What is PPC? An Introduction to Pay per Click Marketing
PPC stands for pay-per-click. It is a model of online marketing where advertisers pay a fee each time one of their advertisement is clicked. It is also referred to as cost-per-click marketing, search engine marketing or paid search. It is one of the most popular means of online advertising. It funnels traffic to a landing page or website. Some of the most popular options to manage PPC ads include Google AdWords, Bing Ads, Facebook, and LinkedIn.
Features Of PPC
There are three ways in which you can use PPC to advertise. Let us look at them below:
- Sponsored search
This is where paid search happens on search engine results pages including Google, Bing or Yahoo. This is one of the most popular forms of PPC advertising. The ads are triggered by a keyword that a person searches on the search engine. Every time the searcher clicks on the ad, he or she is directed to the website, the website has to pay the search engine a fee. If the advertising is effective, then the fee given to the search engine compared to the profits from the click are minimal. For instance, a website might pay $4 for a click, but the click leads to a $500 sale, which means the website will make a profit. These ads are in text and have a given amount of characters. They do not have images and appear at the top of the search engines.
- Display banners or ads
These are image-based ads. The advertiser will choose on where to show the ads such as specific websites or use search platforms such as Google Adwords to decide for them where the ads will be displayed based on their relevance to the search topic. Banner ads can also show text on the ad, but many online advertisers choose to be a bit more creative. Most of these ads can be found across the web on related websites.
- Remarketing
Remarketing is also referred to as retargeting. It is a means of advertising where the advertiser hopes to engage visitors who did not take the desired action such as purchasing a product. The ads are shown on other websites or social media pages. Here is an example. Say you visit the Adidas website, and as you scroll down, you notice a really nice looking shoe you look at it for a while and decide you do not have enough money to buy it. You close your browser window and decide to log into your Facebook account and guess what; you see the shoe ad that you had been gazing at earlier. This is what we call remarketing.
These ads usually have imagery and text. However, advertisers should strike a balance between remarketing to their potential customers and stalking them.
Ways Used To Manage PPC
Management of your PPC advertising allows your ad to get to the right audience
- Geo-targeting
This allows you to target an audience in a specific location. Maybe you do not want your ad to show to everyone. Geo-targeting ensures you do not waste money on visitors who might click on your ad but are outside of your target location. This is a good tool if you are on a tight budget.
- Day-parting
This tool runs the ad on given days of the week or given hours of the day or night
- Device targeting
You can target your ad to online users by device. You can use the desktop, laptop, tablet or mobile phones targeting. You can come up with ads for these two different device users, as their buying habits are also different. The devices are also different, as the ads on smartphones need to be smaller and have content that relates to the user of the smartphone.
- Keyword relevance and control
PPC advertising method revolves around keywords. Keywords used on website pages and landing pages determine the relevancy of your ads. In managing your PPC account for your text ads, you need to organize the keywords in groups of relevance. The ads should be written in terms of these keywords. The ads are then linked to the landing pages.
- Targeting by demographics
This tool targets your audience in regard to their age, parental status, gender, job title, interests, or income. Cookies ascertain the demographics. When a visitor lands on a website that is within the display network, the device they are using receives a cookie that follows this device.
Advantages Of PPC
- It is result oriented
Unlike other marketing strategies that use many resources before you get results, PPC allows you to get results immediately. Once you use the right keywords, write relevant copy, and choose your landing page your campaign will be ready to start and you can get traffic immediately after the campaign starts.
- It is cheap
There is no set minimum amount that you are required to have to start a PPC campaign. You can start small or even big depending on your budget.
- You only pay after a click
With PPC you only pay after someone clicks on your ad. This is a good deal as you pay for results.
Hopefully, you now have enough information to decide if PPC is ideal for your business or not. If you are still in doubt, visit us at PPC Hire, and we will offer all the help you need for your PPC ads.