Traditional organizations find it difficult to allocate a budget for PPC campaigns, mostly because it looks like the money just disappeared into the virtual world. Newspapers, radio, TV ads, hoardings, and flyers can be seen or heard to believe that they are reaching people.
Oftentimes, it’s difficult to actually see where your PPC ads are showing up and when, especially if you are not part of the target audience yourself.
Why PPC campaigns over traditional media?
Believe it or not, PPC campaigns offer way more effective targeting than any traditional media like radio, TV, newspapers, flyers, and hoardings. You can narrow down your audience to very small niche groups that are interested in your specific products or services rather than spending tons of money on very generic ads that are seen by everybody.
Paid Marketing Campaigns or PPC campaigns offer better reporting than other advertising channels, helping you understand Return On Ad Spend (ROAS).
What is PPC?
If you are reading this article, you probably already know what PPC campaigns are. Just brushing up on things a little.
Pay Per Click campaigns or Paid Marketing Campaigns allow you to pay for placing your ads in search engines or social media sites, bidding against your competitors to place your ads in higher positions.
Types of PPC campaigns
Search campaigns
Display campaigns
Video campaigns
Social media ads
Remarketing ads
Involves showing your ad when somebody searches for specific keywords. Possible only in search engines.
Ads are shown on websites or apps that are pertaining to a specific topic. It can also be on websites or apps frequented by your target audience.
With the growing popularity of videos among all age groups, video ads can be shown on YouTube, Vimeo, or social media platforms.
Ads that are shown in text or video form on social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Snapchat, Twitter and so on.
These ads are shown to users who have already interacted with your website, app, ads, or social media platforms in the past. Since the audience already know your brand, there is a greater chance of brand recall and conversions.
Where do PPC ads show up?
Pay Per Click ads show up on search engines above and below the search results if you are running search campaigns. In Display campaigns, the ads can show up anywhere on the website or app. Social media campaign ads are shown in Stories or Feeds along with other normal, organic posts.
PPC engines allow you different options to show your ads – this is called Placement. You can control the type of websites your ads will show through the Placement option.
Why run PPC campaigns?
Pay per Click as the name says costs money, and is getting more expensive by the day. As start-ups get huge funding, they can afford to spend a crazy lot of money on advertising, thus driving up the bids and making PPC expensive for everybody.
A few years ago, PPC ads were shown only on the right side of the search results page (SERP). Now, the ads have a more prominent position than the organic results.
Sometimes Google will show paid ads, then local results, and then videos before showing any organic results thus making SEO a very very tough game. Unless you show up on ranks 1-5, there is no way a user is going to see your webpage.
- If you are a new company in an already established market with big players, it is challenging to get organic traffic and conversions quickly. PPC is the only option to grow quickly.
- If your website traffic and conversions are plateauing even if you have tried all the SEO tricks in the book, PPC can help you step up the game.
- If your website is getting traffic but no conversions, it is possible that you are not getting the right audience. PPC can help you target the right audience and guide them to the right page.
- If you are launching a new product and need to test it in the market quickly, PPC can help you get visibility in a short period of time.
Advantages of running PPC campaigns
PPC campaigns can help your business a lot when it’s done right.
Quick results
Razor-sharp targeting
Detailed reports
Remarketing
Testing products or offerings
When you are a new entrant into the market, SEO is a long-term game. You can optimize pages, build backlinks, write articles, and then wait it out for Google to discover the authenticity of your content and send you traffic.
If you need quick results, PPC is the way to go.
You can spend money to get traffic to your website or app quickly to jumpstart your business.
With PPC, you can pinpoint your target audience and create ads specifically for them. Gender, age group, demographics, job profiles, interests, geography, and marital status are just a few parameters that you can control while running PPC campaigns.
Fine-tuning your audience in paid marketing campaigns can ensure that you reach the right audience at the right time, with the right message.
Advanced reporting modules in PPC engines can give you a detailed view of your ad performance – impressions, clicks, cost per click, conversions, cost per conversions, and so on.
This can help you tweak campaigns for better performance and conversions. Connect the PPC engine to your Analytics platform like Google Analytics for more in-depth analysis.
Once a visitor comes to your website or social media page and leaves, the best way to reach out to them is through PPC campaigns. The Marketing Rule of 7s says that a visitor should see your name at least 7 times before they would consider buying from you.
Remarketing will help you present your brand name again and again to the target audience until they recognize your brand and take the desired action.
A newly launched product or offering takes time to garner visitors and traction. PPC can help you test out the market quickly to see if your offering is attractive, rather than waiting for a long time to see if the market will accept it.
PPC campaigns should also be tested to see which ad or creative is working better. You can try different ads, different audience groups, or different placements to find the most effective campaign.
Most organizations do not run PPC campaigns due to the exorbitant costs, or due to a lack of expertise in running them. Tagbeans Digital can help you generate leads quickly through effective PPC campaigns that can help you improve your traffic and conversions significantly.