Let’s be honest with each other, marketers. To what extent do you comprehend the world of commercial advertising?
Pay-per-click advertising is still a concept that many small businesses are unaware of, even though 45% of them do some form of online advertising.
PPC is a skill that every marketer should have in their tool belt. Even if you don’t plan on using it yourself, you should at least have a basic understanding of how it works.
This guide will give you a complete understanding of pay-per-click marketing. We’ll start with the benefits of paid advertising, followed by key definitions you need to know.
What is PPC?
PPC is a type of advertising where you pay to have your website show up as a result when someone searches for specific keywords or phrases on a search engine. The ads you create will be displayed on the SERP, and you will be charged based on whether people click on your ad.
When done right, PPC can earn you quality leads. If you create a user journey that flows smoothly, it could result in a significant return on your PPC investment.
Advertising that you pay for every time someone clicks on it is most common on search engines, but can also be found on social media platforms.
Benefits of PPC
1. PPC ads are cost-effective.
PPC ad campaigns allow you to set a budget for how much you’re willing to spend.
This means of advertising is only charged when visitors click on the link to your website or landing page, which has a high chance of conversion. You will be getting a good return on your investment.
2. PPC ads produce fast results.
Getting organic ranking on SERPs can be great, but it can sometimes take a long time to get on the first page.
If you own a startup or small business, you are probably too busy to wait around for organic, social, or direct traffic to have an effect.
That’s where PPC ads come in.
PPC ads that are optimized can help you improve your ranking on the search engine results page (SERP) quickly after you launch your campaign.
3. You can easily control and test PPC ads.
You can control the keywords you want to target, where your ad appears, and how much you’re willing to spend on your ad campaign with PPC ads. A/B split tests allow you to compare two different versions of an ad to see which one performs better. This can help you identify which ad is more effective and has a higher return on investment. You can then increase the size of the ads that are doing well until it is no longer effective.
4. PPC ads allow you to target your ideal customers.
PPC ads allow you to target an audience that is already interested in your products and services, rather than trying to reach a cold audience.
You can bid on key words that people who are aware of solutions would search for online. PPC ads frequently offer targeting options like past online activity or demographics in addition to keywords.
You can create a campaign that targets people who didn’t buy something from you after they landed on your site.
5. PPC ads help you rank even with low domain ratings.
Keywords have become increasingly competitive. It is harder for businesses with a low domain authority to get high rankings on a search engine or in front of its target audience on a social platform.
PPC advertising allows you to rank quickly for keywords your audience is searching, without worrying about your domain ratings.
Steps to Create Your First PPC Marketing Campaign
1. Have a Specific Goal
It is essential to set goals when allocating a budget for a PPC marketing campaign in order to make the most of the money available.
This first detail ensures that your PPC goals are in line with your current marketing goals. For example, if your goal for 2022 is to drive traffic to your website, your pay-per-click goal should be the same.
Your paid ad marketing efforts shouldn’t get in the way of your current SEO efforts. Likely, you are already obtaining some organic traffic from certain keywords.
You should not include keywords that are already doing well organically on your PPC keyword list in order to avoid wasting your online advertising budget.
To identify goals, you need to specify KPIs. You can use these factors to help create a PPC strategy that will result in more conversions.
If your goal is to increase the number of leads in Q2 of 2022, some KPIs you could use to measure your progress could be the number of conversions that are sales qualified earned from a paid online ad.
Set PPC goals that are in line with your organization’s marketing and SEO strategy. Having specific goals will help you measure and improve your performance.
2. Create a Clear Buyer Persona
You cannot market to your target consumers unless you understand them. To successfully market to someone, you need to be aware of what they are struggling with (pain points), what they desire (wants), who they are as a person (demographics), how they typically shop (shopping habits), and the language they use when they are searching for something (search terms).
Without a clear buyer persona, it will be difficult to create targeted content.
A buyer persona is a representation of your ideal customer, created by combining data with educated assumptions.
There are two reasons why it is important to have a clear buyer persona when launching a PPC marketing campaign.
When you are submitting your ad for review, it will be easier for you to specify the target audience.
Simplified: It will also help you choose the most suitable ad format, which will greatly increase your chances of reaching and converting your target market.
You should create a buyer persona if you don’t have one already. Here are some things to keep in mind when creating your buyer personas:
- Segment and analyze your existing customers
- Run an interview or surveys
- Use customer feedback from reviews and customer support requests
- Speak with your customer-facing teams
- Create your personas using templates to ensure your buyer insights are easy to understand and recognize.
- Share your personas across the entire organization
- Focus on those buyer personas that present the most value for your business
- Never stop observing and updating your personas
When you know who your target audience is, you can continue to the next step.
3. Set Your KPIs
KPIs are metrics used to measure the performance and progress of campaigns. This is why it’s important to check that you’re getting an accurate return on your PPC campaign investment.
You can use Google Analytics to create goals that connect with your Google Ads by setting PPC KPIs. With this campaign performance tool, you can see how your campaign is doing and make sure the data you’re using is correct from the beginning.
