Your brand has the potential to connect with millions of people globally in just a few minutes using pay-per-click marketing. This method has an amazing reach and lets you target specific groups effectively.
When done right, PPC marketing can bring significant returns for your business. However, if not managed properly, it can also be a huge waste of money.
So, what exactly is PPC marketing? And how can you use it effectively?
ScaleStation is here to answer these questions. Here’s a simple introduction to PPC marketing for beginners to ensure you get it right.
What is PPC?
Pay-per-click advertising lets you pay to have your website or webpages show up on search engine results pages when people search for certain phrases or keywords.
When someone types in these keywords, the search engine displays your ads, directing visitors to your site. You only have to pay a specific amount of money when someone clicks on your ad.
Why Is PPC Important?
Pay-per-click advertising can help you attract new customers and grow your business. It brings visibility to your brand and directs specific set of audiences to important pages that support your business goals.
Let’s dive into why PPC Services are so valuable:
#1 Effective Targeting With Pay-Per-Click Advertising
PPC ads let you reach very specific audiences using precise targeting criteria. This way, you can communicate with the right people and avoid wasting money on irrelevant clicks.
The targeting options vary by platform. For example, Google Search offers different targeting options than Facebook.
#2 PPC Ads Deliver Quick Results
With pay-per-click advertising, you can start attracting traffic the same day your campaign begins. This is much faster than search engine optimisation (SEO), which can take months to show results.
#3 PPC Ads Are Budget-Friendly
PPC solutions offer budget control. You have complete control over the campaign and decide how much you want to spend in total and per click. Additionally, you only have to pay when someone clicks on your ad.
Combined with effective targeting, this means you can reach a relevant audience at a cost that works for you.
#4 PPC Marketing is Easy to Monitor and Track
Pay-per-click marketing offers more data and analysis than traditional marketing methods. This makes it easy to see how well your ads are performing.
Unlike billboards or magazine ads, where you never know how many people saw them, PPC lets you track exactly how many people clicked on your ad and what actions they took next, such as making a purchase.
#5 Pay-Per-Click Is Simple to Manage and Adjust
Managing a PPC campaign is straightforward. You can set and adjust the maximum cost-per-click, allocate budgets, and tweak your strategy as needed.
This control allows you to optimise your campaign quickly. For example, you can increase the budget for successful ads and modify or pause those that aren't performing well.
#6 PPC Ads Boost Brand Awareness for Free
PPC marketing not only generates clicks and conversions but also enhances brand visibility.
Even if users don’t click on your ads, they still see your brand and message. The best part is you only pay if they click, so many people can see your brand without costing you anything.
#7 PPC Marketing Works Well with SEO
Pay-per-click marketing and SEO work hand in hand. Running both simultaneously can help you occupy more space on search engine results pages, likely driving more traffic and sales.
While SEO focuses on organic search rankings, PPC provides immediate visibility, making it a powerful combination.
How Does PPC Advertising Work?
The process of pay-per-click advertising is quite straightforward:
- Create an Account: Sign up for an advertising account with Google Ads or another platform where you want to run your ads.
- Target Your Audience: Choose who you want to target using keywords and other criteria like demographics.
- Set Your Budget: Decide your overall budget and how much you will pay for each click.
- Design Your Ads: Create the text and images/videos for your ads.
- Enter the Auction: Your ad enters an auction with other advertisers bidding on the same keywords or targeting criteria.
- Auction Results: Wait for the auction to determine whose ads will be shown and in what position.
- Pay for Clicks: You only pay when someone clicks on your ad.
There are various platforms, ad formats, and strategies, but these main principles are consistent across the board, highlighting the importance of PPC for your marketing efforts.
What Are The Types Of PPC Ads?
When you start a pay-per-click marketing campaign, you can choose from various ad formats, depending on the platform you're using.
#1 Search Ads
Search ads are shown on SERP, like Google, when users look for information.
These ads come up when users search for specific keywords. This makes search ads highly effective in targeting the right audience.
