Have you heard of Pay Per Click or PPC and wondering what it is? Do you have a business and you are checking to see if pay per click marketing is for you? Are you looking to understand what pay per click marketing is? You have come to the right place. This beginner’s guide to Pay Per Click Advertising will give some answers to all the basic questions you have about this digital form of reaching customers.
What is Pay Per Click advertising (PPC)?
As the name suggests, Pay Per Click advertising is a type of advertising campaign where the advertisers pay for every click of their advertisement on a platform.
Let me elaborate. Say you are a business looking to advertise your product on a website. The website allows you to put banner ads. But you don’t pay for putting up the ad in that space or the number of views the ad gets. Rather you pay based on how many people actually click on the ad. This is PPC advertising.
How does Pay Per Click work?
An average internet user spends about 6 and a half hours each day on the internet! The majority of this time goes in search engines like Google, YouTube, and Bing, social media like Facebook and Instagram or online shopping websites like Amazon. You can put up your pay per click campaigns in any of these platforms where your potential customers could be found and exposed to your business.
The advertising platforms use the auction method to decide which ad campaign gets the ad space for different searches. There are various factors involved in ranking an ad for a search. For example, Google looks into two major factors: the cost per click (CPC) bid you have placed (i.e. the money you are willing to pay for one-click) and your quality score (how useful and relevant your ad is).
Using these metrics, the platform will choose from the pool of the advertisers and decide which campaign is displayed in a particular ad space.
What are the advantages of Pay Per Click?
Irrespective of the size, all businesses can benefit from PPC campaigns. It is because:
- You don’t have to pay until someone actually clicks on your ad. So, it is a very cost-effective form of advertising.
- It gives you the capacity to direct your ads to a highly targeted audience, unlike mass marketing. You can target a particular geographic location, age group, and keywords.
- Pay per click ad campaigns is highly customizable. You can have different types of ads for different devices or even choose to display ads on a particular day or time.
- You will know your Return on Investment (ROI). The advertising platforms let you know how successful your campaigns are so that you can make necessary changes.
What is the cost of Pay Per Click advertising?
There is no standard Cost Per Click (CPC) rates. Various factors determine the rate of CPC. The metrics could be different depending on different platforms as well. However, there are major factors that influence CPC:
- Your Bid: Since this is an auction process, you get to fix the maximum price you are willing to pay for the click. So, your CPC will be somewhere around your bid.
- Keyword relevance and Ad text: How relevant your ad is for the keywords chosen can influence the rate of CPC. When users type a search term and find your ad, do they find it relevant? If yes, search-based ad platforms like Google will rank you higher and take less CPC from you.
- Quality score: This score is given by the platform itself using various factors like the landing page, relevance and more. More the quality score, the lesser the cost per click.
- Competition for the keyword: This is a major factor that will influence the CPC of particular keywords. If their more competitors competing for a single keyword for the place in single ad space, the cost per click increases.
- Seasonal ads: The CPC is also influenced by different seasons depending on the type of ad.
What are the steps for setting up a Successful Pay Per Click Campaign?
There are various steps involved in creating a successful PPC ad campaign. The process of setting up a campaign involves the following steps:
1. Deciding the platform: Where do you want to put up your ads? Is it in Google search results, website banner ads or Facebook? The first step in setting up a successful pay per click ad campaign is to decide the advertising platform.
2. Choose the keywords: This is the most important step. You have to find out which keywords you want to rank. This would depend on what products you are offering, what niche you are in, what people are searching for and much more.
3. Writing attractive copies: The next step is to create ads that people would actually want to click on. This would increase your click-through rate, which is a factor for ranking.
4. Set your bids: After choosing keywords and writing good copy, you have to place your bids on the advertising platforms.
5. Wait for the campaign to kick in: Following your bid, the platform will display your ads for the users. Whichever users click the ads gets redirected to the landing page you have assigned for the ad. They may or might buy the product you were hoping to sell.
6. You pay the ad platform: The moment people start clicking your ads, the ad platform starts charging you.
7. Analyze and edit your campaign: You have to check your return on investment and the success of the campaign. Using the various metrics provided by the ad platforms, you can analyze your campaign and make the changes necessary to improve it.
Running a pay per click campaign is a continuous cyclic process. You cannot set it up and just leave it. Constant review is necessary to make profits from the campaign or you will lose money.
What can you achieve by Pay Per Click Campaigns?
The goal of your PPC campaign can be any of the following:
- Increasing brand awareness among people.
- Increasing traffic for your website.
- Getting leads
- Selling products or services.
What do you need to know before starting a PPC Campaign?
Before you jump into setting up an ad campaign you have to be clear on certain things. You need to have your goal defined clearly. You cannot shoot blindly and aim to hit a game.
- Have clarity on who you are as a business and what you do.
- Clearly define your primary/ target audience.
- Know what you are trying to promote or sell.
- Define your call for action (do you want people to subscribe to your page or buy something from you?)
- What do you consider as a good return on your investment?
You need to know all this before you can set up a successful PPC ad campaign.
How to manage your PPC campaigns?
If you have gone through this entire article and reached here Congrats! You now know the basics of Pay Per Click advertising. PPC marketing can benefit your company, but it could be overwhelming when you see the process. Here are different ways in which you can manage your PPC campaigns:
1. Learn about it in-depth and do it on your own.
2. Hire a professional who has expertise in Pay Per Click Marketing.
3. Get it done by companies dedicated to providing Pay Per Click service.
Pay per click is one of the best and cost-effective methods of advertising on the internet. I hope you found this Beginner’s guide to Pay Per Click Advertising useful. Feel free to share it with people who would benefit from this.
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