- Definition:
You may have perceived that PPC advertisement can be the solution to all of your business needs – but the question is “what is PPC advertisement?”
“PPC stands for “Pay-Per-Click” and is also called “cost per click”. It is an online advertising method to promote your products and services on search engines, social media and all around the web to drive direct traffic towards your website.”
In the PPC advertising model, advertisers pay the website publisher with an amount each time the ad is clicked. It is simply described as “the amount which is spent to get a click”. Publishers can employ banner ads, video ads, mobile ads, flash ads and text ads to promote the product or service and generate revenue.
Bidding on related keywords that are relevant to an advertiser’s business and market, and geographical location will place ads on search engine results as the customers look for their products and services with the keywords.
PPC ads are shown on top, below and to the right side of organic search results. When someone searches a subject on Google, there is an instant auction performed to find which will be the most relevant ads to appear in search results. This complete process is controlled by Google AdWords.
To succeed with a PPC campaign, your ads can be located on a number of major websites with Google, Bing, Yahoo, and AOL search engine networks. All networks have similar functionality. Google has its own elements for PPC campaigns.
With PPC, you can target your customers according to their devices, locations, language, scheduling, social extension and keyword matching.
When visitors click on the ad of yours that appears, they are sent to a landing page on your website where you have the chance to convert them into leads and sales with some give away, buy now button, inquiry and contact forms.
- Core Components of a PPC campaign
There are various elements needed to define the most relevant keywords for your ad text that user’s search for. To get excellent results with PPC campaigns, all of these components should be considered.
✓ Keyword:
For every search, a keyword is requested and targeted. Keywords enhance the possibility of getting connected with customers who are looking for your products and services.
So you need to be specific to find the most potential keywords to bid, because ads are triggered with a keyword and you can’t bid for every important keyword.
✓ Ad Copy:
Not only keywords matter, but the content of your ad copy is also important to get a click on your ad. Make sure that your ad copy is effectively written and specifies the action that needs to be performed by visitors to make them click.
Targeted ad copy diminishes the number of clicks and improves the value of the clicks. This will decrease the cost per click and boost conversions. This image will show and help you to understand the ad copy:
✓ Bid Prices:
Bidding price is the amount that you are willing to pay for each ad-redirected visit on your website or the position you want be in search engines. The higher you bid, the more likely you’ll appear in search results.
You can bid on relevant keywords, long negative keywords, use bid popping, and day parting to improve your click through rate and decrease your cost per click.
✓ Landing Pages:
If you are advertising specific products in your PPC ads, then instead of sending traffic to your homepage, direct them to that particular page that talks about the specific product defined in the ads.
Having so many different products, you can create multiple landing pages for your products and create ads accordingly. Your different ads will drive your traffic to different landing pages. This will increase your returns, sales and conversions.
✓ Conversion Path:
PPC ads send visitors to your landing page, and they go through more than one page to complete the conversion path or funnel. At every step there is a possibility that user can be distracted, you would be surprised by how many visitors want to buy, but are not converted.
You may see issues and resolve them to optimize your PPC advertising campaign, reduce misspend and increase the profit margins.
- How PPC works
To rank your website on search engines organically, it requires a lot of time and effort. But, if you want to get it ranked quickly, you can move to Pay-Per-Click (PPC) advertisement. It presents products and services to customers in real time.
People search in real time and they get results instantly from search engines. If you are using a PPC campaign to promote your business and have the similar products which are searched, your ads will be displayed there.
Every time an ad is clicked and someone visits your landing webpage, you get charged for that click. If they don’t click you won’t get charged.
To work with PPC advertising, you need to do the following things –
✓ Set up Goals:
Creating goals will help you optimize your strategies and improve your performance. You can start with Google, Yahoo and Bing, the major platforms. Your goals can be based on your target market, offers, campaigns, budget, time frame and other things.
✓ Start with an Easy PPC Campaign Structure:
You can make different ad groups according to your goals and objectives using small groups of potential keywords. Go through each keyword to make sure that your ad copy is relevant. You need to manage your campaign on a regular basis to succeed.
✓ Check your PPC Settings:
Go to your campaign settings and check the language of your campaign. If you are a local merchant or want to promote locally, look for local searches to add extra benefit to your business.
You can customize your targeting, budget, scheduling and devices for better results.
- How to set the Right Objective with PPC
How can Pay-Per-Click help you achieve your marketing goals? Here are some major objectives:
✓ Brand your Business:
Pay-Per-Click advertising enhances your brand awareness among customers. It costs you when customers click on the appeared ads and visit your website, but the impressions work as a freebie. Impressions add an extra advantage to your brand. Even if you are not being clicked, you still grab the attention of your customer.
✓ Establish Short- & Long-Term Goals:
Setting up short-term and long-term objectives can be a substantial plan. You can define objectives according to a period of time such as weekly, monthly, quarterly and yearly.
Short terms goals are good if followed in a proper manner. Also, careful emphasis needs to be given while determining the time frame for these goals. Remember, you should not give extra time, nor should you devote less-time to your goals.
✓ Define Realistic Objectives:
While determining your PPC campaign, make sure the objectives you are setting up are realistic and achievable. Do not set simple goals that are easy to get. Your PPC advertising plan and approach to attain the goals should be real.
Determine customers’ actions:
A PPC ad works as a salesperson, so create the PPC ads with a clearly defined objective so that visitors perform the desired action. What types of action can be included?
✓ Lead generation
✓ Follow you on social media
✓ Buy a specific product
✓ Call you
✓ Promote your business
