Since the rise of search engines more than two decades ago, pay-per-click (PPC) marketing has remained one of the most popular methods brands use to drive website traffic. With more than 3.5 billion Google searches happening each day, according to Internet Live Stats, search engines still provide the best opportunity for brands to connect with potential customers.
But while having a robust SEO strategy can drive significant traffic to your website, leveraging PPC ads can help your organization double down on lead generation and dominate even more real estate on search engine results pages (SERPs).
Whether you’re just getting started with your first PPC campaign or looking to improve your success, here are some useful tips and background to help you meet your goals.
Pay-per-click is an internet marketing model that charges advertisers each time someone clicks one of their ads. Search engine ads are the most common form of PPC and give advertisers the opportunity to bid on ad placement in programmatic auctions. (Here’s how Google AdWords auctions work.)
Winning ads appear above organic results on SERPs. Clicking an ad will drive a user to your website, on whatever page you choose. Depending on the purpose of your campaign, you can send visitors to your homepage, product page or, preferably, a purpose-built landing page.
There are many benefits and drawbacks to PPC marketing.
Here are a few of the pros:
And here are some of the cons:
Your keyword list is the crux of your PPC strategy, so it’s critical you dedicate time and effort to keyword research. And because trends can change, it’s also important you do keyword research often to make sure you’re not missing opportunities to drive traffic to your site.
Here are three tips to keep in mind as you begin building and refining your keyword list:
Some organizations create thorough keyword lists and still fail to see the results and return on ad spend (ROAS) they’d like to see from their PPC campaigns. Here are a few things you can do to help increase your conversion rate:
For more tips to maximize PPC success, check out these secrets from a Google Partner Agency.
When done well, pay-per-click marketing can help generate brand recognition, drive significant traffic to your site and increase revenue. But, like all marketing efforts, it takes time, effort and a little trial and error to reach the ROI “sweet spot.” It’s also not something you can set up and forget, because successful PPC requires constant oversight.
In other words, PPC campaign management is a full-time job and, depending on the size of your organization, may require an entire team. If you’re struggling to reach success through PPC efforts, you may want to consider working with a PPC agency that has the experience and expertise to identify opportunities and generate the best possible return on ad spend.