Many digital marketers ask me why I should go with the Pay per Click campaign rather than an SEO (Search Engine Optimization) campaign. The question sounds like why I should take a short road to reach my destination or a long route. You might reach your destination via a short road, but what you will miss is experiences that might enrich your soul from within when you take a long route. Similarly, when you decide to go for a
Paid ads campaign (a short route), you will get results, but SEO offers some amazing benefits that nurture your brand.
Search engine optimization is one of the most preferred digital marketing approaches due to some unmatched benefits it offers. Apart from driving genuine traffic and leads to your website, SEO also helps to make you a brand authority on a digital spectrum.
On the other hand, a pay-per-click marketing approach is generally preferred when you want results in the short term. For example, if you are running a Christmas offer on your store and want instant visits, a Paid ads campaign might work for you, rather than going the SEO way.
However, one thing worth mentioning here is to hire the best professional PPC management services to run your campaign if you don’t have an in-house team.
In this manner, you can avoid making common mistakes on Google Ads. The DIY approach is not recommended as PPC marketing is a complex approach and requires an expert’s supervision and monitoring throughout the campaign.
In this post, we will discuss a PPC campaign, the advantages and pitfalls of a PPC campaign, and how it works.
What is PPC Marketing?
Pay per Click marketing is one of the leading
digital marketing channels where marketers create ad copies posted on different channels. Here, the marketer has to pay a certain amount only when any online user clicks the ad.
You must have seen paid ads at the top of the search engine pages of Google and Bing. Advertisers can place their ads with relevant keywords to attract the target audience and get quick results.
When users search-relevant keywords, these ads will pop up at the top of the SERP. The reason why PPC offers brilliant results is that PPC ads are placed higher on the SERP and not the organic leads.
Types of PPC Ads
There are a total of three types of PPC ads that we see in the digital spectrum.
Text Ads
We have seen text ads on SERPs. It is a written copy created by the marketer. For each PPC platform, you have a different format and character limits. Here, your ad will be displayed above organic SEO results, and you have greater chances of clicks. However, you have to rely on users who search for keywords placed in the ad Another option is to hire and work with influencers who can promote your brand with the keywords you want. You can find influencers by scraping Google or using specific tools and platforms.
Display Ads
When you search for some product, for example, the best solar panel in New York, search engines such as Google or Bing will show you display ads with images. When you are bidding for display ads, you have to comply with the size and content requirements of the platform. Display ads can be put for advertising placement on many websites across the internet. You need to ensure which websites you want to cover for your brand’s display ads. Choose websites where your target audience visits more often.
Shopping Ads
A shopping ad has specifications related to a particular product, including the product’s image, price, size, color, and other specifications. It is displayed when a searcher searches for a product through a search engine.
Major PPC Platforms you Need to Know.
There are many platforms available on the internet for text, display, and shopping ads to run your
paid ads campaign. However, there are three main platforms that you need to know.
Google Ads
It is one of the most preferred paid advertising platforms that has carved a niche for itself. You can run text, display, and shopping ads on the Google search engine and its search partner sites with Google ads. Also, you can advertise on YouTube with the Google Ads platform.
Microsoft Advertising
Also, we can call Bing ads, the paid advertising platform for Microsoft. It also allows advertising on its search network (Bing) and other partner sites such as Yahoo. Also, Microsoft has its native advertising websites, such as MSN.
Amazon Advertising
It is one of the fastest-growing PPC platforms, especially for people who deal with online selling. You can create a paid ads campaign by displaying shopping ads to promote your products on Amazon’s shopping network.
Benefits of PPC Marketing
Before we delve into how PPC works, let’s discuss some benefits of PPC advertising. Quick Results If you are running an offer with your PPC campaign, you will get instant results. You will get a significant amount of traffic if you have designed a strategic PPC campaign. It is the reason you should hire a goodsocial media marketing company
that offers superior PPC services.
Precision
Another important benefit of PPC marketing is precision. If you have carefully designed the ad for your target audience, you will get highly relevant leads for your business.
Agility
You can make changes in your paid ads campaign instantly as per the performance data available to you. You can turn your campaign into a success by working closely with different metrics and changing your campaign accordingly.
Measurement
You have so many metrics to check out how your campaign is running. You can also measure the ROI of your ads.
