Pay-Per-Click
Advertising

Effective PPC companies provide comprehensive management and reporting on your pay-per-click campaigns. The agency you select should be able to handle all aspects of these ad campaigns for you:

• Monitoring rates and bidding on keywords
• Developing target audiences
• Adjusting campaigns for factors such as seasonality
• Performing competitor research
• Writing and optimizing search ad copy
• Creating visuals (images, landing pages, etc.) that meet requirements for individual PPC platforms
• Maximizing return on ad spend
• Validating and reporting the results of campaigns

Google Ads awards certification to marketers and advertisers who demonstrate an advanced practical expertise in PPC. The agency as a whole should be recognized as a Google Partner, which signals a minimum threshold of ad investment and proven success in the management of PPC campaigns.

Just about every business advertising online can benefit from PPC campaigns! The best PPC companies customize each campaign for the client’s industry, audience, and budget.

Some of the industries that enjoy significant results from PPC ads include:

• Automotive
• Hospitality and tourism
• Clothing and apparel
• Law firms/legal
• Home improvement
• Software and research
• Medical and dental
• And many, many others!

Unlike organic SEO, PPC is focused on conversions over visibility. Although showing up for competitive keywords may be important, the most effective campaign might focus on lower-competition terms with a higher likelihood of conversion.

If you are a local business serving a specific audience, a national mass-market campaign is a waste of your advertising budget. Be sure to find a PPC company that seeks to understand your business and develop campaigns that fit.

The first step is to understand the sheer number of options available to you. Although PPC is often associated with the sponsored listings in Google search, pay-per-click ad options are actually available on many different platforms.

Paid ads serve different audiences performing different activities online. In addition, different platforms offer different kinds of PPC campaigns, including:

Search ads

• Google Ads
• Microsoft Advertising (Bing and Yahoo!)

Display advertising

• Google ads network
• Retargeting/remarketing ads

Social media advertising

• Facebook Audience Network
• Instagram Stories, Photo, and Video Ads
• Twitter Ads
• LinkedIn Ads

YouTube ads

• Pre-roll ads
• Midroll ads
• End-roll ads

Once you have identified where you plan to run ads, it is important to follow all of the platform guidelines when developing the ad copy, imagery, and links you intend to use. Specifications vary and are subject to change, but abiding by the rules will save you time and help get your campaign live sooner.

As you can see, it’s easy to be spoiled for choice when it comes to your options for paid ads. It might be tempting to invest in many different channels to maximize the number of people you reach, but the more effective strategy is to identify where your audience tends to congregate online, then develop ads that specifically target those consumers.

The audience will be smaller, but they will be much more receptive to seeing your ad on the platform or platforms they frequent. As a result, they will be more likely to click your ad and then convert, which makes for an effective return on investment.

With names like Google, Facebook, and others to choose from, opting to run PPC ads on only one platform will still get you significant exposure. That said, there is no objective measure for which pay-per-click site is “best.”

Instead, you should take into account two different factors:

1. On which site am I most likely to reach the highest number of consumers who are likely to buy my product or service?
2. Does my agency have the experience with this platform to make my campaigns successful?

Note that both of these questions require you to answer based on your business needs and goals, rather than focusing on click-through rates and other metrics industry. Similarly, the audience you want to target should take precedence over which platform you select; strive to reach customers where they already are, and your ROI will always be higher.

Again, the answer to this question will depend on the unique characteristics of your business. For example, say you are an automotive parts manufacturer running an ad for custom brake pads that cost $125. For each user who clicks your ads and completes your desired action (making a purchase), that is $125 you make from that ad (minus any costs associated with the campaign).

This question is more difficult in service-based industries where upfront prices are not the norm. Personal injury lawyers, for example, can really only tell how much a client’s case may be worth after meeting with him or her and reviewing the situation. The average fee for successful injury claims is 33.33%. So, when it comes to PPC ads, the rate at which each one may be established, but it is unlikely you will know how much a user’s click is worth monetarily until they actually become a client.

As for how much you pay to run your ads, this too depends on several factors:

• The keyword terms/phrases you’re targeting
• Competition on those keywords
• The times of day you’re running the ad
• Target geographic area
• Seasonality

Some platforms may also consider your ads experience to determine how much you have to pay for clicks. For example, Google determines your Quality Score by assessing the expected click-through rate of your campaigns, rating your landing page, and comparing the relevance of your ad to the target keyword. The higher your quality score, the lower your cost per click (CPC).

Google Quality Score and other ratings demonstrate the importance of hiring a qualified agency to help you with PPC ads. Lack of experience can lead to a waste of time and money. But, with the right partner, you should see better returns, more leads, and an influx of sales.