As you are currently reading this page there is a good chance that you have some understanding of what PPC is but I thought I would be useful to offer some clarity on the subject.
PPC stands for pay-per-click and it is a term used for any form of digital advertising when you are charged each time one of your adverts is clicked.
However, when people talk about PPC they are usually referring to adverts that appear on Google’s search engine result pages and are controlled by their advertising platform AdWords. It is important to remember that Bing also offers similar service called Bing Ads which is usually less expensive but offers far less potential in terms of visitor volume.
The amount that you pay for each click is determined by a number of factors including the quality of your advert, the quality of your landing page and the volume of other businesses competing to show for the same keywords.
PPC can also refer to some forms of display advertising that usually involves displaying a banner to specific audiences. This is usually far less effective than search engine advertising as it is more difficult to target potential customers who are ready to buy.
Why is PPC advertising on the search engines so effective?
Historically if you wanted to reach out to potential customers you often had to develop marketing campaigns that reached a wide audience and hope that you could convince a significant percentage of them to buy your product or service. Search engine marketing changed all this.
Pay-Per-Click Marketing is hugely effective as it can put you in front of your potential customers when they are actually looking for your product or service. After a decade working in digital marketing, I have not come across any other form of advertising that predictably allows you to achieve this.
If a PPC marketing campaign is researched, implemented and maintained by an experienced professional it can be an extremely effective way to channel your advertising spend and return on advertising spend can be effectively measured and improved upon on an ongoing basis.
What is the difference between SEO & PPC?
SEO stands for search engine optimisation and is a digital marketing strategy that is implemented with the aim that you will increase the likelihood that your website will rank well organically on the organic(free) search engine results.
Google has over 200 ranking factors to determine where a website will rank for any given search query, but this really boils down to 3 things, the technical quality of your website, the quality of the content and how popular your website appears to be. The popularity of a website is mainly measured by the quality and quantity of backlinks pointing to your website.
Over the years the volume of paid search results on the search engine result pages have increased dramatically, and although SEO can be effective in isolation, the results are less predictable and will normally longer to achieve compared to PPC.
Will PPC work for any business?
The short answer is no. PPC via the search engines generally only usually works well if there is a demand for the product or service. I generally will not work with businesses if I feel that PPC will not be an effective route to market for them.
One of the benefits of PPC is the flexibility available to you as an advertiser when deciding how much that you wish to pay to show on Google’s search engine result pages. The reason for this is that you are given control of your daily budget and the amount that you wish to spend to advertise for any particular keyword.
As the name suggests, pay-per-click means that you only ever pay when your advert is clicked. The amount that you have to pay to receive clicks is determined by a number of factors including your bid, levels of competition, quality of your adverts and the quality of your website. The key point is that you have control over the amount that you are willing to spend for each click.
As you are charged each time an advert is clicked, it is important that you only advertise on keywords that are actually going to result in a sale or a lead for your business.
Measuring success is an extremely important part of any PPC campaign. Once a carefully researched strategy is implemented, your campaigns need to be improved on an on-going basis to ensure that you are getting the best possible return on investment.
Campaign analysis is probably the most important part of your AdWords strategy as it allows you to make continuous improvements on an on-going basis. If, for example, I decided that I thought it was a sensible idea to bid on the keyword ‘PPC Glasgow‘, it is extremely important that I measure the impact of paying for clicks on the search term.
Using both Google AdWords reporting and Google Analytics, it is possible to understand the exact return on investment you are generating as a result of any given keyword. For businesses that purely operate online this process is fairly straightforward. However, if your business generates sales over the phone or via walk-ins, some additional work will likely be required to measure success.
Why choose me to manage your PPC?
If you currently have a website then it is likely that you are contacted constantly by people offering search engine marketing services. The reason for this is because anyone can easily claim that they are a PPC expert so it important to choose your consultant wisely. I’m happy to discuss the results that I’ve achieved and/or provide references.
I have worked with businesses of all shape and sizes including one of the UK’s largest car retailers, international e-commerce businesses but also small local businesses too. I also work with a number of digital agencies on a consultancy basis to help advise on digital strategy. Feel free to visit my LinkedIn page to see some of the feedback I’ve received from others that I have worked with closely in the past.
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