Pay-per-click (PPC) is a digital advertising model that aims to bring high-quality users to your site. This marketing model is a staple of search engine marketing (SEM) and continues to be a cost-efficient means of marketing your offerings. However, PPC isn’t for everyone. Depending on your current business goals and where you stand amongst your competitors, you may or may not decide to implement pay-per-click advertising. Today, we’re going to talk about the basic of PPC and when to use it, as well as some exciting trends to look for in the coming years around this brand of marketing.
At Snap, we’re passionate about empowering businesses with the support they need to thrive in the world of digital marketing. That’s why we develop leading-edge SEO and PPC strategies designed to drive qualified traffic and leads to your website.
The Basics of PPC
Pay-per-click is exactly what it sounds like. It’s a digital advertising model that aims to attract qualified traffic to your website through search engines and user-targeted platforms. As the name suggests, whenever someone clicks on the ad, you pay a fee for that interaction. Typically it is seen on a search engine, like Bing or Google. On Google, at the top of a search result, you’ll see pay-per-click ads, identified with “ad” next to it. PPC ads can also be seen on other user-targeted online mediums, like websites. Think about banner ads for a new film on movie review sites.
PPC ads are a great way to limit costs and effectively see a high ROI because you are only paying for quality leads (users who actually click on the ads). However, it is essential that your PPC campaign is fully integrated with an in depth SEO strategy, otherwise people will click and leave your site immediately if you don’t have landing pages that reinforce the offer of the original ad.
When to Use PPC
We recommend that you should implement PPC ads to your search engine marketing strategy whenever you need to bring a high amount of quality consumers to your site. If you’re a new business and you need to run a campaign that helps you stand out amongst the clutter, then PPC might be a good option for you. If you’re running a sale and want to generate a lot of traffic, pay-per-click advertising is a great way to that.
Impact of PPC (Organic and Paid Search Results)
Paid Search (PPC) is a great way to keep your business in front of an audience until your organic search (SEO) kicks in. Once your organic search rankings work their way up the totem pole, you can dial back your pay-per-click ads to reduce spending. On top of that, your SEO keyword research will also help you identify keywords to utilize in your PPC ads, which is another factor that contributes to where your paid search ads appear on search engines.
A more abstract way in which paid search can affect organic search is through simply driving users to your site who then take action in a way that influences your SEO. For example, if they click on your ad and subsequently link to it, mention it in a blog or share it in some form, it will positively affect your organic search.
PPC Trends
There are a lot of exciting trends to look for in the coming years for pay per click advertising. Enhanced audience targeting will certainly be a factor and will allow you to reach a specified audience with ease. Look for evolving search ad formats as well with more extensions that will offer additional information to search engine users before they make that initial click. While there is still debate around this subject, voice search will soon become a large proponent of PPC advertising in some way or another. Of course, another trend which will certainly continue for many years to come, is the increasing use of mobile pay per click advertising.
Think PPC is What Your Business Needs?
With over 150 clients serviced, we know how to tailor digital marketing campaigns to fit our client’s needs. Not every business is the same, and we will work with you to help define your goals and how best to accomplish them. Our digital marketing experts will work with you every step of the way to develop, refine and test PPC campaigns that deliver meaningful business results. We handle everything from ad creative and bid management to keyword research, taking the stress and confusion out of pay-per-click advertising.