Pay Per Click or PPC is a tool businesses can use to direct advertisements to a certain demographic. PPC advertisements are generally on search engine results. You can create an advertisement for your company and it will appear on a search engine result. If a potential client clicks on the advertisement you are charged for the click. These are also known as banner ads. The most common place you will see these ads are on Google.
The first known Pay Per Click model was created in 1996 on a web directory call Planet Oasis. It was developed by Ark Interface II, a division of Packard Bell NEC Computers. You can read more on the history of PPC on Wikipedia by clicking here.
We love using Pay Per Click with our clients marketing plans. PPC are a cost effective way to drive customers to your site. PPC also gives us valuable feedback on the effectiveness of the marketing plan. As we develop the ads, we can see what the “market” or your potential clients want. It is also a great way to hold to a budgeted number, because you can set the total dollar amount you are willing to spend.
Pay Per Click can be described as a way to buy traffic for your website. It is different from traditional marketing as it is not all encompassing. A traditional tool such as radio is blasted to anyone listening, many of whom may not be in need of your business. The potential clients listening may not even be able to act as they are driving. PPC advertisements allow you to target your customers when they are ready to make a decision.
We do not want to make Pay Per Click sound too simple because an effective PPC Campaign takes a lot of work. There will be hours put into research of keywords and putting those keywords into your advertisement. Some strategies will include landing pages for clicks. Because clicks equate to dollars spent if is imperative that the campaign be well planned and executed. Search Engines reward companies who create relevant and direct PPC Campaigns. The more specific you can make your advertisements, the greater opportunity you have the lower the cost of PPC.
Google AdWords is our preferred Pay Per Click advertising system. The reason for this is Google has the majority of online traffic for searches. For example, Google has just under 12 billion searches a month, it has around 75% of the US search market, just under 90% of the US mobile search market and 187 million monthly unique visitors. They are on pace to do over $65 Million in ad revenue in 2015. In other words, Google absolutely dominates the search market. The reason they do is because Google is a great company and their website is as easy as it gets. Google is a trusted source of information and therefore it is the go to search engine for your customers.
Google AdWords are sold auction style and you are bidding on the cost of the keyword. If a client clicks your ad they will be directed to your website. If you bid $0.25 per click on XYZ product and you are the high bidder you will show up first in line. If 100 people click on your advertisement you will be charge $25.00.
Pay Per Click can get out of control really quickly and that is why you need someone running the campaign that knows what they are doing. Since it is an auction based system, people can get caught up in being the high bidder. That creates a long term situation where the inflation of the cost for keywords will rise. The more popular the keyword, the higher the cost per click. The other problem is phantom traffic and these are clicks that hit your site but they leave in seconds. It still costs you but you got zero value from the click. You do not want to market to people who will never be a client. You want to market to only those who will buy from you.
Enough of the negative because Pay Per Click is way more positive than negative, we feel this way because we know what we are doing. PPC can generate traffic to your website right away. A targeted campaign can bring a client to your website within minutes. It is a very fast way of driving traffic to your site. It is also a living strategy, meaning you can change it at any moment to market conditions. If you pick the wrong keyword, you change it. The advertisement is driving the wrong client, change it. PPC can also be a bargain when you find the right keywords.
You only pay for the click when an interested client clicks you advertisement. You also see the results very quickly, almost at real time. This will allow you to make adjustments based on the market conditions. You also control the budget and therefore you can start small and as the business grows increase the spend. Most companies we work with increase the Pay Per Click spend almost monthly as revenues increase. Remember it is just not the total dollar spent, its more about when that dollar is spent. For example, if your business is not open on Friday you might not want a campaign running on Friday’s. With an expert running your PPC Campaign the smallest detail can be executed.
Conversion tracking is most important. Driving traffic to your website is step one of Pay Per Click, converting to sales and dollars in your pocket are the final step. Markedemic doesn’t just want to send traffic to your site, we want to convert that into revenue. When we use PPC we start with the understanding that we are judged on revenue not just getting clicks. There are two types of revenue from PPC, the initial and the reoccurring. You must judge final revenue on the fact that you will have customers coming back to your site over and over. Use PPC to get them there and your website to keep them coming.
Pay Per Click matters to your brand. The stronger your brand the higher you will rank organically. PPC allows you to meet some of the conditions to rank higher and a balanced attack will lower your cost of PPC and rank you higher simultaneously.