These days, all marketing guides seem to assume a foundation of knowledge regarding PPC marketing. But what if you don’t have this foundation of knowledge? Whether you’ve recently joined the marketing industry or have avoided PPC marketing so far, you’ll find everything you need to know in this guide!
What’s PPC Marketing?
First and foremost, PPC is short for ‘pay per click and refers to an advertising method whereby you pay whenever somebody clicks on your ad. You launch the campaign (on Facebook, for example), target your audience, and pay whenever a member of your audience clicks through to the landing page. Importantly, you don’t pay for placements, only when the prospective lead clicks through.
With this in mind, the aim is to reach out to your audience online and pay for their attention. This differs from SEO where you earn clicks organically. These days, PPC marketing models are used on social media platforms as well as many search engines (such as Google).
Bidding for Placements
How do you appear in front of your audience? Although intricacies are present on each platform, the general idea is to bid against other advertisers. You choose a keyword relevant to your niche and bid against other advertisers that also want to appear on searches of the same keyword. If your bid wins, your ad shows. Of course, this isn’t the end of the process because the ad itself needs to entice people to click.
Using Google as an example, the advantage is that your ad appears at the top of search results on the first page…something you might find impossible organically. If the user ignores your ad, nothing happens. If they click, you’re charged (but you’ve also generated a lead).
Generally, PPC campaigns are worthwhile because the small amount you pay for clicks is earned back through conversions. If somebody buys a product worth $15, the $0.50 PPC fee seems insignificant. Ultimately, the task is to make PPC campaigns as cost-effective as possible – in other words, encourage lots of conversions and generate lots of revenue for as little as possible.
Consumer Side
On the consumer side, their experience begins with a search. As an example, open a new tab after finishing this article and type ‘cycling accessories’ or anything else that somebody might purchase online. Instantly, you’ll see that the top handful of results has ‘Ad’ next to the link, and this is because these links won the impossibly-quick bidding process that takes place between the user typing their search and the search engine displaying the results.
Since your link will appear as an ad in the same way, your choice of keywords is critical. The last thing you want is for somebody who has no interest in your brand or products to click on your link. Although you’re charged, the likelihood of them converting is almost zero. Instead, you want to target people who love your niche and will enjoy your products.
Conclusion
Returning to the bidding process, don’t just assume that the highest bid always wins. Instead, many advertising platforms have special algorithms that consider your bid but don’t decide placements purely on them. Google uses Quality Score, a metric that considers relevance, CTR (click-through rate), your advertising history, landing page quality, and more.
If you have a bead of sweat passing your eye just thinking about online advertising, King Kong’s PPC services can help. The company will get you set up with the relevant advertising channels and even stick around to monitor, analyze, and improve campaigns. If you’re going it alone, always keep your audience in mind!
