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

PPC stands for pay-per-click, a model of online marketing where advertisers pay each time one of their ads is clicked. Some people refer to it as “buying clicks” but really it’s a way to only pay for your advertisements when they work. You still have to write a great ad and chose to who show it to skillfully, and people only visit if they want to.

PPC Search Engine Advertising

Search Engine Advertising is one of the most popular types of PPC advertising. You can set up search engine ads through Google, Bing, Yahoo (through Overture), and more. When someone searches for terms that you’ve identified as what your customers would look for, your ad may display next to or above the search results.

The key here is to make your ad and website so relevant to their search that you gain a customer. So the click is worth the expense. But to get your ad right to convert visitors to customers, there is a lot to do.

First you have to research and select the right keywords or search terms, and then group those keywords into well-organized campaigns and ad groups so that each search is matched with the right ad. Then you’ll need to setup landing pages designed just to optimize for conversions for that ad or ad group. Search engines have incentive to reward advertisers with well designed campaigns, because it increases relevance of the results searchers encounter, so search engines will charging less per click for ads that convert visitors to customers. Before you start using PPC, it’s important to learn how to do it right.

Google Adwords is Special

Google AdWords is by far the most popular PPC advertising system in the world. AdWords enables businesses to create ads that appear on Google’s search engine and other Google owned locations, like YouTube and the Google Play app store.

In AdWords, advertisers bid on keywords and pay for each click on their advertisements. A combination of factors influence whether your ad displays for a particular search. The quality and relevance of your keywords and ad campaigns, and the size of your keyword bid and budget.

How Do You Win That Ad Placement?

Whether Google selects your ad is influenced by your AdRank, which they calculate by multiplying your Cost Per Click Bid and your Quality Score. Your CPC Bid the highest amount you’re willing to spend, and your Quality Score is a more vague measurement. It takes into account your click-through rate, search relevance, and quality of your landing page. This is a contest, you want to have the highest quality campaign and offer the most per click you can.

Using AdWords for PPC advertising is particularly valuable because of Google’s wild popularity. Google puts your ad in front of huge numbers of people.

You can influence how much of Google’s wide audience see your ad by adjusting your keyword and match type selections. With match types, you can choose to show your ad to searchers who look for your keywords in a few ways:

• Broad Match is when they searched for any word in your key phrase, in any order
• Modified Broad Match is similar to broad match, but MUST include any words you designated by putting a “+” in front of them
• Phrase Match shows your ad only when the user’s search included your key phrase using your keywords in the exact order you entered them
• Exact Match will only show your ad when the user’s search was only your key phrase using your keywords in the exact order you entered them, with nothing additional before or after that

Where Should I Focus?

There are a lot of things to understand, do, and focus on when creating PPC campaigns. Start with AdWords first. Here are a few important things to prioritize:

• Choose Relevant Keywords for your Campaigns. Craft relevant PPC keyword lists, hone your keyword groups/ad groups, and write effective ad text.
• Create Quality Landing Pages. Optimize your landing pages with persuasive, relevant content and a clear call-to-action, tailored to specific search queries.
• Work on Raising Your Quality Score. Quality Score is Google’s rating of the quality and relevance of your keywords, landing pages, and PPC campaigns. Advertisers with better Quality Scores get more ad clicks at lower costs.

If you feel like you need help navigating PPC advertising, contact D-Kode Tech today for a consultation to get you started making use of PPC to grow your business.