What is Pay Per Click Advertising?
Pay Per Click (PPC) advertising is a form of online traffic acquisition where an advertiser bids on specific keywords they want to show for in Google and Bing. PPC advertising offers businesses a unique opportunity to acquire new customers and track their ad spend along the way, which is vital when operating on a strict budget.
In today’s digital age, pay per click adverting is a must-have for any business operating online.
PPC advertising begins with strong keyword research to identify opportunities, digging into exact-match keywords and broader searches from potential customers already searching on Google or Bing. After reviewing the search volume of the key phrases related to a business, the competition in the space and the geographic market being served, a cost-per-click (CPC) is derived to know how much it will take to be competitive. With the right keywords and CPC in place, you can begin winning auctions for the most important keywords to your brand.
Unlike SEO and other marketing programs that take time to develop, PPC is instant and you can begin advertising your brand in Google and Bing immediately.
Why is Pay Per Click Important To A Digital Marketing Stategy?
Google estimates that 63% of people using search click on ads first. While your brand may rank really well in natural (organic) results, almost 2/3 of people searching in Google will click through on an advertisement before seeing your organic listing. This indicates a major opportunity to advertise your brand to people already searching for your products and services.
PPC also provides the opportunity for high-quality and highly-targeted traffic – ads targeted to specific geographic locations, ads shown or excluded on specific devices (desktop, tablet, mobile), ads shown during specific times of the day (i.e., business hours), demographic targeting (income levels, parental status, gender) and perhaps most important, ads are only served for the keywords you want. Ad performance is also tracked from the first click all the way to a conversion happening on the site. Compared to traditional advertising mediums like print, radio and outdoor ads, PPC offers its advertisers much more transparency and reporting.
Local PPC Vs. Enterprise PPC: What Is the Difference?
While a local pay per click advertising campaign will focus on keywords and phrases involving service names + a geographic target within a few campaigns, enterprise PPC appeals to a much broader audience and typically includes hundreds of campaigns. Additionally, local PPC targets specific geographic locations within a precise radius of a business while an enterprise strategy is much more open, often targeting customers all over the country. Because of the wider targeting, enterprise PPC campaigns will expect to have a larger budget.
What Makes Octiv Different
At Octiv, we understand PPC is a necessary marketing cost to improve the recognition of your brand and increase sales. We also understand you operate on a budget and need your return on ad spend (ROAS) to be as efficient as possible for every dollar going out the door. From managing budgets for small-to-medium sized businesses to million dollar quarterly budgets for large enterprise clients, we are well-versed in pay per click ads for inbound marketing campaigns and confidently manage budgets to a highly efficient ROAS. Our experience spans across several industries, budgets and companies of all sizes.
Analytics & Reporting
We are also proud to be transparent about where exactly your ad spend is going. For this reason, we set all of our clients up with Google Data Studio and offer extensive analytics reporting. You can rest assured we’re maximizing your ad spend to the best of its potential while netting you new customers.
Common Questions About PPC Management
1 – How much does PPC cost?
The short answer is that a PPC budget varies based on the keywords and locations you plan to target. For example, advertising for long-tail and really specific keywords might carry lower costs, while a more generic term can expect a higher CPC. Likewise, advertising for a small suburb will be less than a big city.
2 – What is the difference between PPC and SEO?
Most small businesses invest in two common types of internet marketing – PPC and SEO. While a local SEO strategy takes time to develop and mature, pay per click advertising allows small business to acquire traffic from Google immediately.
3 – Can I run SEO and PPC campaigns at the same time?
Absolutely! While an SEO campaign develops, you can grow traffic to your site right away with a Google Ads strategy. The keywords you advertise in Google can even help craft a content strategy for your SEO.
4 – Is PPC the same thing as Facebook ads?
While Facebook ads have their own dedicated advertising platform, PPC is used for search engine marketing only. Facebook has a lot of customized targeting and capabilities that we can use to help direct a PPC strategy.
5 – How do you measure results of a PPC campaign?
Depending on your business’s KPI (traffic, conversions, sales, ROAS), we’ll tune and optimize campaigns accordingly. While an e-commerce business relies on tracking conversions, a small business’s primary goal may be driving traffic. In either case, we can establish the right goals for your campaign.
Additionally, we’ll plug data into your Google Analytics or Adobe Analytics account so you know exactly how you’re performing.
6 – Where are my PPC ads shown?
Any Google Ads user can choose to show ads on Google itself or partner sites that allow for text ads. Additionally, ads display on desktop, tablet and mobile devices, all of which can be customized for your specific customer.
7 – How am I charged for my PPC campaigns?
We offer two options for our clients. First, the client can enter their billing information directly in Google Ads or they can provide us with the billing info. Alternatively, we can be responsible for the ads and invoice you on a monthly basis along with our agency rate.
8 – Do you need to work on my site for a PPC campaign?
This is a common question with an answer of it depends. Paid search ads sometimes require new landing pages be created to optimize ads as much as possible. In other cases, we can use your existing content for ads. Once we dive into your keywords and content, we’ll have a better idea of what is required.
9 – Do you require long-term contracts?
We offer month-to-month billing for all of our PPC management services. If you decide PPC just isn’t the right strategy for your business, we are happy to pause the ads and find something that works better for you.
10 – What about Bing?
Bing PPC is also a viable option if your customers fit the Bing profile. While Bing is substantially smaller than Google, there are still people searching. We commonly recommend mirroring ads from Google to Bing so as to take up as much market share as possible.
Sacramento PPC Management
While we offer pay per click ad management to nationwide clientele, we’re also a go-to source for Sacramento PPC management. For local businesses who need to compete in search results and need to obtain clicks, leads and new customers right away, paid advertising is an optimal choice as it places your business front and center instantaneously.
Like any heavily-populated city, Sacramento is a competitive market and requires the best in PPC management and consulting to get it right. And whether your business is in the heart of downtown Sacramento or a suburb like Folsom or Roseville, we’re here to be your PPC agency.
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