Pay Per Click Advertising otherwise known as PPC, is a versatile alternative to waiting around for traffic to arrive at your website organically. PPC can best be defined as a way to buy visits to a specific website. Each time an ad is clicked a new visitor will be directed to the advertiser’s main page –– at a fair price!
When a consumer enters a search query, they will be presented with the top organic results for that search. Alongside these, marketers can pay for their ads to be shown in the results for specific keywords or search queries. But, this is not first come first serve, marketers must outbid their competitor’s ads if they want theirs displayed in this advantageous spot.
Search engines offer these choice advertising spots in return for a price when each advertisement is clicked. While the prices for some of the more popular search terms can be much higher, they won’t change no matter how often the ad displayed. Marketers only pay for the visitors coming to their site.
How Those Pay Per Click Work?
As we all know, the SERPS, or Search Engine Results Page, are the gold standard authority for consumers in any industry. But, a marketer can’t just hope to throw more money at the search engine and sit back knowing his advertisements will be given preference.
All ads must go through an entirely automated process called the Ad Auction. Most major search engines including Google have this feature. This auction ensures that advertisements posted are actually relevant to the query and therefore suitable for this first place status.
Types of Pay Per Click Services:
Paid Search Marketing
This form of PPC allows marketers to have their ads posted on the search engine (or possibly affiliate sites). Costs can be accumulated for every visitor generated, as in there case of PPC. Also, payments can be made for every thousand displays (CPM) or for every time visitors contacts via phone, called “Pay Per Call”.
Display Advertising
When you see those long “Banner Ads”, typically a graphic or text advertisement, along the side of a webpage this is display marketing. The most common place to target consumers with display ads is in the social media scene. Digital display advertising is a faction of display marketing and works basically the same way.
Social Media Marketing
As it implies, social media marketing allows organizations, businesses, services, brands and even individuals to advertise on social media platforms (Twitter, Pinterest, Snapchat, Instagram, etc.). This works by attracting the attention of people who discuss topics, make consumer suggestions and otherwise disseminate a specific message.
Retargeting / Remarketing
This service allows marketers to stay with a potential consumer even after they have left their website. This continuous reminder will increase the chances of making a sale should the buyer consider. This is accomplished through the use of tracking pixels and cookies that follow the consumer after they have left the website. Retargeting ads are a service you can find with Google Display Network and Facebook. This allows you to contact your valued clients across a variety of networks and websites.
Why should you use Pay Per Click Marketing?
The primary advantage of this form of marketing is having your company’s presence and options at the top of the list when consumers look for products or services your provide. Of course, it is possible to try and attain the favored “Position 1”, or better yet “position 0, organically, but with PPC it is a guarantee despite how advanced your competition may be. This is especially important to those marketers emphasizing mobile ads, the reduced space on the mobile display means that greater chunks of screen space are given to sponsored results.
There have also been studies and surveys that confirm many of the consumers out there simply don’t understand the difference or were not aware of any differences between organic and sponsored search results. This shows that many consumers are completely willing to trust a paid ad campaign at least as much as an organic search result.
If you have the resources to invest, PPC can be a very fast way to get to the top of the SERPS and begin raking in some clients. If you have a little experience in online marketing, it will take you about 20 minutes to set up your own campaign and begin getting some sponsored results.
Tracking is another big advantage of this marketing type. Unlike other digital marketing methods, PPC is incredibly easy to track. This way you can count on spending the least amount possible to get the greatest results. It is also easier to tell at a glance how the campaign is faring and if greater or less emphasis is needed.
But that’s not all, PPC will also allow you to access the affiliate sites of the search engine. You will be able to select which ads go to which sites and schedule the best time to display for greatest efficacy.
Platforms to Advertise on using Pay per Click
Google AdWords
Google AdWords is the advertising branch for this major search engine. This service allows marketers to purchase specific ads that generate a cost every time a potential customer clicks them. When you choose the Google AdWords PPC, you can bid for ads posted on Google’s search engine and other Google Websites. Furthermore, many of Google’s affiliates and partners will also allow this Google Service.
Research has shown the vast majority of search engine users will not venture further than the first SERP. This emphasizes the fact that search engine advertising here is the single most effective form of PPC. Having your brand, company and options displayed on the first search engine page guarantees recognition and the promise of many visitors. When working with AdWords, you will not even have to pay unless as consumer is so interested in your options that they click the link and follow it to your site.
This adds next level precision to the advertising process and prevents you from spending unnecessary cash on a public that is not currently interested in your services. And, Google AdWords has another important feature that improves the economy of the investment.
AdWords allows you to set a specific budget for bidding on the ads placed across Google’s SERPs. The ads you have bid for will appear when the users enter the search terms you have chosen to describe your business, products or services. These will then appear as a sponsored link in the list of results.
The ads are typically short and impactful. The need an engaging title and a brief description of service or product you provide and maybe even why it’s a good choice. While these ads will always appear on the auspicious first SERP, they will only cost the marketer if an interested customer follows the link to their website.
