There’s no denying the importance of developing an effective digital marketing strategy for your business. In the digital era, virtual presence is vital. Thankfully, there are many different methods marketers can use these days to promote their products and services online. One of those advertising methods involves publishers getting paid by advertisers whenever the advertisements get clicked on. This method is known as pay-per-click (PPC) advertising, although it may be referred to as cost-per-click (CPC) model as well.
When used strategically, PPC can be a valuable and rather profitable tool in your business’ online advertising arsenal. In this article, we’ll be covering everything from what PPC is to the way it works to all the different benefits this online advertising method offers.
The definition of pay-per-click advertising
First things first, let’s look at the definition of the term ‘pay-per-click advertising’. Primarily offered by search engines such as Google and Bing, PPC ads are a type of ad where the advertiser pays a certain fee every time a user clicks on one of their ads. It’s pretty much an eBusiness growth hacking strategy. If you’ve ever performed a commercial search (search with an intent of buying a product/service) on one of these search engines, you came across PPC ads.
They’re typically displayed at the top of the Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs), but they can appear in the form of banners on websites as well. PPC can also be used on social media platforms such as Instagram, and they can appear in the Amazon Marketplace and YouTube videos, too.
How pay-per-click advertising works
A business that’s employing a pay-per-click advertising campaign aims to rank high on the SERPs. However, in order to achieve that, it needs to keep in mind ranking factors such as quality score and CTR that determine who wins the ad auction. Most importantly, a business needs to perform effective keyword research and analysis and invest in (bid on) the most relevant keywords. The more relevant the keywords, the higher the number of potential clicks and, consequently, profit.
These days, you can easily find experienced companies offering SEO and PPC services that you can rely on for in-depth keyword discovery along with ad creation and optimization. Partnering with a technology-focused team can make the keyword research process easier while also helping you eliminate keywords that aren’t helpful to your business goals. This can result in a powerful PPC approach while also ensuring that the campaign is cost-effective.
The multiple benefits of pay-per-click advertising method
When executed strategically, a pay-per-click advertising campaign can be rather lucrative. The more optimized the PPC is, the more cost-effective it is. Other than that, another major benefit of this approach to online advertising is that it gives your brand exposure while boosting its visibility. The click-through-rate (CTR) after using PPC tends to increase tremendously, and so do the conversion rates and sales revenue.
Pay-per-click advertising campaigns are also quite effective in helping brands reach highly-specific audiences, thus ensuring a more effective targeting. This, in turn, helps avoid wasting your ad budget since your message is getting to the right people. PPC ads can also help businesses drive fast results and they also ensure instant traffic. They are easily measurable and trackable, meaning you get a clear understanding of your campaign performance. Finally, PPC complements other digital marketing efforts including SEO, and running PPC and SEO campaigns together can ensure optimal results in terms of traffic and sales.
Who is PPC advertising beneficial for?
Last but not least, both large and small businesses can benefit from using this online advertising method. PPC is known as a budget-friendly option, meaning that businesses can easily integrate it into their digital marketing campaign regardless of how limited or extensive their resources are. It is a particularly attractive option for small businesses as it gives them complete control over their spending.
Not only does this help businesses spend their advertising budget wisely and attract the right people, but they also get to reduce ad spend waste. Other instances when businesses are a good match for pay-per-click advertising include carrying a vast array of products or offering hard-to-find products, businesses with high profit margins, and businesses with high customer lifetime values.
An optimized PPC campaign as a key to business growth
In order to get the most of your pay-per-click advertising campaign, you ought to know the best ways to utilize this effective online marketing tool. With a bit of know-how and, ideally, some help from the experts specializing in PPC advertising, you can get the insights and tools that will optimize the performance and effectiveness of your PPC campaigns.
Growing your business is something that simply cannot wait, and the sooner you make PPC campaigns a part of your digital marketing strategy, the sooner you’ll be able to reap the multitude of benefits pay-per-click advertising offers.