When it comes to marketing your business online, there are a plethora of ways to do it. Some elect to choose search engine optimization (SEO) to market their business. While this is usually the cheapest option, it’s also the most time consuming, taking around 6 months to start seeing any traction. That’s why pay per click advertising (PPC) has quickly become the majority of people’s favorite way to market their business online.
Why Choose PPC?
When done correctly, PPC advertising can be the tool your business needs to consistently gain leads, sell products, or increase traffic. Additionally, more marketers are choosing PPC every year because of how much quicker it is to return results than other digital marketing techniques. Unlike SEO, PPC can start working immediately, with leads generated as soon as you start.
With PPC, you can target exactly who you’re trying to reach. You can focus on demographics, locations, income, interests, and much more. With the ability to easily focus your efforts on who you’re hoping to reach, PPC advertisers can get a higher return on investment at a much quicker rate.
How Do I Begin a PPC Campaign?
The best place to start is by choosing your platform. A variety of platforms offer PPC ads like Facebook, Bing, Google, and much more. While these are all great platforms that will help you reach your audience, Google is usually the best option due to the massive amounts of traffic they receive on a daily basis.
After choosing your medium, you’ll need to determine the best way to show up for your target audience. How PPC works is by bidding on certain keywords you believe are most relevant to your brand or offer. If your bid for a certain keyword is higher than competitors, your ad will be the one to show up. This is why good keyword research is needed prior to a PPC campaign. To do keyword research, use tools like Ahrefs or Google’s Keyword Planner to find relevant keywords that you think your audience will search in order to find you. Be sure the keywords show intent to take action, otherwise, you may end up paying for useless clicks that don’t purchase anything. Additionally, good keyword research can help you save money by avoiding needless spending on expensive keywords that don’t show intent.
Outline Your Campaigns and Ad Groups
Regardless of which platform you choose to start your PPC campaigns, they are widely structured the same. Campaigns act as the main folder for all your ad groups. Ad groups are like mini-campaigns inside your main campaign folder. They act as the different pieces of a campaign that hold your different keywords and the ads associated with them.
For instance, if you ran a car dealership and you began a PPC campaign, you would likely have an ad group for car sales and another ad group for automotive repairs. Sales and repairs are going to have vastly different keywords, so splitting them up into their own ad groups allows for better management and more focused ads. You can structure these ad groups however you wish, although it’s best practice to split them up according to service, products, etc.
Draft Compelling Ad Copy
Now that you have your keywords and you’ve organized your campaign into ad groups, it’s time to write ad copy that will get your audience to convert. The secret to writing good ad copy is to be clear, concise, and consistent. If you’re using Google you’ll only be limited to 180 characters in your descriptions so be sure you can showcase yourself in such a limited space.
To ensure your ad copy is strong enough to make people click and take action follow some of these tips:
- Be informative
- Include a specific call to action
- Include proper grammar and punctuation
- Includes your targeted keywords
- Maintain an active tone
Make Sure Your Landing Pages Are Ready
Landing pages are different for each business. For some businesses, going directly to their homepage is all they need to get conversions. For others, they need to build a dedicated page that showcases whatever it is your marketing. You’ll want to include multiple calls to action on the page and different ways to contact your business. By having a focused landing page, you can help keep your audience engaged with the product or service they’re viewing and lead them towards converting on that page.
The Takeaway
If you’re looking to break into the digital marketing scene and are torn between the different methods of reaching your audience, pay per click advertising may be what you need. With PPC you can more accurately target your audience and get in front of searchers who may be looking to buy the products or services you offer. Just remember to be organized and focused in your efforts in order to get the highest return on your investment.
–written by Jonah Ericksen