Google began offering PPC marketing (Pay Per Click) in the year 2000 after developing its flagship ad program, AdWords. Intended to be a small business solution for effective online advertising, PPC is designed to be simple to use while still allowing for highly targeted campaigns. With PPC you control exactly how your advertising budget is spent because you only pay when a prospect clicks on your ad and is sent to your website or landing page.
The basic idea of PPC marketing is as follows:
Set an objective: This is usually a specific action you would like a prospect to take. It might be to buy an item, subscribe to a newsletter, complete a form, make a call, raise brand awareness, etc.
Select keywords: This can be done by brainstorming, using keyword tools and querying customers. The idea is to find a keyword that a prospect will use to find your product or service (website/ landing page) in a search engine. Because you pay for each click, it's important to choose high-intent, “buying keywords” to attract individuals who will help achieve your goals. In general, the more specific the keyword phrase is, those who click on it are more likely to result in a conversion.
Set the match modifiers: You set how close you want your keyword string to match the query of the searcher. For example, your keyword might be "genuine crocodile handbags". If you use a broad match your ad may appear anytime someone searches for handbags (Note: Broad match is the default match.). A narrower match will limit the number of times your ad is displayed.
Place your bid: The AdWords platform is run as an auction. The most desired page placement goes to the highest bidder after a check for quality and relevance. You can set your spend for each visitor and each day. (You can even schedule your ads for certain times of the day.)
Create your ad: Google maintains character count and quality controls over the ad that shows up on the top or the right hand side of the page. It includes a headline, URL, description/call to action. Each line is limited to a certain amount of characters. The following is an example with the URL altered:
Alamo® Car Rental
www. alamo. com/
Lines are for amateurs! Save time
w/ self-service car rental kiosks.
Watch your Statistics: You can track the success of your PPC campaign by using Google Analytics software and your AdWords account. This allows you to make adjustments to the ads and keywords when needed. It also allows you to perform more complicated tasks like split A/B testing and ad rotations for best conversion rates.
Some terms and acronyms related to Google AdWords campaigns include:
Conversion rate- This means if your ad gets 100 clicks and 20 of those make a purchase, the conversion rate for that segment of the campaign is 20%.
CPC (Cost per click)- The amount paid when a user clicks on your ad.
CTR (Click through rate)- The amount of times an ad is clicked divided by the number of times an ad was shown.
Pay Per Click basics are fairly easy to master and the program allows for advanced users to feel right at home with it as well. However, there is a significant amount of competition in a number of niches that may act as a barrier to entry for many small businesses. In this case, an organic SEO campaign many produce better results. Call the number at the top of your screen now for an immediate consultation about which search marketing technique will work better for you. The call is free and the information is valuable, so there's no reason not to pick up the phone or send us an email now.
