Advertising digitally in today’s world is considered one of the most essential features to bring in conversions. It’s no surprise, since the use of the internet is increasing by the day. In short, in these COVID times the world has gone digital and advertising online is vital for every business out there.
According to a study, 66% of businesses do some form of digital advertising. For digital marketers, the surprising fact is that PPC still seems confusing to many.
As a business owner and marketer, PPC is something that can be extremely useful for your brand and is a skill that you should have a basic understanding of.
This article will help you understand what does PPC stand for and everything you need to know regarding PPC marketing campaigns. To start, we’ll begin with the definition of PPC and its benefits and lead into an end-to-end guide on how to create PPC campaigns.
What is PPC? What does PPC stand for?
What does PPC stand for? Well, you have come to the right place! PPC stands for pay-per-click. It is an online advertising method in which marketers pay each time a user clicks on one of their advertisements.
Here is how pay-per-click works:
- You set up a PPC advertising campaign.
- Your advertisement is clicked on by a user, which sends the visitor to your website.
- You pay the platform a low minimum fee.
In other words, it can be referred to as a way of buying user-clicks rather than earning those visits organically. It’s simple math: businesses make money with pay-per-click as it brings the traffic to the website.
PPC marketing is effective for a business for many reasons:
- It helps build brand awareness. According to Google, PPC ads help increase brand awareness by 80%.
- It helps the brand generate leads.
- It helps increase website traffic.
- It helps increase customer queries. According to a study, about 69% of the searches for local businesses result in customers contacting those businesses by calling them.
One of the examples of PPC that you might recognize is the sponsored ads every time you search for something on Google.
PPC vs. CPC – What’s the Difference?
Another acronym that we often hear when discussing PPC is CPC. PPC (pay-per-click) and CPC (cost-per-click) are two sides of the same coin. PPC is broad in the sense that it is a marketing approach, while CPC is a performance metric. The words, however, are often used interchangeably.
There are some differences between the two, explained further below:
PPC: In a nutshell, it is an extremely essential component of a business’s paid marketing strategy that can generate leads, increase site traffic, build brand awareness, and a lot more. PPC campaigns can expose your business to a large audience. Once the campaign is live, it allows your brand to appear in SERPs.
CPC: It measures the cost-per-click of your pay-per-click advertisement. To ensure that your CPC advertising is effective, it is vital to measure the efficiency of your campaign after the ads are up and running.
To calculate the cost-per-click, the following formula can be used:
(Total Money Spent) / (Total Measured Clicks) = Cost Per Click
PPC vs. CPC – Example
For example, if you paid $1,000 for your PPC ad campaign and received 1,000 clicks, your business is thus spending $1 per click.
What are the benefits of PPC?
Especially after the pandemic, customers have been spending more of their time online, yet brands want to tighten their marketing budgets.
As a business, you can turn to pay-per-click advertising to put your brand in front of internet users. Thus, with PPC, you don’t have to spend any of your budgets on estimated impressions; you only have to pay for the traffic the ads generate. PPC advertising is a fantastic option for brands who want to have total control of their budget and performance.
So, now that you know what does PPC stand for and its meaning, let’s dive into some of the benefits of pay-per-click ads and how it can help your business thrive:
1) Pay-per-Click Ads are Cost-Effective
With PPC advertising campaigns, you can easily control how much you want to spend.
With other forms of advertisements, you have to pay for a campaign even if it does not generate any leads. One of the most significant advantages of PPC is that you only have to pay when users click the link leading to your website. According to statistics, approximately 7 million marketers spend about 10 billion dollars on PPC altogether.
Since the visitors click on your website, there is a higher chance of conversions. Thus, you can easily make money with pay-per-click campaigns.
2) Pay-per-Click Ads Help Your Business Reach the Right Audience
It is essential for every business to bring its products or services in front of the audience that the business wants to target.
A PPC campaign can help your business generate quality leads and help you beat the market competition.
With PPC ads, you can:
- Target customers that are ready to buy your products/services.
