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What Is PPC Advertising

A successful digital marketing strategy does not rely on a single strategy. After all, SEO isn’t the be-all and end-all when it comes to producing qualified leads.

Pay-per-click (PPC) advertising can help you achieve all of your goals, including increasing your website’s online visibility, traffic, and conversions.

Despite the fact that PPC is a significant tool in many firms’ promotional arsenals, many marketers are still unfamiliar with the concept. Many of them are still unsure of what PPC is and how it works. However, no matter how puzzling it may be, businesses cannot afford to overlook the advantages that this channel can provide.

We’ll explain what PPC advertising is in this article, including its definition, process, and several benefits.

What Is Pay-Per-Click (PPC) Advertising?

PPC advertising, or simply PPC, is a marketing strategy in which a company creates an internet ad and pays each time a user clicks on it. The ad is free to place online because the costs are only incurred when consumers interact or engage with it.

There are two types of pay-per-click (PPC) advertising:

  • Ads that appear as search results on Google, Bing, and other search engines.
  • Advertisements that appear as photos, videos, or paid postings on third-party websites and social media platforms are known as display advertising.
  • Ads that can be in the shape of banners, text ads, or images are used in retargeting. They’re a terrific way to remind users of anything they’ve previously searched for, and to persuade them to buy what they’ve left behind, or to make a new purchase. Retargeting advertising can also be used on other digital platforms, such as email marketing.
  • While there are a variety of platforms for PPC advertising, most marketers prefer Google Ads, which is now the most common supplier for PPC search advertising. This isn’t surprising, given that Google has a 97 percent market dominance in the Philippines’ search engine sector. Because the majority of people use Google to look for products and services, it’s an excellent spot to position sponsored search advertising.
  • PPC systems use an auction method to decide which ads to show. This auction takes into account how much each advertiser bids, the quality of each ad, the ad’s relevance to a user’s search query, and a variety of additional considerations, depending on the platform and ad type.
  • Bidding on keywords, also known as words and phrases that online users type into search engines, is another aspect of PPC advertising. Marketers and advertisers select keywords that they expect their target audience will use while looking for information about the items and services they are promoting.

How Does Pay-Per-Click (PPC) Work?

Let’s speak about how PPC works for your business now that you know what it is.

There are various steps to PPC advertising. Determine your goals, select a budget, create a keyword list, bid on keywords, set up separate keyword campaigns, write keyword-optimized headlines and ad copy, and finally create individual landing pages are all steps in a step-by-step procedure.

Let’s take a look at each one individually.

Choose your platforms.

There isn’t just one form of PPC ad, as previously said. PPC advertising can be placed in search engines, on your customers’ favourite websites, or on social media.

With so many options, you must first decide on your objectives. It’s easy to determine where you want your paid ads to appear once you’ve outlined your aims. Do you want to be at the top of the search results, for example? Look into search ads. Perhaps you’d want to market your products and services while acquiring more Facebook followers? Then social media ads seem like a fantastic idea.

Conduct keyword research.

One of the biggest benefits of PPC advertising is that you can utilise keywords to target your most valuable consumers and appear in front of them when they’re ready to buy.

Keyword research provides information on the performance of certain keywords, the amount of competition for those keywords, and the average cost-per-click for those keywords. All of this data might help you evaluate whether it’s worthwhile to target specific keywords.

Create a budget.

How much money should you spend on PPC advertising? When it comes to PPC, you have complete control over how much you pay for ads and how much you bid for each term. However, if you want an agency to manage your campaign for you, you’ll have to factor in the fees of PPC management services. You can then start planning a budget around their expenses.

Once you’ve established an overall budget, you may divide it into two parts: advertising and management. The more precise your budget is, the easier it will be to stay on track financially.

Spread your spending across all of your marketing campaigns when you’re just getting started. You can spend more of your budget on better-performing keywords and campaigns after you see results from your campaigns.

