What is Pay Per Click (PPC)?
Pay Per Click, also known as PPC or Search Engine Marketing, is a form of online advertising where the advertiser pays to promote their website and reach out to the targeted audience. Advertisers bid for keywords in order to have their ads appear when somebody searches on Search Engine (Google, Yahoo, Bing etc.) for the related products and services offered by them.
How does Pay Per Click (PPC) works?
Pay Per Click (PPC) works on a bidding system. In a campaign, advertisers choose the amount to bid for the targeted keywords in order for their ads to appear. Once the bid amount is set, it will be known as the targeted keyword’s Cost Per Click (CPC). When someone clicks on the ad, advertisers will pay Search Engine based on the CPC set earlier and this will be taken from the budget that advertisers have set aside. Once the entire budget is used up, Search Engine will cease to run the ads until advertisers top up the budget.
You can see what your potential customers are searching for using Google Keywords Planner Tool.
Why is Pay Per Click (PPC) Important?
With more than 3.5 billion searches on Google alone every day (as reported on internetlivestats.com), businesses need to make sure their websites can be found by people searching for the products and services they are offering.
PPC offers a fast marketing strategy to obtain visibility in search engines such as Google, Yahoo, Bing, etc. Paid search advertising from Google comes in the form of AdWords ads. These AdWords ads will usually appear at the edges (top, right, side and bottom) of search results thus giving paid ads pretty good visibility above actual SEO organic search results.
Who should do Pay Per Click (PPC)?
With the trend changing, increasing number of people are going online to search for the products and services they require. Hence, all company should engage in some form of online marketing. Below are some of the business types that will especially benefit from PPC:
High Customer Lifetime Values
- Dentists, Doctors etc. – New clients can potentially be worth thousands of dollars over the course of many years especially if they refer more new clients.
- Online Degree Programs – New students are worth a lot over the course of their education.
- Cable & Internet Provider – People tend to stick to one provider for their phone, cable, and Internet service for a long time.
High Margins
- Lawyers etc. – A lawyer can make a lot of money on a single case thus even if the client only need the service for one lawsuit, the margins can be very high.
- Repairmen – Some home repairs can be very costly (roof repair, new pipes etc.)
- The seller of Big Ticket Items – Home Appliances, Computer Equipment, Car, and Property.
Hard-to-Find Products
Products that are not readily sold at many of the brick and mortar shops.
Diverse Array of Products
Amazon, eBay etc.
Seasonal Businesses
Florists, Costume Shops etc.
Bearing in mind that not only the above businesses will gain from doing Pay Per Click (PPC). Any kind of business targeting the relevant high-intent keywords can also drive affordable leads to their website to generate sales.
What are the Advantages of Pay Per Click (PPC)?
Targeted Audience
When compared to mass media advertising channels like newspapers or television, PPC allows you to have more control over audience targeting. In Google AdWords, you can target audiences by keywords, locations, and language. Mass media advertising channels serve up your ads to anyone who happens to be watching or reading whether they are interested or not, whereas PPC only targets people who are already actively searching for something related to your business.
Fast Results
Your website gains visibility as quickly as within a day! As long as your advertisement complies with all Google AdWords terms and conditions, and you have targeted the right keywords, you will be connecting with the right potential customers immediately.
Cost Effective
Your ads will only be shown to potential customers who use search keywords related or similar to your selected keywords. When your ad gets displayed, you do not pay anything unless someone clicks on your ad!
Most Search Engine Marketing tools allow you to set a maximum cost per click (the maximum amount you are willing to pay for every click) so that you can better manage your marketing budget. It also allows you to set a daily budget to ensure you do not exceed your marketing budget.
Scalable
If a campaign is converting leads to sales at a profitable rate, advertisers can increase their budget, which in turn increases the outreach to more leads and potentially leading to higher profits.
Measurable
Based on PPC metrics, advertisers can use it to see which campaign is working well and which is not. Hence, results can be easily measured.
Free Exposure
Since your ads will only be shown to people who use search keywords related or similar to your selected keywords and you only get charged for clicks, this actually equates to free exposure! It is like getting a free space on a billboard but not paying anything unless someone walks into your store!
Show your advertisement 24 hours a day, 7 days a week
PPC allows your advertisement to be shown 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. You can also target potential customers around the world speaking different languages
Points to take note on Pay Per Click (PPC).
How far your search engine marketing effort goes really depends on your online marketing budget and how you configure it.
Example: If you set a $1000 online marketing budget limit per month, this will mean $33.33 a day. If your targeted keyword costs $1 per click, your budget will buy you 33 clicks. If you hit your budget for the day, your ad will no longer run until the next day.