- Bid on keywords that customers would search for online.
- Use target options such as demographics, geographics, or past online activities. According to research, businesses that target customers geographically by using pay-per-click ads increase in-store visits by 107%.
- Create retargeting campaigns to target users who did not purchase after browsing your website.
3) Pay-per-Click Ads Produce Fast and Measurable Results
Sure, SEO is essential for a business, but it can take several months or even years to get your business on the first search engine result pages. However, ending up on the first page of SERPS as a small business is highly unlikely if you’re competing with industry giants.
According to statistics, more than 40,000 searches are processed through Google every second. Thus, if you are a small business or a startup company, you likely don’t have the time to wait for the organic traffic. That is precisely why you need PPC advertisements!
With pay-per-click ads, you can appear on the top of the SERPs within a few hours of launching your PPC campaign.
4) You can Test and Control Pay-per-Click Ads
With A/B testing, you can test different advertisements to identify which one is producing the highest ROI. Other than that, you can also easily control the keywords that you are targeting, the budget, and ad placement.
5) Pay-per-Click Ads Do Not Depend on Algorithm Changes
With several changes in the Google algorithm every few days, getting organic traffic from search engines is quite tricky.
With pay-per-click ads, you don’t have to worry much about search engine algorithm changes. Instead, you can focus on how your current campaigns are performing based on the metrics.
6) Pay-per-Click User Data Can Help Improve your Organic Ranking
With paid ads, you can get a complete overview of the keywords that convert and their cost.
With this keyword data, you can optimize your website’s content, meta descriptions, titles, headings, and URLs.
7) Pay-per-Click Ads Are Simple to Produce
One of the best things about PPC advertisements is that they don’t require you to possess hefty production skills or hire a graphic designer.
The campaigns are straightforward to set up. The ads are also accessible for every brand. Not only that, but the ads also make it easier for customers to find the products they are looking for. According to a study, about 75% of the users who click on pay-per-click ads say that the ads make the products/services they are looking for easier to find.
Different online platforms or your PPC consultants can also walk you through the process of creating an efficient PPC advertising campaign.
What is PPC Management?
Paid marketing requires constant monitoring and management to ensure that your campaign is getting optimal results. PPC management includes a wide range of techniques, including adjusting current goals, creating new plans, A/B testing, introducing new relevant keywords, and optimizing conversion paths.
PPC management includes looking at your paid strategy and ad budget. On the one hand, it means repeatedly checking keyword effectiveness. On the other hand, it includes allocating your PPC budget to specific keywords and maximizing the ROI by adjusting those resources.
Overall, PPC management is a hefty task, which is why hiring a quality PPC management company could be a great idea.
If you decide to hire a PPC management company, they will also pay attention to search engines, ad networks, and social platforms. Other than that, the company will also monitor updates and changes that might affect your paid campaign.
Why Should I Hire a PPC Advertising Company?
Pay-per-Click advertising is continuously changing and evolving. What worked a year ago may not work anymore for your business.
As a business, you probably have a hundred things you need to do and cannot spend your valuable time deciphering the changing world of digital marketing. Instead, you probably want to focus on keeping your brand afloat.
Here are some of the things that you need to look for when hiring a PPC consultant:
- A PPC advertising company that is up-to-date with the latest features.
- A PPC advertising company that is aware of the ways of reaching your target customers digitally.
- A PPC consultant that has years of experience.
- A PPC management company that provides insights into search engines and social advertising.
Now that the basics are out of the way, let’s dive into crafting a quality PPC campaign.
Build a Perfect PPC Campaign
Step 1: Set Goals
For a successful PPC campaign, your ad campaign needs to be in line with your business goals. Think about what you want to accomplish with your campaigns, such as website visits, sales, brand awareness, or something else.
Following are some of the common goals that your PPC ad campaign must encompass:
Brand Awareness
Brand awareness is the extent to which your target audience is familiar with your company. When customers come across your brand name, logo, slogan, jingle, or packaging, they should be able to recognize or recall your brand. You can measure your business’s brand awareness through surveys, engagement, and direct traffic to your website.
