Easy Steps to Understand & Use PPC
Everyone wants more traffic to their website. It’s simple maths – you have a new website, and you want people to know it exists. You have two choices:
- Organic searches
- Paid searches
Both have their part to play. Organic is undoubtedly vital, but it takes time. So, what’s the alternative for quicker results? Paid searches, or, as it is more commonly known, PPC (Pay Per Click).
It involves creating and strategically inserting online ads on Google, where you pay when someone clicks on your ad.
Getting Started
First, decide on the product or service you require. Do some keyword research using Google AdWords or an appropriate SEO piece of software, such as Moz or SemRush. The idea is that when someone types in one of your selected keywords into Google, your ad will appear and steer them to your website, thus generating more traffic and leading to increased sales leads.
Targeting
Depending on your business and its market sector, think about who you wish to target and use the following list to develop your marketing strategy:
- Customer demographics
- Products and services you offer
- Geographical targeting
- Budget allocation
Remember to segment your products and services to monitor the results. Do this by advertising only on Google, pushing one product or service at a time, and testing with A/B splitting into two Ads. For example, if you sell two types of bikes, write two different headlines and watch the results.
Design an Advert
PPC adverts take the form of a headline, two lines of text and a URL.
The headline should be specific and compelling. When writing the body copy, think about quality and remember to insert the required keywords. The URL should point to the landing page you wish the reader to land on.
Campaign Budget
Instead of fees, PPC means you pay only when someone clicks on your advert. The position of your advert depends on how much you bid per keyword. The more you bid, the higher up the page you will be displayed. Ideally, aim for halfway up the page to ensure you receive enough clicks without paying too much of a premium and blowing your budget set per day.
Allocate enough budget to ensure your advert is visible all day and receives enough clicks. Adjust keywords and positions daily for the first week to find the right fit.
Monitoring Results
Measure the number of times your advert has appeared in Google’s search results pages, also known as impressions, and your CTR – Click Through Rate. Aim for an average CTR of around 5% to justify your expenditure. If you have less than 5%, revise your campaign by altering keywords and position.
To better understand this, you need to look within Google AdWords under Keywords and check each one for its ‘quality score’, which will be assigned under Status. By comparing and analysing the number of Impressions, Click-Through Rates, Average Cost Per Click, Cost, and Average Position, you’ll be able to build up a pattern of performance that will guide you to whether a particular keyword has been successful or not. This information will propel you forward to improve your advert’s copy and establish more credible results.
Don’t be afraid to try several campaigns with varying budgets for specific products and services to see the data that can propel you to the results you want.
Value
The whole aim of PPC is to gain more revenue or interest and, therefore, add more value to your business. Using trial and error, depending on your objectives and market sector, you will be able to open up a volume of traffic that would have taken far longer to achieve via conventional methods. Only by strategic planning, implementation, and monitoring can you really harvest the power of PPC and its impact on your business.
