buying or leaving their contact information. Remember, you don’t have their phone number so you can’t call them. You don’t have their email so you can’t send them a message.
With Remarketing, you’ll be able to “follow” prospects within the Google Display Network – a vast collection of over 2 million websites, including YouTube, Gmail, USA Today, New York Times, and other popular sites. This is amazing for branding purposes and costs nothing unless they click on your banner ad. Wouldn’t that annoy prospects? Not if you limit how long ads are displayed, how often they display, and how much time goes by between displaying ads. You have control of these options.
References
- Google Pay Per Click Services: https://www.google.co.uk/adwords/
- Facebook Ads: https://www.facebook.com/business/products/ads
- LinkedIn Paid Advertising: https://business.linkedin.com/marketing-solutions/ads
- Instagram Paid Ads: https://business.instagram.com/advertising?locale=en_GB
- Twitter Ads: https://business.twitter.com/en/solutions/twitter-ads.html
Other articles worth reading