Lead generation
Lead generation is the process of finding users who are likely to become your customers in the future or immediately.
You can create a separate landing page for every ad group and track your brand’s lead generation through different tools. Sales can also be measured by how much of your product or service has been sold.
Words such as buy-one-get-one-free, deals, sales, discounts, and clearance are buzzwords to increase the attention span of customers to check out your products or services. You should create a separate sign-up page to know which users came from your PPC ad.
Website Traffic
If your website has high-quality content, increasing website traffic can prove to be an excellent goal for your business. If you are spending money, ensure that you are confident enough that you can grab the users’ attention through your website and eventually convert them into leads
Step 2: Do Keyword Research
Targeting the right keywords is one of the most critical factors for your campaign strategy; thus, you need to conduct extensive keyword research. You have to ensure that you pick keywords that people are actually searching for, but the keywords also need to be specific to your business’s products or services.
There are several paid and unpaid tools that can help you perform an in-depth analysis on keywords, such as Google Trends, SEMRush, Ahrefs, etc. Using keyword tools can help you with the following:
- Find out what keywords your competitors are using.
- Understand the market.
- Help you plan your strategy to target the best-performing keywords.
You can end up losing a lot of money on clicks if you don’t bid on the right keywords. When performing keyword research, it is essential for you to know the keyword types, and it will help you target the right keywords.
Following are the types of keywords:
1) Broad Match Keywords
Broad match keywords help show your PPC ads to the users even if they
- Misspelled your keywords.
- Used the plural form of that keyword.
- Used synonyms of that keyword.
- Used close variations of the keywords.
For example, if your broad keyword is Women’s Jewelry, your ad will appear for queries like Women Jewelry, Women’s Jewellery, Women Jewellery, Women’s Ornaments, etc.
2)Phrase Match Keywords
Phrase match keywords show your ads to the users who use exactly the same phrase as the search query.
For example: If your phrase match keyword is Women’s Jewelry, your ad will only pop up for search queries like Women’s Jewelry Online, Women’s Jewelry Silver, etc.
3)Broad Match Modifier Keyword
Broad match modifier keyword is a mix of broad match and phrase match keywords. Unlike broad match keywords, it won’t show your ads if users misspell your keywords. However, one of the advantages is that the keyword phrase doesn’t have to be precisely the same. Even if the users include some words in the middle of the phrase, your ad will still pop up.
4)Exact Match
The PPC ad will only show up to users if they type in the exact same word that you mentioned as a keyword.
5)Negative Keywords
If you don’t want your business to show up for a particular keyword, you can add that word to the negative keywords list.
Step 3: Pick Your Campaign Type
There are several types of PPC campaigns, and the one you pick depends on where you can reach your target audience. The types of PPC campaigns are listed below:
Search Ads: They are known as the most common type of PPC. Search ads are text advertisements that show up on SERPs when you google a query.
Display Ads: Display ads allow you to place ads, mostly image-based, on websites.
Social Ads: These refer to the ads you see on social platforms, such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn. As a business, you can pay to show up on your target market’s timeline or somewhere else, depending on the chosen platform.
Retargeting Ads: These are cookie-based PPC ads that let you target individuals who have previously interacted with your brand.
Google Shopping Ads: It allows you to create a carousel ad on a search page based on the keywords that you have selected. Your PPC carousel ad can contain images, prices, and a short description.
Step 4: Align your Budget with your Business Goals:
After completing the above steps, thoroughly analyze the relevant PPC platforms and know your advertising CPC (cost-per-click) for the different PPC ad types.
To know how to split your marketing budget, be sure to check
Reach: Check the platforms that provide you with an accurate audience split. Other than that, check which platform has the highest conversion rate.
Frequency control: Check how much power you will have over the distribution of your content.