When it comes to bids, set a budget based on keyword competitiveness. Choose a bid that is within your budget while still providing a decent ranking for your ad.

Create an account on the ad platform of your choice.

You’ll need to create a Google Ads account if you want to advertise on Google. Registration is free, but you must enter a payment method and billing information in order to activate your account. The platform requires payment information in order to charge your ad expenditure to the appropriate account.

You can choose an average value for how much you’re willing to spend on your account every day when creating your first campaign. You’ll next tell us about your target audience, the keywords you’d want to bid on, and the geographic areas where you’d like your advertisements to appear.

After that, you’ll need to set your bid and write your ad. Make sure your advertising connects to a page on your website where users may learn more about making a purchase.

Your PPC ad campaign will be ready to launch once you’ve completed all of these steps. Just sit back and wait for the clicks to come in.

Analyze your advertising to see how successful your campaign is and how you can enhance it.

The ability to track the success of a PPC advertising campaign is critical. You’re missing out on a treasure trove of vital information if you don’t analyse and measure the efficacy of your PPC advertising.

Link your Google Advertising and Google Analytics accounts to evaluate and measure your PPC ads. After you’ve linked them, all of the data generated by your ads will be automatically posted to your Google Analytics account, allowing you to quickly examine key facts about your PPC campaign.

The following are the KPIs you should track in regards to your sales funnel:

  • Impressions (Awareness Stage): Impressions are the number of times your ad appears in the Google Network or in search results. Impression tracking is vital since it informs you how many people viewed your ad. Even if they don’t click on your link or make a purchase from your website, they will remember you for your catchy phrase or cool graphics, which is a step toward brand recall.
  • CTR (Information Stage): Your CTR is calculated by dividing the number of clicks received by the number of impressions. You want a high CTR for your campaigns since more users clicking on your ad will be able to browse your content and learn more about your products, services, and company. They are more likely to purchase after receiving useful information. Your CTR reveals how people react to your adverts, revealing information about your search intent, audience targeting, and more. It has an effect on your CPC and quality score as well.
  • Return Visitors (Consideration Stage): Return visitors are those who have clicked on your ad and then come back to your site after a certain amount of time has passed. You can employ retargeting advertisements or tweak your site to ensure they convert to purchases by the time they return if they didn’t convert on the first and second visits.
  • Conversions (Stages of Closing or Making the Sale): You’ll need to set up a conversion action in your Google Ads account to view the full scope of your ad campaign’s success. This action can be anything you consider worthwhile or a conversion. Filling out a form on your landing page, clicking the Contact Us button, or looking at one of the products mentioned in your ad are all examples of this. Whatever conversion you’re tracking, after you’ve set up the right conversion tracking tool, you’ll be able to keep track of it. Google Ads provides a complete array of conversion tracking options.

How Does The Pay-Per-Click (PPC) Ad Auction Work?

We just took you through the entire PPC advertising process and explained what PPC stands for in marketing. When people ask, “What is PPC advertising?” they usually mean pay-per-click advertising. They are intrigued about the auction process and may ask, “How does PPC work?” or “How does PPC work?” After all, how do ad networks such as Google Ads select which PPC ads to display?

Here’s a quick rundown of how the PPC search ad auction works:

A user looks for “women’s running shoes” on the internet.

A search engine checks to see if that keyword has received any bids.

If no, the search engine returns results without advertisements.

If you answer yes, the search engine will begin bidding on your behalf.

The search engine assesses the quality of each ad, assigning grades and rankings to those placed by advertisers based on a variety of criteria.

After that, the search engine displays the highest-quality adverts in the search results and costs advertisers on a pay-per-click basis.

When it comes to the ad auction itself, ad networks use a number of stages and elements to ensure that users receive the most relevant advertising. Take a look at Google Ads’ ad auction, for example.

When Google starts an ad auction, it takes into account a number of elements to calculate your Ad Rank. Google uses Ad Rank to determine the order in which paid advertising appear on a search results page. As a general rule, the ad with the highest Ad Rank is placed first, followed by the ad with the second-highest Ad Rank, and so on. At each auction, Google determines your Ad Rank.

The following factors are used by Google to determine your Ad Rank:

The amount you’re willing to spend each time someone clicks on your ad is referred to as your bid. Bids are usually keyword-specific, which means that the costs of each term will differ from those of other keywords. A high bid does not guarantee that you will win. Even if you bid low, a high-quality ad can help you win the auction, which is what you want.

Quality score: This is calculated by Google based on the relevance of your ad to search queries, as well as the projected CTR and landing page UX. Google uses this metric to assess the quality of your adverts, landing pages, and keyword targeting. You can check your Quality Score in Google Ads to get a head start on boosting your Quality Score and Ad Rank.

Thresholds for Ad Rank: Thresholds refer to user attributes (location) and the user’s device (mobile vs. desktop). Thresholds can also vary depending on the nature of a user’s search phrases and related query auctions. For example, auctions for the search terms [wedding giveaways] or [party favours] could inform Ad Rank thresholds for the search team [wedding favours].

Advertiser competition: Google looks for competitors who are bidding on the same terms. To win the greatest spot on the page, you’ll need to outperform your competitors in terms of ad quality, bid quantities, or a combination of the two.

Google will select where to place you in search results after determining your Ad Rank. You win the auction if you have the highest Ad Rank, but even if you don’t win, you can still get a slot in the search results, though you’ll be put below higher-quality advertising. Your position is determined by your Ad Rank.

The following factors are used by Google to determine your cost-per-click:

Your CPC = Ad Rank of Advertiser Below You / Quality Score + $0.01

The PPC ad auction is ultimately completed after this phase.

The Advantages of a Pay-Per-Click (PPC) Advertising Campaign

We’ve discussed what PPC advertising is and how it works, but what about its advantages? If you’re still on the fence about starting a PPC campaign or hiring PPC management services, here are a few ways PPC can help your company and increase its ROI.

Fast results

Unlike traditional advertising and other forms of digital marketing, PPC generates immediate results. You can develop and post ads right now and view the results the next day. It’s an excellent technique to promote new products and limited-time deals in order to improve instant sales.

Extremely precise targeting

You may target your ideal customer using PPC advertising. That way, you can put your adverts in front of the people who are most likely to convert or buy anything. This allows you to cut down on ad waste and focus in on your target demographic, no matter how small or niche it may be.

Reach out to your local customers

PPC is used by about 45 percent of small businesses. If you aren’t, your competitors will be one step ahead of you, making it difficult for you to attract local clients.

Because you can choose who you want to reach with your adverts, you may target locals, increasing brand knowledge and foot traffic to your store.

Only charge them when they click

You only pay for PPC advertising when someone clicks on your ad and is redirected to your landing page or website. This ensures that your ad dollars are spent on those who are truly interested in your brand. You also have more time and money to optimise landing pages and other end-of-funnel material because you only pay when customers click.

A chance to make up for lost connections

If your repeat traffic is poor, it suggests that the majority of your visitors will not return. PPC advertising allows clients who have previously visited your site a second chance through the use of retargeting adverts. Someone coming and going doesn’t necessarily mean they aren’t interested; they may have simply been sidetracked in the past. Remarketing advertising can help you cut through the clutter and keep prospects engaged with your brand, regardless of how they came across you in the first place.

With PPC Advertising, Unleash Your Brand’s Potential

You can begin your PPC advertising campaign right away now that you understand what PPC is and its various intricacies and benefits. It’s a powerful tactic that can help you gain an advantage over your competitors and stay ahead of them in search engine results.

Stridec can assist you with a PPC campaign or a whole digital marketing plan. When you partner with us, you’ll get a personalized PPC campaign tailored to your company’s goals and efforts. We do more than just drive traffic; we also assist you in achieving your ultimate goal: a higher cash stream.

Contact Stridec right away if you’d like to learn more about how PPC works.