What are the PPC benefits for your business?
PPC is an internet marketing channel meaning Pay Per Click (PPC). Advertisers pay a fee to publishers every time their ad is clicked. Generally, it is a way to buy site visits rather than “earning” clicks organically through search engine optimisation.
But what are the PPC benefits for your business?
PPC advertising can help you increase your visibility online, bring new leads to your website, and boost conversions without breaking the bank.
Every business seeks low-cost, high-impact advertising options, especially during the coronavirus pandemic.
Customers now spend more time online than usual, yet businesses are tightening their marketing budgets.
Many of our clients turn to pay-per-click advertising (PPC) to put their brand in front of millions of internet users.
What is PPC advertising?
PPC advertising, PPC, or Pay-Per-Click, is an online advertising model that places ads on search engine results pages (SERPs), social media sites, and other websites, where you pay a small fee each time someone clicks on one of your ads.
Instead of spending money on estimated impressions, advertisers only pay for the traffic these ads generate, making them an excellent option for businesses that want total control of their performance and budget.
With PPC, advertisers bid on keywords and pay only when users click their ad. When users click a PPC ad, it brings them to a landing page on a website.
The most popular PPC advertising platforms are Google Ads, Microsoft Advertising, and Facebook Ads. However, given the volume of searches and options, Google is the most valuable for any PPC campaign.
There are three primary types of Google ads, each of which with its own PPC rates and efficiency:
Search Network – these are text-based ads that show on Google search results, like sponsored links, shopping page ads, and results in the shopping banner.
Display Network – typically image-based ads that are displayed on the websites your audience visits, usually in the form of a banner, sidebar, or footer image, also known as display advertising.
Video – these are video-based ads that feature before, during, or after YouTube content.
The best PPC advertising campaigns work on directing a customer to perform a practical action, which can quite simply be purchasing a product. However, it can also be any other type of lead generation like form submission, quote request or PDF download.
PPC benefits your business
Here are some PPC benefits which are great for your business.
Set a maximum budget for ads
With other types of advertisements, marketers are locked into a specific rate.
PPC enables marketers to work within their budget. That means whether you are a multi-national enterprise or a mum-and-dad in a small town, you can constantly change ad budgets within your limits.
2. Only pay when someone clicks on an ad
With many types of advertising, marketers pay the same amount for the ad spot, no matter how many people see it or contact a company because of it.
One of the significant PPC benefits is that you are only billed per click, meaning marketers only pay when someone interacts with their ad, providing a chance for conversion.
3. Can compete even if organic search engine rankings are not high
Businesses can still promote themselves through PPC if a site does not rank well in search engines.
With PPC, businesses can gain an edge over their competition even if they have just launched a website. This is one of the most critical PPC benefits for newer businesses, as it lets them compete for new customers with companies that have been around for decades.
4. PPC ads provide instant traffic
Whilst organic marketing efforts focus on getting your content on the first page of Google, PPC advertising slots are already there – so why not take advantage of them and start generating business?
Climbing the organic search rankings for keywords can take months. Organic growth is necessary for building a long-term brand, but sometimes there is a need for more instant results.
5. You can quickly test different ads
Every PPC provider tracks stats on their ads so marketers can refine their marketing strategies and see the PPC benefits in action.
They all track the same basic stats, like clicks, how much you are charged, and provider-specific information. Whether on Google, Bing, or Facebook, marketers can constantly refine their PPC approach.
These stats also demonstrate if businesses are getting worthwhile returns from their investment. If they are not, they can easily change something in minutes.
6. Gain more brand recognition
More people will see (and later recognise) your brand as your PPC ads appear more frequently. That’s great for building your company’s reputation online, even if people don’t click on your ads at first.
7. PPC user data helps your SEO strategy
Marketers can test their keyword strategy in PPC before committing to long-term SEO strategies.
Where organic keywords are primarily hidden due to privacy, there is no such restriction with paid search, which means they can get a complete overview of the keywords that convert and at what percentage and cost.
This means that PPC keyword data can be directly fed into organic search marketing (SEO) and used to optimise metadata, headlines, and keywords.
PPC campaigns allow marketers and business owners to improve all their website content without waiting for it to rank organically.
8. PPC ads offer multi-layered targeting options
PPC advertising puts metrics like users’ ages, locations, and interests at your fingertips, making targeting specific customer profiles locally and globally easy.
Even better, as marketers experiment with PPC campaigns, they will see what kind of users respond to individual campaigns and what platforms those users use. They can hyper-target different audiences on platforms where they convert best.
Nowadays, businesses use local PPC management to focus more on attracting customers within a particular geographical region.
For instance, if a business sells gardening supplies, it might get more clicks from young house plant enthusiasts through YouTube advertising. So marketers should create video adverts to showcase their products on YouTube.
10. Launch a PPC advertising campaign in no time
Marketers can launch PPC ads quickly, provided they already have the ad text, ad budget, and landing page. They can set up and go and begin seeing the PPC benefits soon after launching.
11. Reach ideal customers
Another one of the top PPC benefits is that businesses can target their ads directly to the people most likely to become customers.
By conducting keyword research, businesses can determine which keywords potential customers are searching for when seeking information about their industry, products, or services. Then, they can bid on these keywords and get their ad in front of those users.
They can also target ads to users based on their demographics, interests, past online activity, and more. By using a tactic called remarketing, you can even serve ads to people who recently visited your website but didn’t make a purchase.
12. PPC user data benefits a social media strategy
An integrated PPC campaign across search and social can reduce the cost per acquisition while converting significantly more customers than standalone PPC campaigns.
This is because marketers will get more cross-channel customer data that can be combined strategically to improve their campaigns further.
For instance, when advertising on Google, marketers can use “Audience Observations” to inform their social targeting.
Google’s “Audience Observation” feature lets you see which audience groups perform better than others. Marketers can use that information in their social media targeting and ad copy to reach even more people.
13. PPC ads allow for smart retargeting
PPC advertising combined with analytics allows marketers to see how users interact with their marketing campaigns and retarget those who did not convert.
A user may click on an ad but not purchase the product. Marketers can then retarget that user with display ads across the web to keep their brand at the front of their minds.
Retargeting works because businesses know the user is already interested in their product; they might need more time to decide.
Keeping a product or service in their mind increases the chances of converting.
Additionally, marketers can only show relevant product ads in their retargeting campaign, so the user is reminded of what they are missing.
With this highly-specific advertising strategy, businesses can help improve brand awareness and attract new customers.
Why hire a PPC agency
PPC advertising is an ever-expanding industry that is constantly changing.
What worked six months ago may not work anymore, so it is paramount for agencies to have the most up-to-date knowledge about the latest features and ways of reaching their target audience online.
As a business, you probably do not want to spend your valuable time trying to decipher the world of online advertising.
Hiring a professional PPC agency is easier and more cost effective than hiring, training and managing an in-house team.
Our PPC specialists have years of experience and insight into search engine and social advertising.