Hubspot estimates that Google processes roughly 63,000 search queries per second, translating to 5.6 billion daily opportunities for prospects to find your website. To outrank the competition and convert clicks, digital marketing teams need to double down on Pay-Per-Click (PPC) campaign management.
PPC marketing refers to advertisements featured in the Search Engine Results Pages (SERP) for companies Google deems relevant to the initial search query. The business is only charged when a user clicks on the actual advertisement, making PPC an affordable marketing option for small business owners. The tricky part is making sure you’re strategizing, optimizing your campaigns and spending wisely to see a profitable return.
The Ad Auction and ROI
Each website competes for visible real estate on most online advertising platforms and PPC is no different. However, to democratize the playing field, Google created a process called the Ad Auction. Here’s how it works:
- Your business places bids on the specific keywords that you want Google to associate with your advertisement. These bids tell the search engine the maximum amount you’re willing to pay for each user click;
- Google combines your bid information with an algorithm calculation to determine how relevant your website is to the keyword;
- If Google accepts the bid, your advertisement receives a prominent display in the SERP. Keep in mind; Google assigns a Quality Score when determining a specific SERP position. Your website, relevance of your ad to your landing page and other factors can influence your quality score.
This Ad Auction system helps prevent larger, wealthier companies from simply paying extra to ensure their advertisement is in the top spot. The ROI is out there for anyone to capture if you’re managing your campaigns correctly.
In fact, the Google Economic Impact Report estimates that for each dollar a business spends on PPC, they earn back an average ROI of two dollars. The opportunity is clear, but it usually takes an experienced PPC marketer to achieve measurable value.
PPC campaign management requires regular optimization and tracking various KPI metrics daily. Just because you’re seeing some results doesn’t mean you can “set and forget” your ads for months on end.
From Search to Convert
It’s important to understand that PPC advertising doesn’t yield a direct ROI on spend for your small business; it’s a conversion tool. You can pay to get leads to your website, but then you need to build the experience that will convert those people. (PPC is step one).
The good news is that digital marketers can use PPC as a tool in their greater demand generation strategy and expect serious impact:
- PPC influences website traffic and lead conversions. 27 percent of all website traffic comes from PPC advertisement clicks, reports BrightEdge Research. This is especially true on mobile devices. In 2021, 74 percent of PPC click shares on Google were from mobile users, and 30 percent of click shares on Bing were mobile;
- PPC helps you target a hyper-local consumer base. There are few limitations for targeting a specific audience, providing you access to hyper-local customers. Location-specific text in the ad copy and location extensions can all increase the likelihood of high SERP placement;
- PPC elevates your brand awareness and exposure. A well-crafted PPC advertisement can put your brand in front of the right target audience and boost your digital exposure;
- PPC is effective with other channels and strategies. PPC campaign management works well with SEO initiatives, social media executions, email marketing and organic content link building. You can use PPC advertisements to increase signups for your email newsletter, boost views on content or drive a social media campaign.
PPC Best Practices
As mentioned, the most successful PPC campaigns are the ones that are optimized. From our expert experience, here are a few best practices to follow:
- Use tools to estimate what your budget should be based on geotargeting, audience & competitors; consider allocating money from other channels to boost your PPC advertising efforts;
- A specific landing page with a clear call-to-action (CTA) for all paid traffic is highly recommended to boost conversions;
- Give your campaigns enough time to provide you with actionable data – if you’re constantly changing them or stopping and starting, it will be hard to know what is working and what is not;
- Ensure you have the basics (and budget) covered with regular search ads before expanding to newer strategies (e.g. video, images, competitor campaigns etc.)
- Optimize your ad copy and website landing pages with information for voice searches. This can include easy-to-find contact details, business hours, directions or parking access;
- Keep up with trends and new rules set forth by Google;
- Evaluate your KPIs often and pivot your strategy or consult an expert if it’s not working.
How to Start PPC Campaign Management
Although it has significant ROI potential, PPC can be difficult to manage on your own. As you can see from the best practices outlined above, it’s not an activity for beginner digital marketers and typically hard for business owners since it can be time consuming. Moreover, this tactic should be a part of a larger, holistic marketing activity to ensure the best results.
If you’re unsure where to start, worried about consistency or wasting money, our experts are here to help. The team at 10x digital will help you with campaign set up, tracking metrics and optimizing the performance to generate clicks and sales—all while building the tactic into your larger demand generation strategy.
Contact our team for more information on our PPC advertising services, and increase your leads today!