Quality of Users: Check how many relevant users will be able to see your ad on each platform. Keep in mind the platform that your target market uses the most.
You can use this information to allocate your budget efficiently and get the maximum value with minimum spending.
Step 5: Set your budget and Advertising CPC
Two figures are incredibly vital for your paid search campaign:
- Your budget, which is calculated on the overall campaign level.
- Your cost-per-click, which is calculated on a keyword/ad group level.
Your budget is the maximum amount your business is willing to spend on a campaign in a month. The cost-per-click is the maximum amount your business is willing to pay for a single click.
Step 6: Create Campaigns and Ad Groups
Following are the steps that you need to perform to get your PPC campaign up and running:
- Create an account.
- Choose the keywords and create an ad campaign, ad groups, ad text, and a landing page.
- Set the budget.
- Define your goals.
Use the most valuable keywords whenever you are planning on running your campaign. For example, if you are offering female hygiene products and want to run a campaign for a sanitary napkin, you have three ad groups:
Maxi Thick Pads
Thin Pads
Extra Thin Pads
To ensure that your ad ranks for the variations of every keyword, you need to create ad groups that include different variations. For example,
Women Maxi Thick Pads
Thick Pads Maxi
Thick Maxi Pads
5 PPC Tools and Softwares You Need to Know
A powerful PPC tool will make things easier for your business. The PPC tools we have listed have been used by several companies and have helped them reach new customers, create a better reputation in the eyes of their consumers, and boost sales.
Some of the essential features that you need to look for in PPC software are:
- Multi-user Support
- Scheduling
- Reporting
- Cross-platform Management
- A/B Testing
- Ad grading
Some of the most popular PPC tools are listed below:
1. SEMRush:
SEMRush has a collection of tools that will not only help you out in PPC ads but also in SEO, market research, and content marketing.
This high-quality tool can help you with one of the most critical parts of your PPC advertising campaign, i.e., keywords. With SEMRush, you will be able to:
Perform keyword research
Manage your keyword lists
Optimize your keywords list
Create a list of negative keywords
Visit SEMRush.
2. HubSpot
HubSpot provides an integrated platform with several features, such as
- Content management
- Lead management
- Analytics
- Search engine optimization
- Social media monitoring
- Pay-per-click advertising
With HubSpot’s robust template, you can
Monitor your PPC campaign
Manage your PPC campaign
Track your ad groups
Track keywords
Conduct A/B testing
Visit HubSpot.
3. Unbounce
It is a PPC conversion optimization platform, mainly used by marketers to build
Landing pages, i.e., pages dedicated to a single goal.
Overlays, i.e., targeted calls-to-action launched on web pages.
The pages can be entirely created from scratch. Unbounce also provides users with over 125+ templates to choose from. All the templates are mobile-friendly.
Visit Unbounce.
4. Ahrefs
Ahrefs is a paid tool used by thousands of PPC Professionals.
Following are some of the features provided by Ahrefs:
- Keyword research
- Paid keywords
- Keyword explorer
- Allows you to spy on your competitors’ SEO strategy (keywords, content gap, etc.)
- Site audit
- Calendar view
- Allows you to keep an eye on your ranking progress
Visit Ahrefs.
5. Microsoft Advertising Editor
Previously known as Bing Ad Editor, Microsoft Advertising Editor is a PPC ads management tool that allows you to run advertisements through Bing. With Microsoft Advertising Editor, you can
- Create ads.
- Manage your bids.
- Research keywords.
- Make changes to your PPC ads.
One of the best things about this tool is that there is much less competition as the ad goes live on Bing, AOL sites, Yahoo, and their partner sites. Other than that, the PPC ads on Microsoft Advertising Editor are easy to set up and are low-cost.
Visit Microsoft Advertising Editor.
Take Away
Whether you have just started your business or have been in the industry for a long time, PPC is an effective tool to boost your sales. It might also provide you with a competitive edge by helping you stay ahead of the competitors in the SERPs. So, what are you waiting for? Start planning your PPC Campaign today!