Pitfalls of PPC Marketing
It is crucial to check out some potential pitfalls of PPC marketing before you start a campaign. Cost If you don’t have enough funds for marketing, running PPC ads can be a costly affair. Also, the cost depends on your competition and the industry you belong to. For example, some ad placements might cost you $100 to $200 per click. However, it is not common, but you can understand how the PPC market varies due to its model. WasteIf you are not well-versed with PPC platforms and try to run an ad, you will spend some funds as wasted ad spend. Volume Also, if your target audience is not searching for keywords you have used in the ad, especially on the search network, your PPC campaign might fail to generate much traffic.
How does Pay Per Click work for Advertisers?
There are three main parties when it comes to PPC advertising.
- Advertisers
- PPC network
- Publishers
Here, advertisers are an individual who wants to promote his business with PPC marketing. The advertiser will pay to the PPC network such as Google Ads, Bing Ads, or Facebook Ads for placing ads on their network. Suppose the advertiser has placed an ad on any PPC network and a visitor has clicked on the ad. In this case, the PPC network will charge money from the advertiser. How much to pay per click? It depends on many factors, such as the competition, the keywords used in the ad, the target audience, and many more. It can be as little as $1 to as high as $100 per click. Now, if you and your competitor are competing for a particular keyword, in this case, the keyword price will go high. Now, the interesting plot comes. Google has a limited number of slots to provide to advertisers. Hence, you have to battle for a particular keyword to claim the space. It is called bidding, and it decides the price you need to pay per click.
How does Pay Per Click Work for Publishers?
Publishers are people who make the team with PPC networks to get revenues. Publishers are the owners of websites where they allow them to display adverts. Every time a visitor of the publisher’s website clicks on an ad, the publisher will receive a fixed amount of money. Here also, how much a publisher receives depends on the keyword and its average bid. Keywords play a vital role in PPC marketing, and it is why you should choose keywords carefully. You can use many keyword research tools to find the right, relevant keywords for your campaign. The reason why PPC networks introduced publishers is to increase the network display and to reach out to a wider audience. Publishers put ads on display on their websites, applications, and a large audience can see videos and the ad. Also, when an advertiser agrees to display ads on the publisher’s partners, he has to pay less per click. It is a win-win scenario for advertisers, PPC networks, and publishers.
How does Bidding Work?
It is important to know how bidding works if you want to know how PPC marketing works. When you decide to bid for a particular keyword, there are four advert slots available for you. Now, the ad position will be determined by the average bid you offer for a particular keyword. If you plan to bid for the number one position, remember that it is not always advisable. Even if you have put your ad on the fourth slot, there are high chances that your
paid ads campaign will work, and you also have to pay less than the first position.
You can use Google Keyword Planner Tool to determine the slot you want to have for the ad.
What is Quality Score and How It Works?
Now that you know how bidding works, it is time to understand quality scores. Google will decide the quality score of your ad by reviewing your ad’s quality and relevance. Based on your ad’s quality score, Google will decide the cost per click and the ad position for the ad. It is crucial to score high on the quality score aspect to reduce the cost you are paying for the ad. A good quality score will also determine the success of your ad campaign. Ask the content marketing team to come up with the best copy with relevant keywords. Also, ensure that you have a good CPR and a good landing page to get a good quality score.
Also, you can advertise on YouTube with the Google Ads platform. “In the meantime, consider learning more about advertising statistics and navigate better in advertising market.
How to Save Money on your PPC Campaign?
Do you know about click fraud? Almost every PPC campaign experiences some click fraud during its lifespan. The amount of click fraud might vary from campaign to campaign, but it happens. Now, the worrisome thing is such click frauds can cost you a lot every month. For each fraud click, you will lose some money. Google or other PPC networks will not do anything about it as PPC marketing is their most effective revenue generator machine. There are software products available in the market which can help verify the authenticity of PPC ad clicks. You can buy such software to find out the number of click frauds happening with your campaign.
Conclusion
PPC marketing is challenging and, at the same time, interesting too. However, without professional help, you might end up losing your money without seeing any good results. When you plan for a
paid ads campaign, hiring a dedicated PPC agency that can help you out with your campaign is important. They have all the tools available to run your campaign and have a team of professionals who will carefully leverage their expertise to design a PPC plan.