When deciding which KPIs to track, it is important to be clear about what you are trying to achieve with the campaign.
Suppose you want to create a campaign to raise brand awareness or distribute information about a new service or solution. If that is the case, you should focus on direct clicks rather than conversions.
There are a few standard PPC marketing KPIs that can help you understand what to focus on when considering your campaign.
- Clickthrough rate (CTR)
- Cost per click
- Cost per conversion
- Conversion rate
Having benchmarks to compare your results to allows you to measure the success of your campaigns and understand their strengths and weaknesses. You can build a plan to help ensure your goals are met.
4. Choose Your Keywords Carefully
For each ad group you create, you need to select a set of keywords to target. This is how search engines determine when and where to display your ad. Keywords are important for ad campaigns because they help to determine the Quality Score. It is best to select between one and five keywords that are relevant to the campaign.
Find words that relate to the specific topic of your advertising group. You should create an individual ad group for keywords that are not aligned on one theme.
When choosing keywords, it is not necessary to be committed to the first ones you select. Instead of assuming that your keyword list is performing well, you should closely observe its performance throughout your campaign. You can save money by choosing keywords that will lead to the results you want.
5. Set Your PPC Marketing Budget
Since you can’t run your business on an unlimited budget, you’ll need to remove any keywords that are too expensive or not worth the cost.
It’s time to start your PPC campaign now that you have your keywords selected. However, you can’t run a PPC campaign if you don’t have a set budget, and you’ll need to remove any keywords that aren’t worth the cost from your price coverage.
The CPC for each provided keyword should be set as high as possible to avoid overspending.
6. Choose the Right Ad Format
There are many different types of ad formats, but the most common type is the ad extension. Creating a strong ad that stands out from the rest is a great way to attract consumers and get them to click on your link.
You can use Extensions to include more information in your ads. This additional information will appear when someone does a related search.
Here are some types of ad extensions that you can use on your PPC marketing ads:
- site link extensions allowing you to have more than one link;
- call extensions for a mobile number;
- price extensions;
- app extensions will enable you to link directly to a mobile app;
- location extensions for businesses with a physical store, and
- structured snippet extensions to highlight specific factors or features of your product or service.
This online handbag store uses site link extensions to direct potential customers to site content they are looking for.
One of the best ways to convert consumers into leads is to make it easier for them to search. If your website is easy to use and navigate, visitors will spend more time on it and are more likely to make a purchase.
This online handbag store gives potential customers the option to click on links that will take them directly to the page they are looking for.
An easy search process for consumers is one of the most effective ways to generate leads through PPC. If your site visitors can easily find the information they need, they will be more likely to stay on your site longer and make a purchase.
7. Choose Your Campaign Type
You need to know not only where you’ll advertise, but also how you’ll advertise. The type of paid advertising campaign you choose should be based on where you can reach your target audience. This means that you can advertise through various means and that you should try a combination of campaign types and revise them often.
The most common type of PPC ad is the search ad, which is a text ad that appears on a search engine results page.
You can place ads on external websites, including social media, using Display Ads. There are several ways to buy display ads, including Google Display Network (GDN) and other ad networks. You can also buy ad space on websites directly, which is known as buying direct or programmatic direct.
integrate Display Ads into your inbound marketing plan.
Socialmedia includes Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and Instagram. Any ads you see on these platforms are socialmedia. You can advertise on social media platforms so that your target audience will see your ad in their social feed or on their profile.
Remarketing involves targeting people who have previously engaged with your company, using either cookies or a list of contacts that you upload. The action of filling out a form, reading a blog, or visiting a page on a website could be considered an action.
Google Shopping is most effective for ecommerce sites. Your ad including image, price, and a short product description will be displayed on a carousel on a search page based on your target keywords.
8. Perform Keyword Research
When creating an ad group, you need to assign it a set of keywords so that search engines will know when and where to display your ad. Generally, it is best to choose 1-5 keywords per ad group. Quality Score is partially dependent on how relevant the chosen keywords are.
Use keywords that relate to the specific theme of your ad group. This will help to ensure that your ads are shown to people who are interested in what you are selling. If there are keywords you want to target that don’t fit into one theme, you should create a new ad group for them.
You’re not limited to the keywords you start with. This text is saying that you should pay close attention to the keywords you are using for your marketing campaign, and get rid of the ones that aren’t bringing in the type of customer you want. For the keywords that are working, you should bid higher. It’s okay if you’re not perfect when choosing keywords, just try to stay relevant.
9. Set Up Google Analytics and Tracking
There’s no reason not to install Google Analytics on your website since it’s free to use. This tool helps you see how well your website is doing, what kinds of things visitors are interested in, and what kinds of things are keeping them on your site. Google Analytics collects data that can be used to improve pay-per-click advertising campaigns and for other marketing purposes.
Go Paid!
Adding a PPC campaign to your marketing strategy could help you get ahead of your competition in the SERPs.
If you want to improve your website’s traffic and conversions, you should use the lessons in this guide to build a PPC campaign and follow the best practices for a quality PPC strategy.
Related posts:
