Ads: Click ’em or Skip ’em – Benefits of PPC

“Are pay-per-click ads beneficial?” This may be a question you have asked yourself many times when thinking about starting a PPC campaign.

Pay Per Click (PPC) ads are beneficial for businesses of all sizes. Paid search allows you to pay a fee to have your website be displayed on search result pages when someone types in a specific keyword or phrase to the search engine. You only pay when someone clicks.

You may not even recognize a pay-per-click ad when you see them in the search results.

If you are a native to the web, you have certainly seen them. PPC ads can be found across the top of a search result page, as well as along the side.

Here are some top reasons why PPC may be beneficial to your business.

Keep in mind, WebFX is a full-service marketing agency that provides services to clients across the country. So whether you need digital marketing services in Orlando or a marketing campaign in Philadelphia, we’ve got you covered.

Targeted Website Traffic

Since you have the option to assign which ads are displayed for certain keywords and phrases, as well as what page a user will land on when they click your ad, quality of your website traffic will increase.  This means that the quality will increase because you are able to target people who may be at various stages in the buying cycle.

For example, if you sell laptop bags, you can bid on keywords that are targeted toward people in the “research” phase, such as “laptop bags for sale” and send users to a broad laptop bags page.

For people that are further along in the buying process, you can bid on keywords that are more specific and send them to that specific product’s page.  By doing this, you will likely have a lower bounce rate and an increase in conversions.

Ads are also able to be scheduled to run at certain times.  For example, if you know that the busiest times for people to be searching for your product are between 1:00 pm and 6:00 pm, you can ensure that those are the times your ads are shown.

Location Targeting

With paid search, you have the ability to control where your ads are being shown to help focus your ads on the areas where you’ll find the right customers, which in turn could help increase your return on investment. If you have specific sales that are only going on in a certain city, you can ensure that your ads for that sale are only shown to people searching from that city.

Say you want to create a campaign that is only targeted to the Western states of the United States, you have that option. Targeting can be done by countries, areas within a country, a radius around a location, city, state or zip code.  You are also able to exclude your ads from showing in certain geographic locations.  For example, if your business doesn’t ship to or provide services to a certain city or region, it is best to not have your ads shown to that area.

Fast Results

Unlike SEO, which takes some time to build up, PPC ads can be up and running quickly, bringing in qualified traffic and leads to your website.

If you want immediate clicks to your website, PPC is the best option because you can immediately start appearing on the first page of results.

Your rankings with PPC are determined by how much you bid on keywords, the quality score of your ads, and the landing pages that the ads point to. If you are launching a brand new website or business, you want to get your name out there as soon as possible. This is also beneficial if you have special promotions or events that need exposure and cannot be planned months in advance.

Reinforce SEO with PPC

If you already have a strong SEO campaign, using PPC in conjunction with SEO can be beneficial for both services.

PPC is a nice supplement to your search engine optimization because you can use it to quickly determine which keywords drive traffic and conversions, and then build those keywords into your organic SEO efforts. If you are just starting out your SEO campaign, PPC ads can help businesses increase their revenue while their SEO techniques are building up momentum and power.

Set Your Own Budget

With PPC, you are able to alter your budget to meet your sales goals and how aggressive you want to be with certain campaigns. Because you only pay when an ad is clicked, you are easily able to manage costs, track conversions from PPC, and determine your return on investment.

This also allows you to outbid those who might want to use similar search terms.

Paid advertising goes much farther than just the ads you see in search results, though.

Multiple PPC Options

Display advertising lets you create not only text ads, but also image, interactive and video ads. These ads can then be placed on websites that are relevant to what your business is selling. You are also able to manage and track your budget with display ads, just like the search ads.

Attract new customers with this form of advertising with eye-catching ads.

{photo courtesy of Google AdWords}

Remarketing lets you show ads to users who have previously visited your website. You are able to set which ad gets shown to users based on certain actions they did or did not take on your site.

When someone is considering making a purchase, they go through several steps: research potential options, narrow down those options, place an item in a shopping cart, and then make the purchase. At any point in those steps, they may abandon the buying process.

Remarketing is one of the best ways to stay engaged with your target audience.

By presenting your potential customers with relevant ads and offers while they are visiting other pages on the Web, you are ensuring your business is top of mind when they are ready to make a purchase, in turn increasing your ROI. A perfect example of this would be Amazon. What they will do is if you added a product to your shopping cart, but did not finish checking out, they will offer a discount or free shipping.

If you do buy a product, they will cross market you with something else. For example, if I buy a sleeping bag, they will show me ads for tents.

Mobile ads help you to reach your audiences while they are on-the-go and away from their computers. These ads will appear in search results, on content websites, in apps and video.

Research has shown that 90% of people switch between devices to accomplish a goal so this is a great way to ensure you are in front of your customer wherever they are searching.

There are many benefits to PPC advertising and several different varieties you can test and try out.

Have you had success with search advertising or the methods of display advertising? Let us know your success stories or any questions you have on paid search in the comments below!