PPC or pay-per-click is an advertising method on which most online campaigns are based, such as Google Ads. The model is key to successfully running campaigns and understanding digital marketing. As preferred by many marketers it is an amazing way to generate traffic, increase sales, brand awareness, or anything. But before we talk about that, you want to know what is pay-per-click, so here it is.
What is Pay-Per-Click?
PPC or pay-per-click is a method in which you pay the search engine a small amount (fixed or determined by an auction) every time a user clicks on one of your ads and it sends them to your website. The idea of a pay-per-click campaign is to “buy visits” for a specific website and webpage when users click. The aim is mostly to generate a specific type of user action, such as registering or buying a product, for example.
When a campaign is well-organized and thought of it runs smoothly, the fee should not be high because the visit is worth more to you (for example a person who landed on your website will sign up for your services or buy your product) than you are paying for. For example, someone comes through PPC on your website and buys a product for 200$ but you have paid only $10 for his or her click. In this case that is one of the best ways to advertise since it is cheap and works great.
Advantages of Pay-Per-Click Campaigns
Pay-per-click marketing can work for almost any kind of business, whether you’re looking to sell products through an e-commerce website, generate leads for a service-based business, build brand awareness, or even drive traffic to a specific page. The difficulty is in the execution. In order to get the most out of your pay-per-click marketing campaign, you need to follow a few best practices. But first, here is what is a pay-per-click most meaningful purpose.
It’s Good for Your Business
PPC campaigns are good for your advertising ideas because they allow you to control your fees. Each day you get to set your own budget and decide how much you are willing to spend. As mentioned above, those campaigns are often preferred due to the results compared to the amount spent. You can get better results with one of those campaigns than with another ad running.
Furthermore, you get insights into what keywords are actually valuable for you and your business since you try different queries and intents that your potential customers might look for and have. Figuring out what works, in the end, will actually help you with further campaigns.
It’s Good for the Searchers
Ever since Google exists people have been clicking on the first results far more than on the ones at the end of the page. The philosophical explanation of this is the fact that users think that they are given exactly what they were looking for. If their keyword is right there, it’s bolded, and it’s on the first position – click. Easy as that.
And with the many changes that have been going around the Internet, the paid results are not replacing that thought of the users “This is what I am looking for”. Statistics show that people don’t mind that they are being advertised, as long as the result answers their search intent.
It Reaches the Right Target Audience
The most important part of a PPC campaign is choosing the right keywords. When this is done correctly it reaches the right audience and it almost every time works and leads for conversions. When the intent is the same as guessed and the keywords correspond it leads to users getting the results that they asked for. Win-win. A quick example is if people are looking for “Free website hosting” and you are providing that, your first results will be as satisfying for you as they will be for them.
How to Manage a PPC Campaign
Pay-per-click campaigns can bring significant difference and success to your business if they are managed properly. A lot of entrepreneurs try PPC and end up disappointed when the only problem is, that they didn’t approach it the right way. One of the key moments of managing a PPC campaign is following the results and its performance. If something needs to be changed – change it. Sometimes it’s better to try new or different things in order to get the campaign running well.
Keywords
Choosing keywords is the other basic and important point in the journey of a successful campaign. In order for them to work at their best, they need to be most importantly specific and exhaustive. Long keywords work best as they are usually searched for by people that have a clear thought about what they want, they are searching for something specific and the answer is – your landing page.
To make sure your campaign will work outstanding also add negative keywords. How they work is you exclude from your results specific words. For example, if you want to get results for “cheap women’s shoes” but the shoes you are selling are not cheap and you don’t want your ad to be shown on a search for cheap, then add it as a negative.
Another piece of advice you can use when you are learning what is pay-per-click and how to manage it is the ads themselves. A method a lot of successful advertisers use is the splitting model. An ad is usually broad until it is split into two or more. This way each part of the ad reaches a segment of the audience you prefer.
To Sum Up
Learning what is pay-per-click and how to manage it is a process that almost always takes time to learn and become an expert in. A lot in the process is trying out, figuring out, thinking like the audience it is purposed for, and analyzing the data that comes along the way. If you start doing that and combine it with choosing the right keywords, the results can be outstanding.