If you are thinking about advertising your business online, you may have come across the term PPC or pay-per-click. Similarly, you may have considered outsourcing your PPC to an external PPC manager. But what is PPC all about and what does PPC management entail? We explain the ins and outs of PPC management and what pay-per-click is all about.
What is PPC in Digital Marketing?
PPC stands for pay-per-click and is a type of online marketing run through platforms such as Google Ads, Microsoft Ads and even social media platforms in a multi-channel pay-per-click campaign. The pay-per-click model works to drive targeted traffic to websites and the advertiser, you, pays each time one of their ads is clicked. Hence the term PPC or pay-per-click. Through PPC advertising, your website can quickly appear among the top search results for your industry.
What is a PPC Campaign?
Now that you have the basics down, what is a PPC campaign and how does PPC work? The most obvious PPC campaign example is in search results pages. Through creating a targeted PPC campaign in Google Ads for example, you can purchase different types of ads including PPC ad types such as Search text ads or Shopping ads to appear in different parts of the search engine results page. You can also run PPC campaigns to appear as display ads or social ads so that they appear on websites or social media pages or YouTube, connecting with customers at different stages where they interact most online.
To Build Your PPC Campaign, You’ll Usually Take the Following Steps:
- Using your objectives, choose your campaign type
- Refine your PPC campaign settings and ad targeting using settings such as location, audience, device etc.
- Set your budget and bid strategy
- Add your PPC campaign URL destination (where you want to send people)
- Build your PPC ad
What is PPC Management?
Whilst there is a world of opportunities when it comes to PPC, there are also plenty of ways it can be used badly and end up costing a lot of money for little return, particularly for those new to the game. Target your PPC campaigns with keywords too broad and you could run the risk of paying over the odds for traffic that has no interest in the products or services you offer once they land on your page. The same can happen with PPC targeting with the wrong search intent. Experienced PPC managers know the best ways to create successful PPC campaigns that perform well consistently and offer a high ROI or return on investment for your industry and business.
What is the PPC Management Process?
Any good PPC agency will sit down with you before any work starts to identify your business goals and the PPC budget you are comfortable with to set pay-per-click targets that work for your needs and advise on the best strategy to reach your business goals. Typically, PPC specialists will conduct thorough keyword research related to your industry and look at how competitors are bidding to work out the best PPC bidding strategy to meet your business goals using your set budget.
A PPC manager will oversee your PPC ad spend to make sure that it remains within budget whilst being used as effectively as possible to maximise your returns. Crafting the perfect ad including natural-sounding copy to optimise ads for voice search is an art and successful PPC specialists know the right way to target your prospective customers on a level that will draw them in.
PPC Strategy
PPC strategy is an ever-changing art and PPC specialists must keep up with near-constant changes from platform providers like Google Ads to ensure the PPC techniques they use are as effective as possible. You’ll want an effective pay-per-click strategy to create the right ads at the right time, targeting searchers when they are looking for a product or service like yours and raising your profile to get in front of more viewers. The best PPC strategies reduce ad spend costs and frequently discover new, targeted keywords as customer search habits develop.
Some key aspects of PPC management strategy are the following:
- Optimising copy used in paid ads to make it more engaging and compelling to attract clicks
- Tracking the right metrics for your PPC campaigns & using the right tools to learn from them
- Researching the best keywords to target with campaigns for the right website traffic and setting up optimised ad groups
- Optimising campaigns for the highest ROI
- A/B testing CTAs and other ad elements to find the perfect combination for PPC success
What is Better, SEO or PPC Management?
When it comes to successful digital marketing, the most honest answer is both. Whilst PPC is a quick way to drive traffic and conversions on your website, once you stop paying for ads, the traffic will also start to dry up. A well-planned SEO strategy and long-term website SEO improvements on the other hand will take longer to put in place and start performing but will continue to drive traffic to your website through search engine rankings long after the initial investment.
Looking for Help Managing Your PPC?
We’ve spent years honing our craft to become a leading PPC agency specialising in targeted PPC management. We’ll get to know your business and understand your goals to craft successful PPC campaigns that work for you. To find out more about our PPC management services, contact our team now online or by calling 0121 552 6500. Alternatively, take a look at our PPC management page to find out more about what we do.