What exactly is pay-per-click (PPC) marketing? Pay-per-click marketing is a method of generating clicks to your website through search engine advertising rather than “earning” such hits organically. Do you know those yellow-labelled sponsored adverts that frequently appear at the top of Google’s search results page? That is pay-per-click advertising (particularly, Google Ads PPC, which we will discuss further below).
Here’s how it works: You pay the search engine a tiny charge every time your ad clicks, directing a visitor to your website. (This is why it’s referred to as “pay per click.”) When your PPC campaign is well-designed and going efficiently, that charge becomes insignificant since the visit is worth more to your company than what you pay for it. For example, if you pay $10 for a click that leads to a $300 transaction, adopting PPC is a no-brainer.
Finally, pay-per-click marketing benefits everyone:
- It’s good for searchers – According to research, searchers click on sponsored search advertisements more than any other type of digital advertising. This indicates that individuals don’t mind being promoted if advertised items and services are relevant to the searcher’s requirements. Because we use search engines to find items and services, the results, including advertisements, are often extremely relevant to what we’re looking for. Furthermore, Google has created an outstanding algorithm for guaranteeing that PPC advertising fits the user’s demands.
- It’s good for advertisers – Advertisers are given a one-of-a-kind opportunity to get their message in front of an audience that is actively and particularly looking for their goods. Advertisers can monitor the quality of traffic generated by search engine clicks since searchers expose their intent through their search queries.
- It’s good for search engines – PPC allows search engines to appeal to both searchers and marketers simultaneously. Their user base is made up of searches, while advertising supplies them with an income source. First and foremost, the engines seek to produce relevant results while also providing a highly targeted, revenue-generating advertising channel.
The distinct benefit of PPC marketing is that Google (and other ad networks) reward the highest-quality advertising rather than the highest bids for that ad space (meaning the most popular ads with users). Google, in essence, rewards good performance. The higher the quality of your adverts, the higher your click-through rates and the cheaper your costs.
Google Ads for Pay-Per-Click Marketing
Google Ads, formerly known as Google AdWords, is by far the most prominent PPC platform, and it works on a pay-per-click approach, in which users bid on keywords and pay for each click on their ads.
When a search is conducted, Google looks through the pool of bidding advertisers and selects a group of winners to display in the ad space on its search results page. The “winners” are determined by several variables, including the quality and relevancy of their keywords and ad copy, as well as the magnitude of their keyword bids. For example, if WordStream bids on the keyword “PPC software,” our ad may appear at the top of the Google search results page.
The number of advertisements on the page is determined by an advertiser’s Ad Rank, a statistic that is generated by multiplying two essential criteria – CPC Bid and Quality Score. Your Quality Score, in turn, influences your real cost per click, or CPC.
This technique enables winning advertisers to reach out to potential customers at a reasonable cost.
The good news for advertisers is that you’re also providing customized ads to those actively looking for your product by giving search engines what they want. It’s a win-win situation.
Is Pay-Per-Click Marketing Right for You?
As previously stated, PPC advertising provides a unique chance to:
- Grow Your Customer Base – Connect with searchers who are actively seeking items and services similar to yours and answer to that need by giving them an appropriate offer based on their search query.
- Generate Leads at Low Costs – Pay-per-click marketing is a very successful approach to drive interested people to your site since it allows you to reach leads and prospects when they are researching and seeking to buy. In addition, in exchange for keeping their consumers happy, search engines will provide you with an algorithmically created discount.
The fact is that pay-per-click marketing may benefit practically every type of business, whether you want to sell things through an e-commerce website, create leads for a service-based or software company, increase brand awareness, or even drive foot traffic and phone calls to your local shop.
The challenge is in the execution. You should adhere to a few best practices to get the most out of your pay-per-click marketing strategy.
Keyword Research for Pay-Per-Click Marketing
Keyword research for PPC might be time-consuming, but it is also vital.
Your whole PPC campaign is based on keywords. The most successful Google marketers are always expanding and refining their PPC keyword list (ideally, using various tools, not just Keyword Planner). If you simply conduct keyword research once you establish your initial campaign, you will likely lose out on hundreds of thousands of useful, long-tail, low-cost, and highly relevant phrases that may drive traffic to your site.
A good PPC keyword list should include:
- Relevant – Of course, you don’t want to pay for Internet traffic that your company has nothing to do with. You want to select keywords with a high PPC click-through rate, a cheap cost per click, and higher revenues. That is, the keywords you bid on should be directly connected to the products or services you offer.
- Exhaustive – Your keyword research should cover not just the most popular and often searched phrases in your field but also the long tail of search terms. Long-tail keywords are more particular and less prevalent, yet they account for the vast bulk of search-driven traffic. Furthermore, they are less competitive and hence less expensive.
- Expansive – PPC is an iterative process. You want to continually revise and develop your campaigns and create an environment in which your keyword list grows and adapts.
Your pay-per-click keyword plan should also incorporate frequent negative keyword discovery — negative keywords prevent your advertising from appearing for queries that are unrelated to your business and unlikely to convert.
Managing Your Pay-Per-Click Campaigns
Once you’ve built your new campaigns, you’ll need to manage them regularly to ensure they remain effective. One of the biggest indicators of account success is consistent account activity.
You should constantly be assessing the success of your Google advertisements and AdWords account – even 20 minutes a week may make a major impact – and making the following changes to improve your campaigns:
- Add PPC Keywords: Increase the reach of your pay-per-click advertisements by including keywords relevant to your business.
- Add Negative Keywords: To boost advertising relevance and avoid the wasted cost, add non-converting phrases as negative keywords.
- Split Ad Groups: Increase your click-through rate (CTR) and Quality Score by dividing your ad groups into smaller, more relevant ad groups, which will allow you to produce more focused ad content and landing pages.
- Review Costly PPC Keywords: Review expensive, underperforming keywords and, if required, turn them off.
- Refine Landing Pages: To increase conversion rates, customize your landing pages’ content and calls-to-action (CTAs) to individual search queries. Don’t direct all of your visitors to the same page.
You will be able to build your consumer base and enhance ROI by regularly tweaking your pay-per-click ads. If you need more detailed information about setting up your PPC strategy, visit our post, “Top Ten PPC Tips to Help Elevate Your PPC Game!”
For more information about PPC Marketing, please contact us at 613-729-0500 now.