Pay per click marketing, often referred to as simply PPC marketing, is a valuable tool that all businesses can use to improve their bottom line. But, how do you even begin to set up PPC ads?
What Is PPC Marketing?
Simply put, the PPC definition is a model of marketing that uses ads to generate clicks to your website. Every time a person clicks on your PPC ad, you pay the platform or search engine a fee. Hence, “pay per click.”
You’ve probably come across PPC ads throughout your time online and not even known it. A quick Google search for a product or service, or even just a related keyword, will turn up PPC ads at the top of the page. If a search result has the word “Ad” or “Sponsored” next to it, then it’s a PPC ad. bahis siteleri
Paid search ads are the most common type of PPC ads. Other types of PPC ads include display advertising, social media advertising, remarketing, and Google Shopping.
How do PPC ads work? If you want your ads to appear on a search engine results page (SERP), your ads need to go through something called an Ad Auction. This is an automated procedure run by search engines like Google to gauge how relevant your ad is to the search being done by a user. You need to bid on certain keywords so that when someone searches for that term, your ad will appear.
What’s the Difference Between PPC vs CPC?
PPC differs from CPC, otherwise known as cost per click, but not by much. In digital marketing, PPC is the approach or strategy itself, whereas CPC is the amount or cost you pay for each click. For instance, you can say that you’re running a PPC ad on Google for a CPC of $1. Some advertisers use these two terms interchangeably, though.
Benefits of Pay Per Click Marketing
You may wonder why it’s even necessary to invest time and money in PPC marketing. After all, there are other ways to promote your business, right? While that’s true, it’s difficult to gain organic visitors to your website and make them convert into buyers. PPC marketing makes the process much easier. Here are just some of the advantages of pay per click advertising:
- Customer Base Expansion. If people don’t know about your brand yet, then a good way to get the word out and expand your customer base is through PPC marketing. When people search for a product or service similar to yours, grab the opportunity to show them your specific offering.
- Cost-Efficient Lead Generation. People tend to search for a product or service when they already have the intention to buy. As such, you have a higher chance of making a sale if you show them a relevant product or service at the time of their search. PPC marketing is also cheaper. If a click costs $5 but it leads to a $200 purchase, then it’s a good deal.
- Less Invasive. Because you’re showing people what they’re specifically looking for (or something related to it), PPC marketing is less intrusive, at least compared to other types of advertising. It’s a known fact, after all, that people hate ads.
Which Networks Offer Pay Per Click Advertising Services?
There are a bunch of platforms that offer pay per click services, such as:
- Google Ads. This is perhaps the most prominent and widely used PPC platform simply because it boasts the most search volume (a whopping 3.5 billion per day). When you run Google PPC ads, you also gain access to its large array of websites included in the Google Display Network (GDN).
- Bing Ads. There are about 7.4 billion monthly searches on Bing in the United States, making this search engine hard to overlook. The best part about Bing Ads, though, is that you can import your campaigns from Google Ads to make the process easier.
- Yahoo Gemini. With Yahoo Gemini, you can display your ads on a variety of platforms such as Yahoo, the Oath Network, and websites such as Tumblr and HuffPost.
- Facebook. With 190 million users in the United States alone, it’s hard to ignore Facebook as the king of social media sites. PPC advertising using Facebook also gives you access to its other networks such as Messenger and Instagram.
- LinkedIn. There are about 722 million professionals registered on LinkedIn, and the ad campaigns you run through this platform also extends to the LinkedIn Audience Network.
- Twitter. The ads you run through this platform remain on Twitter alone since it has no network partners. However, with a user base of 68.7 million people in the United States, leaving this market untapped would be unwise.
- Pinterest. As a primarily visual social media site, it comes as no surprise that Pinterest would be a popular place for PPC ads. The PPC pins you run here can reach a large audience, with the platform boasting 98 million monthly active users in the U.S.
How to Set Up PPC Advertising
To get started with your PPC strategy, you first need to understand the elements of pay per click ads.
1. Keyword Research
The first thing you will need to do is search for keywords that will trigger your ads to appear. Keep in mind that your keywords should be relevant to your business. For instance, if you offer cleaning services, a relevant keyword would be “house cleaning.” bonusaffiliate.com
Of course, your keywords should also be exhaustive. Don’t just stick to the generic keywords that get tons of searches every month. Place focus on long-tail keywords. These are less common than their generic counterparts, but they’re also less expensive and more specific. People who use long-tail keywords to search already know what they want. Therefore, they offer a higher conversion value.
