What Is Pay-Per-Click (PPC), How Does It Work, And Why Is It Important To Understand A Utilize This Marketing Tool?
A powerful method for driving website traffic via non-organic means
Pay-Per-Click currently accounts for over 97% of Google’s yearly revenue. That’s right, 97%. One of the foremost reasons being it is simply too powerful to ignore as a marketing tool. Let’s start with the basics; pay-per-click is simple enough to understand in regard to paying google every time someone clicks on one of your ads. It’s safe to say you have most likely run a google search before, but do you remember the first two/three website listings google presented you? Those listings are ads. It even says “ad” in large bold letters just to the left of the website URL. Odds are, you either clicked on the ad because it matched your search query perfectly, or you kept scrolling because you said to yourself: “I don’t want to click on an ad” or “this isn’t what I’m looking for’. Generally speaking, those are the reactions people have when they query a search in google and get a couple of ads presented to them before they see the more organic results further down the page. That’s because it largely has to do with the relevance of your keyword choice in your search. Those parameters are not set by Google, they are set by the user (you), and google factors them in with your bid price, as well as the quality of the page the keywords are featured on. So not only do you need to set highly relevant keywords and terms and pay more than your competition to get better placement, but you also need to have a responsive and well-maintained website. All of these factors come into play when securing placement of your PPC ad over the competition as well as making sure people actually want to click on your ad.
Cost effective pay-per-click vs. spray and pray.
If you don’t have unlimited finances to waste on PPC, you may want to carefully consider the keywords and terms you chose to run ads on. A couple of very well targeted terms could be the difference between a cost effective marketing strategy or an absolute nightmare. If your terms are poorly chosen, you could be spending top dollar on keywords that aren’t driving website traffic. Conversely, if your website isn’t up to snuff it could be affecting your ad rankings as well. All things considered, if you have a quality website (like the ones we build here at AIO 😉) and your search terms are properly researched, you could get a great bang for your buck out of a marketing campaign.
Pay-per-click or SEO?
Both. If you utilize both of these tools effectively, you could create so much website traffic your server may have trouble handling all of it. Seriously, organic traffic generation is very important – but if someone hits a search and one of those first three ads match their query, it’s a wrap. For a small price, you’ve just secured some solid website traffic and hopefully earned a sale from your online store, a phone call, or an email. This helps to not only drive website traffic but also helps your business grow, which is why we spend money on PPC to begin with. So don’t hesitate, reach out to us today and start your first PPC ad campaign with the experts at AIO Branding.