Pay Per Click — PPC Management

Startups and businesses new to online marketing can use simple pay per click (PPC) strategies to increase traffic and grow sales. It’s easy to set a marketing budget and start throwing money around. Learning how to get results, however, is more complex.

As more business is done online, companies need to respond by dedicating more time and effort into online marketing campaigns.

The right ad spend can get you the sales you’re looking for and help you grow a loyal customer base.

Partnering with the right PPC management company can help entrepreneurs get become expert advertisers and see rapid results online.

Entrepreneurs often wear a lot of hats.

They’re managers, salespeople, human resources, experts and financial analysts.

Today, they need to be adept at pay per click advertising as well.

Follow this entrepreneur’s guide to running a successful PPC campaign.

Learn the Basic Platforms

Google Ads is a giant in the PPC world.

Google draws the most traffic, so its ads are usually more effective.

Besides Google, Bing and other search engines are also significant pay per click drivers.

Facebook, Instagram, and other social media outlets are also valuable advertising platforms.

Keep in mind, companies offering advertising platforms are good at knowing what they’re worth.

They’ll charge businesses for ads based on the ads’ projected reach and impact.

The prices of ads and what ads are popular at a given moment in time are always changing.

As a result, a lot of companies turn to third-party services that provide a dashboard that includes multiple platforms.

Some services will even provide pay per click management.

Companies send a budget to the service that they use to drive traffic and increase conversion rates.

Defining PPC Advertising Success

Businesses need to understand what successful pay per click marketing looks like.

If a lot of money is spent on keywords and ad placement, but no one buys a product or service you’re offering, then it’s not going to get you far.

Here are some basic PPC marketing components that help define success.

• Keywords – Keywords are certain words that search engine or social media users type into a search bar.
  Businesses can pay to have their PPC ads show up whenever someone types in specific keywords.
• Impressions – An impression is whenever your Google ads or ads on another platform show up on the screen for a user.
  Impressions can be tracked to analyze whether your ads are being effective.
• Clicks – Clicks track whenever one of your ads is clicked by a user.
  Clicks are a good indicator of effective ad placement and writing.
• Click-Through Rate (CTR) – CTR tallies the number of clicks on a website for each user.
  It helps companies understand what users are doing on their site and how much time they’re spending there.
• Conversions – Conversions are perhaps the most important part of PPC platforms.
  They track how many people actually paid for a service or product on your site.

Knowing these terms and how they work helps businesses with online marketing campaigns.

For example, if a company is paying for the wrong keywords, it won’t get many clicks because people won’t see their ads.

If the keywords are working, but no one is clicking the ads, there’s likely something wrong with how it’s written.

Finally, if everyone’s clicking but no one is buying, the product or offer you’re selling may need to be adjusted.

Getting Keywords Right

Researching and buying keywords can be a bit complicated.

People’s search habits always change, so a lot of keywords rise and fall in terms of popularity and price.

There are entire businesses built around tracking keyword prices and how effective they are.

There are a lot of tools online that show keyword search volume and offer a search engine results page analysis.

They can also help by listing related keywords that may be cheaper or provide a more narrow audience you’re looking for.

Remember, Google advertising and ads on other platforms can get expensive.

Keywords that are very popular and have a wide reach will cost a lot more than a targeted keyword campaign.

There are even different categories of keywords.

Exact match will display a text ad or some other ad only if the entire search query matches what you’ve paid for exactly.

Phrase match is a bit more flexible because it tries to include results that closely match your specifications.

Broad match is a category of keyword that will trigger your ad even if only one word in a user’s search matches.

A good PPC Management will give you a high conversion campaign that will typically starts with smart keyword spending.

Getting this right usually takes some time experimenting with keywords to get the click-through rates and conversions where you want them.

Content Matters

Don’t forget that good content drives clicks and conversion rates.

Even if your keywords are spot on, users don’t like to click on poorly written ads.

They want something that draws them in.

The ad needs to trigger a need or desire in users to learn more about your product.

Ad copy needs to include simple writing and a call to action that motivates a potential buyer to click.

The right copy enhances advertising.
Spelling errors and dry pitches can ruin it.

Set a Marketing Campaign Budget

Sometimes companies, especially small businesses, are so excited about online marketing they fail to set a budget.

Soon, to get sales, they’ve spent more money on keywords and ads than they can make from conversions.

Smart companies set a budget and stick to a strategical PPC Management.

Beginners should start with small amounts and work their way up as they learn the ins and outs of online PPC advertising.

Use short campaigns that are easy to go back and review so you can improve on future ads.

The best way to learn about PPC management is to give it a try!

Learning while you do it is the best way to understanding keywords, auctions, ad placement and how to get high conversion rates.

Great ads help build your brand online and are a critical part of the customer experience.