Pay Per Click (PPC) is one of the most successful digital marketing tactics available. It’s a cost effective way to reach your audience and if it’s done correctly it can help to
- Drive traffic to your website
- Increase brand awareness
- Generate leads
PPC provides quick, measurable results (comparative to organic SEO) and budget can easily be flexed to ramp up or pare back as required. There are five main different types of ads – Search, Display, Shopping, Discovery and Video - all of which can be highly targeted with options such as:
- User interests/hobbies
- Age / gender / language
- Local /National / Global locations
- Previous online purchasing habits
- Affinity Audiences / In-Market audiences
And much, much more.
Being able to refine the options down to granular details means you can have complete control over your budget, targeting and placement of Ads and then track specific performance of each campaign – looking at measurements such as which Ad type delivers the best conversion rate, which Ads are receiving the most clicks and conversions and which key search terms are not delivering conversions.
However, with all the scope to filter down to the smallest detail also comes some potential pitfalls….
In order to make your PPC campaigns cost effective and ensure they are delivering ROI, you need to have a good understanding of the metrics, such as CPC and CTR and what they *actually* mean. It’s knowing which ‘levers’ to pull and when. This isn’t always easy for a newcomer to PPC to pick up and understand.
It can take time! Yes, the Ads can deliver instant visibility, however, refining, optimising and improving your campaigns can take time and practice! If you’re not used to analysing the data and you’re not 100% sure on your way around Google Ads, it can be a steep (and costly) learning curve.
There are options to manage your campaigns yourself or you can employ someone / an agency to manage your campaigns for you. Either way, we’d recommend having a comprehensive understanding of what your campaigns are delivering for you.
Some of the results we’ve seen with PPC campaigns for our clients:
If you’d like to discuss your campaigns with our Google Accredited PPC specialist, get in touch!
Glossary of Terms:
Granular details – The fine / very specific details
Conversion – An act a user completes on your website that can have an impact on your business goals. A conversion could be a phone call, contact form submission, sale or a variety of other things.
Keyword – A word, or a set of words, that you add to your Google Ads campaigns and bid on to reach your audience.
SEO – Search Engine Optimisation, the ranking of your website organically and without Google Ads.
CTR – Click Through Rate – This is the number of people who’ve seen your ad, divided by the number of people that clicked on it.
CVR – Conversion Rate – The number of clicks divided by the number of conversions you have received as a result of your ads.
CPC – Cost Per Click, the amount you’ve paid for a click on your ad. This can vary based on a number of aspects, such as your bid, the competition on the keyword and its forecasted performance.
Affinity Audiences – Defined by what the audience is passionate about and their habits and interests.
