A general practitioner is not who you would go to when you need a heart transplant. If you want to keep your business alive, you shouldn’t settle for anything less than a PPC professional when it comes to running your PPC campaign. -Stuart Atkins
PPC (pay per click) marketing is also known as SEM (search engine marketing), and it’s not something “just everyone” understands. At its most basic level, PPC is advertising that you pay for only when internet visitors click on your ad. That sounds like a reasonable investment, right? How can you lose when you only pay for what works?
“There are just too many ways to lose money when you venture into online advertising without professional guidance,” says Inc. Magazine. If PPC marketing is part of your 2019 business strategy, learn as much as possible, because knowledge indeed is power.
Why Do Companies Use PPC?
There are many reasons why companies should use PPC marketing, especially small-to mid-size businesses. When it’s done right, PPC can:
- Convert shoppers to buyers
- Cultivate brand awareness
- Drive profit
- Optimize sales and marketing campaigns
- Reach your target audience
- Generate phone calls
- Encourage form submissions
How PPC Works
There’s more to PPC than your Marketing 101 class taught. PPC advertising elements include:
Campaign – You develop the campaign concept. Your PPC advertising will support a specific campaign and appeal to one or more demographics.
Ad groups – Following campaign identification and development, you develop the ads. Let’s say your campaign is for the month of February. Some of your ads will target “love,” and others will target “sweet gifts.”
Keywords – Your ad groups’ keywords are important, and Google uses keyword relevance when choosing which ads are seen first. Based on your February campaign, you might want to use “candy in Phoenix” or “Valentine’s gifts.”
Landing page – When people see, then click on your ad, the page to which they are routed is your “landing page.” It’s from there they will either purchase the item or begin researching (navigating) your website.
PPC takes time and patience to develop for maximum ROI (return on investment). Each of these elements deserves careful design by your PPC professionals.
Appearances Can Be Deceiving
It’s much easier to double your business by doubling your conversion rate than by doubling your traffic. –Jeff Eisenberg
PPC is the tip of a Titanic-sized iceberg. An effective PPC campaign can have new and loyal customers putting in an appearance, but keeping them and converting them is critical. And it all goes back to your conversion rate. If your conversion rate is good, you’re doing it right. If not…
PPC and SEO (search engine optimization) are married. In order for SEO to fulfill its end of the partnership, your PPC professionals will use heading tags, meta tags, title tags… and your search engine should respond accordingly. These tags and titles should explain what is being offered at a glance.
Content is a way to maximize SEO. It provides visitors with relevant information and can lead to faster conversions. Your customers feel good about you and themselves when they can make knowledge-based decisions.
Once PPC gets them there, keep them there with a good user experience. Your website should be organized, simple, and fast. Your visitors should be able to work at their own speed – crawl, walk, or run – and convert accordingly. Assume every website visitor has ADD, because, to them, more than 10 seconds feels like an eternity.
Purchasing should be easy. Too many times, customers will run away from the circus if they have to jump through too many hoops. Gather the information you need for future campaigns and targeted advertising quickly.
Many social media platforms offer the PPC model; Facebook’s PPC is low-cost and can realize good returns. Bing offers a hybrid PPC tool very similar to Google Ads. It can run at the same time as Google Ads, is half the cost per click of Google, and is a great compliment to your Google Ads campaigns. Google is not the only game in town, but it’s the most effective and certainly the most popular.
Customized PPC Campaigns
Your small-to mid-size business has its own unique space in global marketing. Many marketing companies offer a PPC service. Atkins Marketing Solutions develops a PPC model that is customized to work for you. Call 714.904.4453 today to discuss your marketing strategy with a qualified professional.
Stuart Atkins
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