What Is PPC Marketing?
Pay-per-click also called (PPC). PPC Marketing refers to a situation where the advertisers pay for the ad clicks of their users on the Search Network, Display Network or any other paid channel.
Unlike SEO which is regarded as an organic digital marketing strategy, PPC marketing is viewed as a paid strategy. SEO is a free traffic strategy because users click on the free organic links that appear on the SERP of Google and don’t pay for the traffic you generate.
However, PPC makes users click on the ads to the top and bottom of SERP. You can see a screenshot of the difference below:In the case of these ads, advertisers are charged when a user clicks. PPC managers will bid for specific keywords that make their ads to be triggered upon their bidding, quality scores, and some other factors. These are the factors that dictate where to place your ad on the SERP.
In addition, this also means that with PPC, you can’t create unnecessary and click-baity traffic.
Why is that? In addition, when you are paying for each click, you must make as much money off as many clicks as possible. In other words, the more your PPC ads generate empty traffic, the more cash you burn without generating new revenue.
But what type of clicks and traffic will help you achieve the best possible PPC results and what kind of conversion can you expect from that traffic to increase conversions/sales? So read this post well, that’s what this post will teach you – so eat up;) .
Advantages and Disadvantages of PPC Marketing
We have also talked about the general PPC overview. Now, let’s examine some of the pros and cons of selecting this paid search approach compared to SEO or content marketing.
PPC Marketing Pros
The fact that paid campaigns are much easier and evidently to trace and measure is one of the biggest and most obvious pros of paid campaigns versus organic campaigns.
In some instances, it can be hard to determine if a jump in ranking on account of organic optimization has triggered a hike in reads and probably conversions or sales.
However, everything is measured with PPC. Just click to that tab, and there you go. You will see which change and how much it increased conversions.
PPC is also a faster way than organic strategies.
SEO and content marketing require you to be patient because Google has to scrape your page, rank it, and wait for the traffic to build up so that your ranking will increase. In PPC it takes you to directly pay to appear at the top of the page where majority of user’s attention lies, thus quicker results.
It also gives the third great “pro” for PPC marketing which is known as retargeting campaigns.
What is Retargeting?
Retargeting refers to the opportunity to advertise to a person who has visited your website or clicked on one of your ads. This is a very potent marketing strategy that may generate conversion rates that are many times higher than normal campaigns.
Retargeting, otherwise called “remarketing” refers to campaigns that go for the target audiences who have already demonstrated a keen interest in your brand and potential for a purchase.
Rather than targeting a totally cold audience and using keywords to evaluate intent, you are exploiting a well-established qualified audience.
All these PPC benefits enable maximizing the ROI. To spend money on traffic in the paid advertising space without generating revenue is something you can’t afford. This is what makes ROI-driven, PPC strategies truly stand out.
PPC Marketing Cons
I have mentioned PPC marketing many times and its advantages.
However, that is not to say it does not have its downsides. The most obvious can be found in the name itself:
Cost per click.
This may be a challenging matter for small, local businesses. Moreover, if you do not optimise your campaigns and continuously perform CRO, you are going to lose a lot of money, which can be more expensive and more stressful. Finally, it’s not just the matter of driving traffic, but qualified traffic that convert.
A second large entry barrier into the PPC world is the complex nature of the Google Ads platform. In 2018, the platform got a pretty big overhaul and one has to get used to it. It is not a piece of cake, and one must be able to think with both the left and the right brain to succeed in it.
A real PPC expert would not only use hard data to optimise for scientific keywords research and A/B testing, but also would leverage human side of ad copy for increased engagement with users.
Not only that, but she or he will be able to keep all of this in balance when a large ad budget is on the line.
In the end, you’ll see that the pros of PPC far outweigh the cons so long as you know what you’re doing and how to optimize your paid marketing strategies towards the right goals.
Now that you know the basics of what PPC marketing is and why it’s so valuable, we can dive into the intricacies of PPC management. This is where you will get the real value from this blog post — the comprehensive framework around which you’ll build a winning PPC strategy.