Are You Looking to Drive More Traffic to Your Website?

You might have heard how successful pay-per-click (PPC) advertising can be in terms of return on investment (ROI) for your company. But many people wonder when is the right time to start implementing this highly targetable and effective advertising medium? In this article, we’re going to start with the basics about PPC advertising services, but if you already know the basics, feel free to skip ahead to learn when to utilize PPC ads.

What is PPC Advertising?

PPC advertising is an online advertising method in which you, as the advertiser, only pay when a user clicks on one of your digital ads. There are three approaches you can take to PPC advertising — search, display and retargeting.

Search ads are text-based ads that appear when people search for a specific keyword in a search engine. No matter what keywords the user searches, you can bid on that keyword to serve one of your search ads.

Display ads are more visual in that they are made up of text and images, gifs or videos. People see display ads often at the top or right side of websites related to your product or service.

Retargeting or remarketing are ads that “follow” users who have visited your site. When they visit other websites, your ads are displayed to entice them to revisit your website or take a step to become a lead.

How Does PPC Advertising Work?

All ads must be run through the Ad Auction, an automated method Google and other advertising providers utilize to identify the relevance and validity of ads and their placement. Within the ad auction, advertisers must bid on the keywords, or terms, they want to serve their ads (meaning when a user searches for that keyword, the user is served the ad from the company that bid on that keyword). For instance, if you bid on the term “tapas restaurants in Orlando,” people searching for this keyword in Google will see your ad.

Since you’re paying each time your ad is clicked, it’s important to do in-depth keyword research to ensure you’re only bidding on keywords that are the most beneficial and relevant to your business or product. Professional digital advertising agencies specialize in this work and create customized keyword lists that take cost per click, search volume per month and other factors that optimize your budget into consideration.

The Benefits of PPC Advertising

The number one benefit to utilizing PPC advertising services is that they put your company at or near the top of the first page of search results, which is where most users are clicking. In fact, on average, 41 percent of clicks go to the top three paid ads on the search results page. Another major benefit is how highly targetable PPC advertising is because users are typing in keywords related to your company, which makes them highly qualified leads. Rather than TV commercials or radio ads that serve ads to people in a passive state, people searching for keywords in search engines are actively looking for something related to your product or service.

The ability to track results with PPC advertising is phenomenal when compared to other display mediums, like newspapers and TV. You can determine how effective a keyword is and even track where your money was spent, allowing you to determine ROI on a campaign quickly. In addition, PPC is adaptable and flexible; you can change the ads easily. This allows for testing and optimization, so you can see what’s working and tweak ads that aren’t performing as great. You can also schedule ads to run at specific times during the day so you’re hitting your target audience when they’re most likely to search. This control over your ads allows you to reach the right people more efficiently.

When to Utilize PPC Advertising

If you haven’t utilized this strategy in the past, there is no better time than the present to hire a PPC advertising agency. Investing some time and money into this medium is great for businesses of any size at any stage. The only prerequisite our team suggests is having an updated, responsive website and a proper web presence before you start.

Based on your marketing budget, determine the amount of money you’d like to spend per day to start out. Then run a test with search ads for a period of time to determine if PPC advertising is the right avenue for your business. As a digital marketing agency, we often run tests for a week or month at a time testing different variations of search ads. Then we analyze the types of search ads and associated landing page that worked and tailor the campaign accordingly. If you need help determining a budget or strategy, an experienced PPC advertising agency can help put your digital strategy in place.

If you’re going to implement PPC ads to their fullest extent, it’s important to have a solid ad spend to allot to digital advertising. Creating dedicated landing pages tailored to your search ads or specific content will perform better than just driving people to the contact page on your website. Landing pages that are strategically designed and written to promote conversion significantly impact the success of a PPC advertising campaign, so putting some spend toward these efforts may make all the difference.

There’s no exact science when it comes to PPC ads. If you’re more interested in impressions, once you’ve run search ads and created landing pages, you might want to try testing display ads to compare how those will work for your business. The key is analyzing the reports to see what is working and what is not, and then adjusting the campaign to make sure you’re getting the most out of it.

With time, attention and the advertising budget to run successfully, PPC ads can be the boost your company needs. Get the most out of your spend and make sure it’s done the right way. Appleton Creative is an award-winning, full-service digital marketing and PPC advertising agency located in Orlando, Florida. Appleton works with local, national and international clients to deliver custom content, persuasive online ads and expertly crafted campaigns. By implementing valuable and shareable digital content strategies, Appleton can create the perfect social and digital marketing experience for your brand and audience. Your Internet advertising goals are worth a conversation: contact us at 407-246-0092 or info@appletoncreative.com.