Digital marketing, in general, has the considerable potential to bring your brand closer to millions of internet users around the world. And one of the most efficient ways to get a high return on investment is the pay-per-click (PPC) marketing strategy. However, this specific method requires a careful approach. If done right, it will help your business easily reach the targeted audience. But, if done wrong, it will negatively affect your budget. To better understand how it works, below, you will find a valuable introduction to PPC marketing that will help you get the most out of it.
PPC marketing to reach more customers
Without a doubt, PPC marketing is beneficial regardless of the industry your business belongs to. Considering how the number of internet users is growing by the day, PPC can be a perfect way to reach them. If the organic search alone is not giving you the desired ranking position, PPC is an excellent opportunity to compensate for it. Of course, your business success mainly depends on the quality of offer you present. But the PPC can be a critical solution for bringing more potential customers to your website.
What is PPC Marketing?
PPC marketing is a type of marketing where you pay search engines, social media platforms, and other networks to display your ads. The trick is that you only pay when someone clicks on the ad and the visitor lands on your website. With Google ads on the top, search engine advertising remains one of the most popular and effective forms of PPC.
Why is PPC marketing efficient?
The PPC marketing efficiency lies in the fact that, unlike other offline advertising methods, PPC is not intrusive. While video, radio, and similar mediums interrupt the viewer to show the advertising, PPC is doing it discreetly without interruption. And the best part is that PPC is displaying ads only after specific criteria are matched. At the same time allowing you to target only viewers who will most likely be interested in your offer.
You can use many platforms for your PPC marketing efforts, but Google Ads, LinkedIn, and Facebook are probably among the most popular. And within most of them, you have several different ways to set your paid marketing campaign. The most common formats include search, shopping, video, display, and similar types of ads.
How can PPC marketing benefit your business?
There are several major benefits of using pay-per-click marketing in your advertising campaign:
• The results start showing almost immediately
• Allows you to precisely pick your targeted audience
• Has a vast potential to drive customers to your website
• Significantly increases the number of leads and subscriptions
• You have complete control over your advertising budget
• PPC is easy to track and measure results
• Gives your brand much needed online exposure
• Motivates visitors to get in touch with you
• PPC ads are less annoying than other types
Moreover, PPC is a great way to complement your organic SEO. Of course, PPC should not be considered as a replacement but an addition which gives excellent and quick results. It should be paired with your other efforts, for instance, content marketing.
How to plan your PPC marketing campaign?
Just like any other marketing campaign, PPC requires careful planning as well. From the initial expenses to tracking and measuring results, there are a few important aspects you need to pay attention to.
First, you need to set your PPC budget
The safe way to plan your PPC budget is to first inspect the situation on the market. By observing how much other companies in the same industry are paying per ad, you will better understand how much you need and want to spend. After research, a good way is to set a small amount to test how things are working. If you skip this part, you can quickly end up burning your budget without actually getting to know how things function. Once the test is complete, you can estimate how much you will need to invest in a full PPC campaign to get the best results for a period of time.
Estimate your goals
Not all businesses have the same goals, and not all of them can accomplish the same results. Much of it will depend on which type of industry you are in. A small company that wants to improve its brand awareness will not have the same investments as a well-known company selling products for years. In the same way, a company that is merely interested in improving its leads and conversions might have different investments and expectations. The only way to get a high ROI (return on investment) is to be aware of these conditions to avoid unrealistic expectations. Since you are paying for clicks, it will matter what you hope those clicks will accomplish.
Choosing the right type
Another important aspect of PPC marketing is to choose the right type. There are numerous options to pick from:
• Search ads – if you are planning to get better ranking positions
• Social media ads – to improve your social media marketing efforts
• eCommerce ads – if you are selling products
• Remarketing – to keep visitors coming back
• Video ads – for those who target video platforms like YouTube
• and many more
Depending on your goals, you will choose one, or more, options that fit your desired targeted audience the best.
Keyword research
When you look at search engines, specific keywords and terms are essential. You need to understand the user intent and see what they type when they are searching for something. Then, you will have a better understanding of which groups you want to target. For example, when you are selling products, besides the product name, proper keyword research includes everything about the product, from its usage to characteristics. The term “tools” might be too broad to target, but the “gardening tools” aim to specific intent and the audience. In simple words, the right keyword will attract the right audience and get you the clicks with the most potential for conversion.
Bidding
The important aspect of PPC marketing is bidding. It’s a sort of auction-style bidding where you offer the amount you will pay for a click. The top bidders will get top positions for displaying their ads for a specific keyword, and they will be shown more often. The next highest goes below and so on. However, this doesn’t necessarily mean you are going to pay the highest price. Even if you are the top bidder, the lowest bid dictates the initial click costs. The thing is, you don’t know in advance if your bid is going to be the highest or lowest, so you have an option to set the maximum you are willing to pay for each click.
PPC marketing is an excellent way to target a specific audience. With numerous platforms that you can use, like Google and Facebook, choices are many. However, like everything else in the digital marketing world, PPC requires thorough research. That’s why guides like this “Introduction to PPC marketing” are here to help you understand the basics so you can perfectly plan and optimize your ads for the best results.
Authors bio: Douglas Rodgers is an SEO expert, writer, and researcher that collaborates with Digital Dot and other companies by sharing his experience and opinions about specific aspects of the digital marketing world today.