#2 Display Ads
Display ads can be banner or image ads that are displayed on various websites within the Google Display Network and other partner sites. These ads can show up anywhere at the top, bottom, side, or anywhere else on a webpage.
#3 Video Ads
Video ads are shown on websites and video platforms like YouTube. There are different types of video ads, with a common one being pre-roll ads that play before the main video the user wants to watch.
#4 Remarketing Ads
Remarketing, or retargeting, lets businesses show ads to users who have used their mobile app or visited their website previously. These ads appear as users browse other websites or use apps, reminding them of the business and encouraging them to return.
#5 Sponsored Social Ads
Sponsored social media ads work like search ads, allowing you to add content and set ad parameters before launching your campaign. Each social media platform (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc.) offers specific ad options and native analytics to measure performance.
What Are The Top PPC Advertising Platforms?
Now that you know the basics of pay-per-click advertising, you might wonder where to place your ads.
There are many platforms where you can spend your ad money, and the best way to choose is to evaluate each platform's potential return on investment (ROI).
The most popular platforms are effective because they’re user-friendly and attract a lot of traffic. However, you might want to consider lesser-known alternatives if you have a smaller budget.
Here are some top PPC platforms to consider:
#1 Google Ads (formerly known as AdWords)
How often do you hear someone say, "let me Google that?" Probably more times than you can count. This is why Google Ads is the leader in pay-per-click advertising. With Google processing more than 99,000 search queries every second, you have countless opportunities to target keywords that will get your audience to click.
The downside is that keywords are very competitive on this platform, which means you'll need a larger budget for your ads.
Best for: Since Google remains the most popular search engine, Google Ads service is an excellent choice for any marketer wanting to reach a large audience.
#2 YouTube Ads
YouTube ads lets businesses promote their products or services on the YouTube platform. These ads come in various formats:
- Skippable video ads: Viewers can skip these ads after five seconds, and they can be up to 60 seconds long.
- Non-skippable video ads: Viewers must watch these ads entirely before the main video starts, usually up to 15 seconds long.
- Bumper ads: These are very short, non-skippable ads that are six seconds or less.
- Sponsored cards: Small cards appear on the video screen with additional information about the product or service.
- Overlay ads: Semi-transparent ads appear at the bottom of the video.
YouTube ads can be bought on a cost-per-view (CPV) or cost-per-click (CPC) basis, meaning you pay when a person views or clicks on your ad. This makes YouTube a versatile platform for pay-per-click marketing.
#3 Bing Ads
Bing is the second-largest search engine, and it offers its own advertising program. Interestingly, 61% of Bing searches are branded queries.
This means that if you run a PPC campaign on Bing targeting specific keywords related to your brand, your ads are more likely to reach the right audience.
Bing Ads is ideal for marketers with a smaller budget. The advantage of using Bing Ads over Google Ads is a slightly lower cost-per-click (CPC), but it comes with the trade-off of a smaller audience.
#4 Facebook Ads
Facebook ads let businesses promote their products or services on the Facebook platform. These ads can appear on the news feeds, the Stories section on mobile, and the right-hand column of the desktop site.
Here are the types of Facebook ads:
- Image and video ads: These feature a single image or video, a short headline, and a call-to-action button.
- Carousel ads: These let businesses show multiple images or videos in one ad. Users can scroll through them to learn more about the products or services.
- Slideshow ads: These create a video-like experience using several still images.
- Instant Experience ads: These offer immersive, full-screen experiences within the Facebook app.
- Collection ads: These showcase multiple products in one ad. A link is also attached to the ad that allows a full-screen view of the products.
#5 LinkedIn Ads
LinkedIn Ads enable you to reach 900 million users on the leading professional networking platform. With LinkedIn's advanced targeting options, such as job title, employer, industry, and professional skills, it’s perfect for B2B marketing.
#6 TikTok Ads
TikTok, known for its short-form videos, is an excellent platform to engage a younger, active audience with TikTok Ads. This platform offers various ad formats, including branded hashtags and in-feed ads.
