What is Pay-Per-Click Marketing (PPC)?

What is Pay-Per-Click Marketing (PPC)?

Have you ever searched for something online and found that the first couple of results you see have a small box with “AD” written in it next to the title of the result? If you don’t know what we’re talking about, take a second to look something up right now and you’ll see it. This is what is known as a pay-per-click (PPC) advertisement.

PPC advertisements work by targeting users who search for specific terms related to the parameters set by your PPC campaign. That might sound a little confusing, but we’ll break down how PPC works in a second.

As a business owner, what you need to know before anything else is that PPC is affordable.

As the name suggests, the cost of a PPC campaign is factored by the amount of clicks your advertising link receives. For example, you may bid to pay one dollar per click for your advertisement and if it’s clicked ten times, you pay ten dollars.

This may sound like it can add up fast, but if you do your PPC campaign right, it will target those in the sales funnel who are ready for conversion. The amount that you spend per click should be trivial compared to the amount you earn from services and products sold as a result, giving you a nice ROI.

What are the benefits of PPC marketing?

More than 45 percent of small businesses use PPC to drive their sales and this number is growing. The reason for this is the numbers behind the success of PPC marketing.

Here’s why many business owners are investing in PPC:

  • More than 40 percent of clicks on search engine results pages go to the top three PPC advertisements 
  • Businesses earn on average two dollars for every one dollar spent on PPC 
  • Users who click through a PPC ad are 50 percent more inclined to make a purchase than organic search users 
  • PPC ads increase brand awareness by up to 80 percent

How does PPC work?

PPC campaigns work by bidding on certain keyword phrases and displaying the ads of top bidders on pages related to search terms similar to the keyword phrases.

While search engine optimization (SEO) helps you rank highly in organic searches – the unpaid results that come up when users search for terms that match your products and services –  a PPC campaign gives you even finer control over who sees your message, what they see and what happens when they take action. When combined, pay-per-click and organic search engine strategies can be powerful ways to drive leads and boost awareness.

As you can imagine, a PPC campaign is not simple and requires strategy to be effective.

Here are a few steps you need to follow to start and manage a PPC campaign:

Z

Research

Keyword research takes time, but this is the first and most important step in a PPC campaign. Do not just look for the most popular keywords but find out which ones have the highest percentage of click-through rates (CTRs). Be sure to include long-tail keywords and to designate keywords of which you do not want your ads to display.
Z

Optimize

Building your keyword strategy is just the beginning. You should optimize your PPC campaign by including geo-targeting instructions and designating daily budget amounts. You also need to build landing pages with a call-to-action (CTA) that drive users who click through toward becoming customers. You can even add extensions like your phone number, enabling people viewing your ad on mobile to call your business with just one click.

 

Z

Monitor

The parameters and strategy you implement at the beginning of your campaign may change as the campaign goes on. You’ll want to monitor which keywords are performing well and which ones are performing poorly or have low CTRs, so you can add or omit keywords as necessary. You’ll also want to assess the performance of landing pages and make changes if they’re not converting well.
The most well-known PPC platform is Google’s AdWords, but other networks, like the Yahoo! Bing network, must be considered when crafting an optimal pay-per-click strategy. An expert in PPC can help you determine the best networks to leverage for advertising, create and build your campaigns, and manage them over time so you can dedicate your resources toward sales-driven activities and new business development.

Burg & Co. helps you create and manage successful PPC campaigns

Developing an effective PPC campaign takes a lot of work. Marketing experts, like those at Burg & Co., can work with you to find the right keywords and develop and manage an effective PPC strategy. We also create landing pages with the aim of converting your visitors into qualified leads and customers.

PPC marketing is a vital component of your overall digital marketing strategy. We offer these services at one flat rate per page on your website.

Would you like to learn more about how a PPC campaign can increase your conversion rates and ROI? Complete the form below to talk with the experts at Burg & Co. about developing a PPC campaign.

Featured as one of the top
woman-owned businesses in...