What is PPC Advertising?
Pay-per-click advertising is a way of placing ads on the internet, usually through Google Ads. Though PPC is available through many other search engines and social sites, I will be using Google as the example here since it’s most popular and since the set up is similar across the board.
PPC ads are the results you see at the top of the search engine results page that have the word “ad” at the beginning of the result. You only pay for these ads when someone actually clicks through to your landing page, hence the name. Essentially, you are buying visitors to this webpage. There are a few types of PPC Advertising; Search Ads are the most common and that’s what I’ll be focusing on here.
The chief benefit of PPC advertising is that you only pay when someone actually visits your site. While it doesn’t mean that they will actually make a purchase or perform the action you want them to, it does ensure that they will have actually visited your site, something that can be hard to guarantee with other forms of advertising. PPC Ads also produce results quickly and allow you to reach very specific target audiences.
One drawback is that once your campaign is over, the traffic it creates will be gone. If you want to retain that audience, you will need to continue to pay for advertising, at least until you are able to build loyalty, which may or may not be worth it, depending on your campaign’s success. It also often takes a certain amount of trial and error to set up successful campaigns, so you will likely have to do PPC several times to see the results you want. You should have reasonable expectations about what each campaign can do.
Cost Per Click
Determining the cost of your ads can be tricky. For a complete breakdown of google’s formula, read this article (link). Basically, you set the maximum amount you’re willing to pay per click (based on the going rate of your keywords), but the formula google uses to determine your actual cost per click is:
Competitor’s ad rank / your quality score + .01.
Ad rank is determined by multiplying the maximum bid by the quality score.
Quality score is determined by the quality of your landing page, the relevance of your keywords, the quality of your ad, how high you’ve ranked on search engines in the past, and your click-through rate versus average click-through rates for ads in the same position.
Take the ad rank of the ad below yours, divide it by your quality score, and add 1¢ to get your actual cost per click.
You can set this up manually or allow the search engine to do it all for you. Manually gives you more control, while having it done for you is easier. You still have to pay attention when it’s being done for you, though, as you’re giving permission for your bids to be adjusted.
Creating a campaign:
As always, start with your audience and goal. Space is very limited in PPC ads, so you need to be very specific about your message, your audience, and what you want them to do. Common goals include sales, lead generation, raising brand awareness, and bringing traffic to a website. Your specific goals will depend on your overall marketing strategy.
Next, do keyword research. Every group of ads has to have keywords to target so your ad can be placed in the best possible position for your campaign. You will bid on keywords based on their popularity and going rate at the time. Usually, you will choose 1-5 keywords based on the content of your landing page and your goal. In order to keep your quality score up, your keywords must be highly relevant. They should be aligned with the message of your campaign, or specific theme. If you offer more than one service, you should choose one per ad group. It would be a mistake to use unrelated keywords in the same campaign. You also shouldn’t choose keywords you think will bring people in even if they aren’t really part of your core business. Remember that Google penalizes the use of irrelevant keywords. You can change your keywords later, so think of your first few campaigns as research. You don’t have to have perfect keywords for driving traffic immediately, but you do have to provide good faith keywords that are relevant to the content of your landing page.
Once you have your strategy and campaign down, it’s time to construct the ad itself. There are 3 parts to the ad: a headline, a description, and a URL link to your landing page. The headline can be up to 30 characters and the description can be up to 90. You can use up to 3 headlines and 2 descriptions. Because this space is so limited, it’s important to be concise and clear. Speak directly to your target audience, include the keyword you bid on, and have a clear Call to Action.
Next, optimize your landing page. The landing page is the page users will end up on when they click the link in your ad. Usually, it will be a page on your own website, but you can build them using other services like Constant Contact. You should design a page specifically for this campaign unless your goal is to raise brand awareness, in which case your website’s homepage will suffice. It is far more effective to have a page designed specifically for the campaign.
Having a high quality landing page is important because this is where people will or will not make a purchase, join your mailing list, or complete whatever other action you are trying to get them to do. It’s also important because the relevance of your landing page is being judged by Google’s algorithm to determine your value to their users, which, in turn, determines your ranking and ad placement. Your page should be responsive, meaning that it works perfectly and looks right on screens of all sizes. It should be quick loading and visually uncluttered with one clear goal and Call To Action. The headline should match the search terms that brought users to it. If your PPC Ad was a promotion, the offer should be presented here. Make sure that if you clicked your ad, the landing page is what you would expect and want to land on.
Last, make sure you set up Google Analytics and tracking so you can monitor the success of your campaign and adjust your strategy as needed.
Substance and Style 