In 2020, Google alone generated almost 150 billion dollars in ad revenue. Even though pay-per-click (PPC) advertising is very popular, if you have not implemented it in your marketing yet, or have been unsuccessful in the past, don’t worry. You’re not alone.
In this blog, learn about PPC and the steps to take to organize a PPC campaign for your business.
PPC is a form of digital marketing where platforms display ads to their users and advertisers pay the platforms every time a user clicks on their ad. In other words, you pay a platform for funneling traffic to your website.
But, you do not just throw your ads into the wind and hope for the best. Instead, PPC grants you incredible targeting abilities that maximize your chances of engagement and eventual conversion.
With the unbelievable amount of data that platforms collect on their users, you can find and target your ads to anyone you want. If you have a product tailored to “Bob Smiths,” for example, who live in Pennsylvania, you can specifically target those Bob Smiths.
However, you will have to pay a pretty penny for access to those targeting abilities. Because PPC platforms know that their services produce some of the best conversion rates in the marketing industry, they charge accordingly. But, that CPC (cost-per-click) should be minimal as long as your leads turn into customers that spend more money with your business than you did on getting them to your website.
No part of your marketing plan is ever standalone; they all work together to form a cohesive system. Like any other part of your marketing plan, PPC should push you further toward your overall marketing goals.
Therefore, set SMART goals—-goals that are Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time-based. Are your paid ads meant to push people toward your email list? Do you want ads to lead directly to conversions on your website? How are you going to use paid ads to transform a lead into a customer? How are you going to track the success or failure of your paid ads?
With your SMART goals set, you have many different PPC platforms from which to choose. However, we suggest that you stick to two of the most successful PPC platforms: Facebook and Google paid ads. With extensive targeting abilities, proven track records, and massive user bases, Facebook and Google are two of the most effective PPC platforms.
If you incorporate Google as a part of your PPC campaign, you will need to find keywords. Ideally, you want to find keywords your target audience searches for frequently and then run ads on search results and pages that incorporate those keywords. For example, if your business manufactured and sold guitars, you would rather have your ads displayed to people who search for musical-oriented keywords than those looking for their next vacation spot.
Finally, set a budget for your PPC advertising. Because you are paying for website traffic, the more you spend, the more people will theoretically come to your website. But, don’t neglect other parts of your marketing plan by spending too much money on paid ads. PPC certainly deserves a place in your marketing plan, but it should not be your entire approach.
Undoubtedly, pay-per-click (PPC) advertising is a powerful tool that, if mastered, can result in a massive inflow of potential customers. To start implementing PPC into your marketing campaign, we recommend that you:
With those steps, you will be well on your way to running successful paid ads. However, executing the steps above is not a simple process. If it were, then every business that dabbled in PPC would be wildly successful.
However, hiring the kind of talent that can make you part of the successful minority of PPC users is very expensive. So expensive, that it can be hard to justify branching out into PPC at all. Instead of hiring a full-time marketing team, we recommend that you take advantage of a team-based approach. With a team-based approach, you get the benefits of full-time employees at a fraction of the price.
If you want to implement or overhaul PPC into your marketing campaign with a team-based approach, click here to contact us—we would love to help.