2. Campaigns and Ad Groups
Now that you have your keywords, you can then create individual ad campaigns built around each one. Group your keywords into themes so that you don’t run campaigns with similar keywords. For example, you might create an ad campaign that focuses on “Desk Lamps.”
You can then dive into more specific keywords with ad groups, which are subcategories. A “Desk Lamps” campaign can contain ad groups such as “Wood Desk Lamps,” “Metal Desk Lamps,” and “Plastic Desk Lamps.”
Under each ad group, you can input themed variations of the keyword. For example, the ad group “Wood Desk Lamps” can contain keywords like “Wood desk lamps,” “Desk lamps wood,” “Wood desk lamps on sale.”
3. Campaign Types
When it comes to pay per click campaign management, there are four types to choose from:
- Search Network. Using this campaign type, your ads will show up on Google and Google’s search partners. This includes Amazon, AOL, and more.
- Display Network. Using this campaign type, your ads will appear on millions of sites that have allowed Google to display text, image, and video ads. Instead of keywords, this campaign type targets based on demographics and audiences.
- Search Network With Display Opt-In. This allows you to use a combination of the first two campaign types.
- Google Shopping. Shopping campaigns show product listing ads on Google and Microsoft.
4. Negative Keywords
Negative keywords are the keywords you don’t want to be associated with. For instance, if you sell luxury watches, then you don’t want your ads to appear for keyword searches like “Cheap watches” or “Bargain watches.”
5. Audiences
With audiences, you can segment users in different ways. You can create audiences based on how much time they spend on your website, those who have abandoned their cart, etc. Audiences are primarily used for remarketing purposes, which is when you display targeted ads to users who have interacted with your website or ad previously.
6. Budget
After building your campaign, you can then adjust other settings to fit your needs. This includes setting a daily budget for each campaign, though you can also opt to use a shared budget and let Google calculate the rest.
Types of Ad Copy
There are a handful of ads you can run through PPC marketing. Here’s your PPC guide to the different ad copies you can create:
- Text Ads. When writing text ads, it’s important to keep character limits in mind. You should also refrain from using too many punctuations and instances of unnecessary capitalization. Any text ads you write shouldn’t mislead the reader, too.
- Product Listing Ads. PLAs show up in square and consist of the product name, price, and photo.
- Image Ads. If you choose the Display Network campaign type or a combination, you can show image ads on websites that have agreed to display Google ads.
Using Ad Extensions
Ad extensions present additional information about your business or product. Because extensions add weight and size to your ads, they’re a good way to improve your click-through rate (CTR). You can choose to manually use ad extensions, though some search engines automatically attach them to your PPC ads.
- Sitelink Extensions. These display additional links to other parts of your website. Keep in mind that these extensions should remain relevant to the keyword the user searched for.
- Location Extensions. A location extension is exactly as it sounds — it shows your business’s address. This is great for businesses with physical locations, though you need to set up a Google My Business account to get started.
- Call Extensions. With this extension, you can display your phone number along with your ad. On mobile, there’s an added call button, giving users the option to click-to-call.
- App Extensions. If you have an app on offer, you can use app extensions to allow users an easy way to download your app.
- Seller Rating Extensions. These are automatic extensions delivered by Google based on credible reviews. You can get this extension if you’ve had at least 30 good reviews (at least 4 stars) over a 12-month period.
- Consumer Rating Annotations. Like seller ratings, consumer ratings are automatically displayed by Google.
Other Essential Tips for Successful PPC Marketing
1. Keywords for Local PPC
If you’re going for local PPC marketing, it’s a good idea to use neighborhood names as keywords. You should also try to mix things up by thinking about how people relate your product or service to another product or service. For example, if you sell running shoes, you might want to use local running paths as keywords.
2. Target Mobile Devices
With the addition of Enhanced Campaigns comes the introduction of Radius Targeting.
With this, you can target both desktop users and mobile devices. People are more likely to click on mobile ads, so it’s a real missed opportunity if you skip this.
3. Monitor and Adjust
Part of PPC campaign management is monitoring your performance metrics and making necessary adjustments. There may be some keywords that are too expensive and not bringing enough results. On the other hand, you might come across long-tail keywords that are performing better than expected. In that case, you may want to increase your daily budget for them.
Calling for Professional Help
Are PPC ads worth it? PPC marketing can definitely be confusing, especially given all the technicalities involved. Instead of choosing to take a DIY approach, you might benefit from hiring professional services.
Tanner Grey specializes in web design and digital marketing solutions, which includes pay per click services. Give us a call today at 844.500.1339 or contact us online for more information.
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