PPC is an electronic marketing channel businesses employ to drive visitors and converts through search engines.
You may be seeking ways to bring in your first sales and traffic for your new venture or contemplating expanding your brand’s online presence.
PPC can be an excellent method to promote your business and attract new customers. However, it can be difficult for people who are new to the platform.
In this article, we’ll guide you through understanding the basics of PPC, how it functions, and how you can utilize it to increase your company’s success, and we will explain the different platforms and how they work.
What is PPC?
PPC is the abbreviation for pay-per-click. It is an online advertising method that allows advertisers to run ads on platforms like Google Ads and pay a fee each time a user clicks.
You can perform almost any search using Google (or Bing) and notice ads in the middle of the page.
Check out the product grid on the right. These are advertisements that indicate that a search has an intention to sell.
Companies use PPC to increase traffic and sales or get inquiries from their intended customers. The most popular PPC platforms provide a considerable degree of targeting, meaning that you can display ads to only those who meet your target audience’s needs.
Search engines are the most popular source of people looking for companies offering both products and services. When a large audience is searching for your company’s services, you can close a deal.
PPC will help you reach those people by providing a specific degree of targeted advertising that can’t be provided.
Do you want to contact people in San Francisco who want to purchase a used Ford Mustang? It is easy to do.
PPC allows you to connect with your customers when they are searching for similar businesses to yours while collecting data that will aid in improving the effectiveness of the method over time.
Paid advertising is a big business, and it’s been said that Alphabet (Google) makes over $162 billion yearly via its ad platforms.
How Does Pay-Per-Click Advertising Work?
PPC, as a channel for marketing, includes a range of advertising platforms; the most well-known are Google Ads and Bing Ads.
Within the various platforms, there are different advertising formats, such as:
- Search Ads
- Shopping Ads
- Display Ads
- Video Ads
- Gmail Ads
The majority of the time, you’ll discover that companies begin their PPC advertising on Google Ads because of the primary reason that it provides access to the biggest possible audience of potential clients and customers, in addition to numerous methods to create and run campaigns according to the goals you want to achieve.
However, regardless of the platform or format of the ads, the way the PPC is conducted remains the same as well as an easy process to follow:
- Create an account for advertising on the platform.
- Create ads (and decide on the appropriate targeting by including keywords, audiences (e.g., keywords. ).
- Determine the maximum amount you’re willing to pay per click.
- Your ad is put into an auction, with other advertisers bidding on identical keywords.
- Auctions determine the sequence in which advertisements are displayed.
- Pay when someone clicks your advertisement.
It’s relatively simple to get to know, and even though there are some differences between types of ads (and various bidding methods that could be employed, for instance), the fundamentals remain the same.
However, let’s take a closer look at how auction functions since it’s often the most challenging portion for people just beginning to learn about PPC.
What is the process? PPC auctions function?
When a user searches, an auction is held. It can be used to evaluate various factors like:
- Ad accounts’ eligibility to bid in the auction.
- The order in which the eligible ads will be shown in the ad spaces on the results pages.
- How much will a single click cost each advertiser whose ads are displayed?
The most crucial factor in this auction is the CPC (cost-per-click) that an advertiser can set in their account for ad placement, either for a particular keyword or group of ads -it is the highest amount that they’re willing to be able to pay for each click.
However, it’s not a guarantee that this is the amount they’ll pay, but the highest amount they can afford.
Another factor is the quality score (QS) which is a measure that includes various factors, including the anticipated CTR (click-through rates) of an advertisement and the relevance of an advert to the question that is being sought, and the user experience on the landing page the ad is directing visitors to.
We’ll dive into Quality Score shortly.
The placement of an advertisement on the page results can be determined by Ad rank, which can be described in terms such as:
Ad Rank = Quality Score x Max CPC
Google’s natural formula is slightly more complicated; however, to get a basic understanding, this is an excellent approach to understanding the procedure.
What determines the amount an advertiser will pay for each click?
Ad Rank plays a significant role in this but is not the sole contributor to CPC. It is easy to understand the price an advertiser has to pay to display their brand as follows:
Why Use PPC?
If you’re thinking of PPC as a channel for marketing for your company, You should understand the advantages and why you should spend your money here and not elsewhere.
Here are a few of the most frequently cited reasons to consider why PPC could be the ideal marketing channel for you:
You will begin receiving clicks quickly.
After you’ve created your account on an ad platform and have created an ad, they generally need to be accepted by the platform; it usually will take only several hours.
After your ads have been in place, as you can be included at auction, and the bid you place is sufficient, you can begin being seen (and receiving clicks as the volume is high enough) immediately.
As compared to channels like SEO, PPC allows you to begin seeing results quickly. This is undoubtedly one of the reasons it is so popular among marketers.
PPC is easy to measure and monitor.
One of the main advantages of PPC over traditional advertising channels is the ease with which you can monitor and measure the platform’s return.
Popular platforms like Google Ads or Bing Ads let you monitor conversions, including order and lead value. On a more granular level, you can also observe the performance of the general account and particular ads and keywords.
This means that you’re in a position to utilize information and data to enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of your campaign over time to improve the return on investment of the campaign.
You control entirely when advertisements run and the amount you spend.
Are you looking to stop advertising during busy times? Do you want to run ads only if you require new leads?
PPC is the best method to achieve this since you’re fully in charge of when the ads will run (including the hours of operation and the day of the week), and you can switch ads off and on according to your preference. However, an effective campaign is recommended to boost the growth of your business and continue the growth process.
You also have complete control over the amount you spend every week (or months) and the amount you’ll pay per click as compared to other channels that do not offer the same control over a channel’s budget and cost so easily.
Your customers can be targeted effectively.
In contrast to traditional advertisements, PPC allows you to select your ideal client based on your information and even will enable you to alter bids according to the device used, time of day, and location.
If you know your customers and how they browse and search, you can use this data to cut down on wasted advertising.
PPC Vs. SEO
Companies often consider each SEO and PPC as two similar channels to assist them in driving visitors to their websites from search engines.
Undoubtedly, both require appearing on and gaining clicks from search engines, but they are two completely different ways.
- PPC is a form of pay-per-click.
- SEO (organic search) clicks are free.
- It is possible to begin driving traffic using PPC from search engines quickly; however, organic search results could take some time to be ranked.
However, they aren’t two different channels. They’re both part of the more extensive digital marketing mix, and they could, and should, collaborate effectively to achieve results online.
When you can, try not to compare these two channels; instead, consider each a vital component of growing digitally.