Getting a Google AdWords campaign setup is not a very difficult process. Often, a corporation will choose to apply a Google AdWords Management to spearhead a specific marketing effort and drive greater amounts of traffic to perform a specific action like complete a purchase, fill out a form or some other call to action. This can be used to increase the organic position of a website in the SERPs to a certain degree. But, the most beneficial aspect of the Google AdWords campaign is the capacity to improve sales.
Bing Ads
Bing is the search engine from the Microsoft Company and powered by three major search engines AOL, Bing and Yahoo! The obvious advantage is that by purchasing Bing Ads you will get to post on all these platforms as well as their many associated sites and platforms.
The easiest way to describe Bing Ads is the Microsoft counterpart of Google AdWords. Just like Google will allow displayed messages across its sites and affiliate sites, Bing has their partners and associates that will support all-encompassing advertising from Bing Ads.
AdWords allows you to run ads on the Google search network and Google’s partner networks, Bing Ads allows you to run ads on both the Bing search network and its partner networks.
Bing is Google’s biggest competitor and today it accounts for more than 23% of all online search volume and the number is on the rise, meaning this is great time to try out Bing Ads. Two big advantages are its user friendly interface and the reduced competition.
Facebook is the largest and most popular social media platform online and allows users to post comments, share, like and post links to external pages. This platform can be used to conduct a wide range of marketing services including live chat and video presentations. Content posted online can be made available to everyone or just a specific set of users, family friends or an individual.
Advertising here has been found to be very cost-effective especially in comparison with many other options, like Google AdWords and other online marketing methods. In addition to this, Facebook has greater accuracy in their targeted marketing plans. They can be used to reach a very specific target audience and this can be used with great efficacy.
Facebook goes far beyond the typical Business to consumer model (B2C). There are over 2 Billion users today and it is likely that your specific consumers are there right now. Facebook allows you to find the ideal customer for you and begin to present them with the most relevant messages that can begin to bring them around to your options.
Another good reason to bolster your marketing campaigns with Facebook Advertising is because of its latest additions. Since the installation of their latest algorithms, Facebook is preventing many business related posts and pulling their platform in the direction of more personal connections. This means that Facebook Ads are the only way that many of your most valuable customers will come to see your brands.
Twitter is a social networking site used by brands, organizations and even the POTUS to communicate in concise messages called “Tweets”. Tweeting delivers a pertinent message to all those who are following your profile. Users will follow your messages as they are expecting useful interesting messages that improve their lives. Tweeting is kind of like blogging on a miniature scale.
Twitter is often used to look for interesting people, businesses and ideas online and users will follow those providing relevant information.
There are three different Types of Twitter Ads:
• Promoted Trends –– this option allows you to place a sponsored topic in the “Trending Box”, which contains all the hottest topics being discussed on Twitter.
• Promoted Accounts –– Twitter will suggest specific accounts that other users should follow for their relevance to this users interests. Promoted accounts will place your account at the top of the list and this can increase your follower pools.
• Promoted Tweets –– this one is the cherry on the top. These Tweets are ads that will be displayed in relation to certain searches and topics. These will then be placed at the top of a user’s timeline if they follow the account.
Sharing photos and videos is what Instagram is all about and specifically designed to be used on mobile devices of all types. Just like all the other big name social media accounts, Instagram provides all users with a news feed.
When you post a new picture or video on an account you will receive a notification to this effect. Then all the other users who follow your account will also be alerted to your latest actions and this works both ways; you will get to see the latest posts from any one you are following.
It’s like the greatly simplified version of Facebook for use on mobile devices and with easier sharing of visual posts. There is also plenty of interactions with other users as you can like, comment, tag, follow and otherwise engage other users.
Instagram has over 800 million users and marketers can pay to keep advertisements displayed daily, these ads will also be found on Facebook.
Snapchat
Snapchat may be a social platform on its way out, but users can still use it to send messages along with videos and photos, which can be viewed for a limited time.
Snapchat was originally designed for an instant communications system for photo and video sharing and live video chatting. There is also the option to create unique “caricature-like Bitmoji avatars” and share a story of your experiences with followers.
There are over 300 million Snapchat users and many are under the age of 34. With this in mind, the best marketing plans for this platform will be geared toward this fairly specific demographic made of Millennials and Gen Xers.
LinkedIn caters to the professional demographic and is all about networking, applying for jobs and addressing other aspects of the career life. There are over 65 million users active on this platform. Unlike other platforms where success can be measured in the sheer quantity of “friends” and connections, LinkedIn works a little different. LinkedIn is for professionals looking to improve their standings and quality connections are favored over vast amounts of followers.
Conclusion:
Pay Per Click advertising is an especially effective tool in making headway on your marketing campaign. It works well for making time-sensitive campaigns, to directly address competitors, or to break into new geographic markets
Nevertheless, this marketing plan is far too costly to be running full swing at all times and will eventually die out if too much emphasis is placed on this single tool. The best strategy is to use PPC as a component of a much larger plan for digital marketing which includes analytics, SEO and a strong support of quality content. Finally, never neglect your potential customers gathered and waiting on so many social media platforms.