With everything being online these days, pay-per-click campaigns are extremely popular methods of advertising, and for good reason.
Customers that click on a PPC ad are twice as likely to purchase something on the site than organic visitors. That’s especially great considering how many people you can reach with a PPC campaign.
This is a time-tested method, so how does pay-per-click work, and is it right for your business? Let’s find out.
HOW DOES PAY-PER-CLICK WORK?
Pay-per-click (PPC) advertisements are very popular and effective methods of advertising.
Why are they so popular? There is no upfront cost to get it started, and like the name, you will only have to pay a small amount of money for every person who clicks on your advertisement.
Google will target these ads to your ideal demographic, based on their location, age, gender, and even their interests, giving you the best opportunities possible to reach your desired customers.
The ads will be made visible to plenty of customers, creating brand awareness, without any cost to you until somebody interacts with the advertisement.
This method is especially great for startups that don’t have a lot of funds to throw around on advertising and need to get their names out there for an affordable price.
This not only helps brand awareness, but it can generate revenue very quickly. It seems that everybody is online these days, and it’s hard to find another outlet that can reach your desired clients quite as effectively.
If you have a product, service, or a plethora of content that you believe people will be interested in, then the impressions you make during these campaigns can create a major revenue stream.
PPC VS DISPLAY ADS
There are plenty of different ways to advertise online, like simply improving your SEO. However, if you want to get serious ads on relevant sites, these are the two most popular.
While they both have their advantages as well as their downsides, let’s talk about the difference.
Display ads will display themselves full-screen on a video or a webpage and force people to watch them, whereas PPC ads are typically on the side, in a banner, or in the top results on a search engine.
Display ads have upfront costs and are often more expensive overall, but are they more effective?
These types of ads definitely demand the viewer’s attention, halting them from performing their online task until after they have viewed your ad.
While this sounds more effective upon first thought, the issue with display ads is that people become very used to ignoring them, and even get frustrated with how many they see.
With PPC ads, consumers are still very used to seeing them, but they are not harmful to the viewer, and they have the choice of whether or not to interact with the ad.
Also, whether the viewer of the display advertisement decides to interact with it or not, the advertiser will still be paying for it. This is not the case with PPC ads.
BENEFITS OF PAY-PER-CLICK ADVERTISING
There are countless reasons why marketing your business online has its advantages. Essentially, any method you choose is better than none.
However, if you are looking to market your brand, then you need advertising. With so many options, it’s hard to choose. Other than getting your brand out to the world, what are the key benefits of PPC campaigns?
COST-EFFECTIVE
How does pay-per-click work cost-wise? As we mentioned, there is no upfront cost to you for purchasing this type of ad. You only pay for the number of reactions you get, and if people like your product, you’ll be bringing in a lot more than you’ll be spending.
If the quality of your ad and your product are up to par, this is a great way to get started without breaking your company’s wallet.
EASILY TRACK DATA
PPC tracking will help you keep an eye on key details like the costs per click, clickthrough rate, quality scores, and total costs.
This is invaluable information for you to get the information you need to best manage your advertising campaign. It will tell you where you need to improve, it is interactive, and easy to track the ad’s effectiveness.
EASY TO USE
With a lot of different online advertising methods, there is a lot of work to get it started and keep it running. From paying different websites individually to market your products to speaking with developers.
PPC ads are different. This is a “set it and forget it” method of advertising. Google, as well as most other companies offering PPC campaigns, will do the work for you.
You only have to set up the advertisement, link a payment method, and pay as you go.
VERSATILE
PPC ads do not all look the same. Whether you choose a banner, sidebar, or a search result, the options are endless. You get to choose what it looks like, what information is displayed, the size, and everything in between.
WHAT ELSE?
Now that we’ve answered the question: “how does pay-per-click work?”, it’s time to figure out if it’s right for your business.
You know you could benefit from generating some extra traffic to your site and even make some more sales, and this is a great method to do it. If you think it’s right for you, get started today!
If it isn’t for you, or if you’re really looking to get your brand out there, check out 8 more online marketing tips so you can keep growing!