#7 Instagram Ads
Instagram Ads help businesses promote their products or services on the platform. These ads are displayed as sponsored posts in users’ feeds and resemble regular posts.
Instagram offers different ad formats:
- Photo ads: Use a single image to highlight a product or service.
- Video ads: Utilise short videos to promote a product or service.
- Carousel ads: These show various images or videos in one ad. Users have to swipe through them to see.
- Stories ads: These advertisements appear in the Stories category and vanish after 24 hours.
- IGTV ads: Show up before an IGTV video starts playing.
How Does PPC Work in Google Ads?
With Google Ads service, advertisers create ads by selecting a set of keywords they want to target and placing bids on each keyword. For instance, if you bid on the keyword "online courses," you're telling Google to display your ad for searches related to online courses.
Google uses a formula and an auction process to determine which ads appear for a search. When your ad enters the auction, Google assigns it a Quality Score from 1 to 10 based on its relevance to the keyword, expected click-through rate, and landing page quality.
Google then multiplies your Quality Score by your maximum bid (the highest amount you’re willing to pay per click) to calculate your Ad Rank. Ads having the highest Ad Rank scores are the ones that get displayed.
This auction-style system allows advertisers to reach customers at a cost that fits their budget, highlighting one of the key benefits of PPC.
How to Do PPC Keyword Research?
Keyword research for PPC can take a lot of time, but it's essential. Your entire PPC campaign relies on keywords, and the most successful advertisers in Google Ads continuously expand and refine their keyword lists. If you only research keywords once when setting up your first campaign, you might miss out on many valuable, low-cost, long-tail, and highly relevant keywords that could bring traffic to your site.
For an effective PPC keyword list, you should aim for:
- Relevance: Make sure that the keywords you bid on are closely related to your products or services. You don't want to pay for clicks that won’t convert into customers.
- Exhaustiveness: Include the most popular and frequently searched terms in your niche and long-tail keywords. These are more specific and less common, making up most search-driven traffic. They are also less competitive and cheaper.
- Expansiveness: PPC is an ongoing process. Constantly refine and expand your campaigns to create an environment where your keyword list grows and adapts over time.
Understanding the benefits of PPC and the importance of PPC keyword research can significantly enhance your campaign's effectiveness.
How To Manage Your PPC Campaigns?
After setting up your campaigns, regular management is crucial to ensure they remain effective. Consistent activity is a key factor in account success. Here’s how to optimise your campaigns:
- Continuously add PPC keywords: Expand your campaign's reach by adding relevant keywords to your business.
- Add negative keywords: Improve campaign relevance and reduce wasted spend by adding non-converting terms as negative keywords.
- Review costly PPC keywords: Analyse expensive, under-performing keywords and disable them if necessary.
- Refine landing pages: Update the content and calls-to-action on your landing pages to match specific search queries, boosting conversion rates.
- Split ad groups: Divide ad groups into smaller, more relevant segments to enhance click-through rate (CTR) and quality score, allowing for more targeted ad text and landing pages.
How to Get Started with PPC with ScaleStation
Getting started with pay-per-click marketing isn’t too hard, but it does require some understanding of the process. Thorough planning and research are also necessary to ensure the best return on investment (ROI).
Here’s how ScaleStation can help:
- Optimise Your Landing Pages: Before launching any campaigns, we ensure your landing pages are optimised to convert visitors into customers.
- Set Budgets and Bidding Strategies: We help you set a budget that works for you and choose the right bidding strategy to maximise your ROI.
- Keyword Research: Our team conducts detailed keyword research to find your business's most relevant and cost-effective keywords.
- Create Effective Ads: We craft compelling ads that bring clicks and drive traffic to your site.
- Ongoing Management: Once your ad is live, we continuously track, measure, test, and tweak it to ensure your PPC efforts yield the traffic, conversions, and leads you deserve.
Understanding the benefits of PPC and the importance of PPC management, ScaleStation is here to guide you through every step, making sure your campaigns are successful and cost-effective.
