Pay Per Click or PPC is a strategy that can help enhance your digital marketing strategy if you’re willing to put a little extra time and money into it.
But what exactly is PPC marketing and how does it work?
Join us for a crash course in PPC marketing and why it can be a useful tool at any stage of the sales funnel.
We’ll give you the lowdown on the difference between PPC vs SEO and how to create a PPC strategy that works for you.
What is PPC in digital marketing?
PPC is the art of paying for ads or links to your content to appear in search engine results or on social media platforms.
As the name pay-per-click suggests, you’ll only pay when someone actually clicks on or interacts with your ad.
Why would you consider adding PPC to your marketing campaign?
Even if you’re brand new to digital marketing, it won’t take you long to figure out the importance of scoring a prime spot on Google’s search engine results pages (SERPs).
HubSpot reports that Google now dominates over 92% of the world’s search engine market share.
When someone types in keywords related to your business, your goal is to appear as high up in the result as possible.
Yet according to a study from Ahrefs, over 90% of all the web’s content doesn’t get any traffic from Google at all.
Let’s face it – getting a prime spot on the SERPs is no easy task.
PPC offers a shortcut that can help generate more leads for your business.
What are some examples of PPC?
Whether or not you realize it, you see PPC ads every time you use a search engine. You know those links that appear at the top of the search results that say “ad” or “sponsored content” in the corner?
Those are prime examples of PPC marketing. So are those ads that occasionally appear on the right-hand side of the SERPs.
Ever wonder how your Facebook profile page always knows to present you with ads from sites you recently visited? Yep, this is also the work of PPC marketing.
The companies behind those ads paid for them to be there in the hopes of you cashing in on your interests and convincing you to become a customer.
What is PPC vs SEO?
The difference between PPC and Search Engine Optimization (SEO) comes down to the difference between paid and organic marketing strategies.
Organic traffic consists of visitors you’re able to attract to your site for free, whether it be due to your mastery of the use of SEO or the popularity of your site.
Paid traffic is the traffic you generate with a little help from your PPC marketing campaign.
Regardless of which you choose, the use of relevant keywords is going to be incredibly important to your success.
Using great keywords as part of your SEO strategy will sometimes be enough to get you a nice ranking on the SERPS.
This is particularly true on occasions when the search matches up with very specific keywords you use, such as the name of your business.
With broader searches, however, even a great SEO effort might still land you on the third or fourth page of the SERPS, simply because there’s a lot of competition out there.
In these cases, PPC is a way to shoot your paid ad to the top of the search results anyway.
Is PPC better than SEO?
Not necessarily – but it’s not always worse either.
Both PPC and SEO both have their pros and cons, which is why many marketers use them both simultaneously.
But PPC does have its upsides, especially if your site is new and hasn’t had time to build much authority yet.
Some of the perks of PPC include:
- It can increase brand awareness by getting your ads in front of more people, much faster.
- Unlike traditional marketing, it allows you to target specific audiences.
- A PPC campaign also generates a lot of data, which you can analyze for information to strengthen your campaign.
- You can decide which landing page your ad links to, whether it be your home page, a product page, etc.
- PPC allows for remarketing, which is targeting viewers who have already interacted with your site.
How do you create a PPC strategy?
First and foremost, you’ll want to decide exactly what you want your PPC campaign to achieve.
Do you want to increase brand awareness, make more sales, or enhance your website traffic?
This may vary based on the campaign and which stage of the sales funnel you’re focusing on.
It will also likely influence your ad type, which is what your ads will look like and where they’ll be shown.
Next, you’ll need to set your budget and decide how much you’re willing to spend to achieve your goals.
The perk of using tools like Google Ads is that you can set an average daily budget and Google will optimize when your ads are shown based on when you’re the most likely to get clicks.
Now it’s time to choose your bidding strategy, of which there are many.
Google Ads, for instance, offers either automated smart bidding strategies or a number of other choices geared around achieving specific goals.
You’ll also need to specify the keywords you want to associate your ad with and what types of matches you want to associate them with.
For instance, you can choose broad matches, exact matches, phrase matches, etc. In this case, it’s good to stay on top of PPC trends.
Last but not least, you’ll need to specify your audience, which is the buyer persona that your ad is designed to target.
There are several different platforms you can use for PPC marketing. Some of the most popular include:
- Google Ads
- Bing Ads
- Facebook Ads
- RevContent
- AdRoll
Sound complicated?
It can be, especially at first. If you’re looking for help getting started, then take advantage of a free 14-day trial of WriterAccess by Rock Content to gain access to some of the best freelance marketing and SEO writers. They will be able to turn your keywords into content that generates traffic for both PPC campaigns and SEO blogs.
You’ll connect to some of the top writers, editors, and content strategists online, all while enjoying access to on-demand educational videos.
