Learning about PPC

What is PPC?

PPC is a popular term that stands for pay-per-click – a marketing model where advertisers pay each time someone clicks on their ad in the Google search results. Instead of trying to motivate people to click on their site organically, advertisers purchase the clicks.

As a result, search engine ads are one of the most popular features of PPC. Search engine ads enable legal advertisers to bid for the placement of an ad in a search engine’s sponsored links. When an Internet user searches for a keyword that corresponds to a specific business or service, PPC ads appear.

For instance, if you bid on the keyword “House Cleaning Services,” your ad may show up at a top spot on the search engine results pages or SERPs. The listing is noted by the word “Ad,” which appears next to your web address.

How PPC Helps You Earn Money

When someone clicks on the ad and visits your website, you have to pay the search engine a small advertising fee. However, if your PPC campaign is working as it should, that charge is trivial. In many cases, you might pay $4.00 per click, but receive $20,000 in annual revenue. That is far more profitable than placing an ad in the newspaper or another publication.

How Marketing Firms Can Help

That is why PPC firms spend a great deal of time developing a winning PPC campaign for their clients. Not only do marketing firms research and select the keywords, they also organize the keywords for marketing purposes. Marketing firms place keywords in ad groups as well as set up PPC landing pages to optimize conversions.

Using PPC Correctly

The search engines, in turn, reward advertisers, who produce smart and relevant targeted PPC campaigns by charging less for clicks, which also leads to higher profits. That is why it is important to know how to use PPC correctly.

Google Ads – How It Is Used in PPC Campaigns

Google Ads (formerly AdWords), which is used for PPC, is the most popular PPC ad system worldwide. The platform allows businesses to create ads that appear in the Google search results.

How Google Ads Are Chosen

Google Ads is well known for operating on a PPC model. That is because account holders bid on specific keywords and pay for each click for the related ads. Every time a search is begun, Google selects the advertisers that will be displayed on the search results page. The top contenders are shown, based on various factors, including the amount of the keyword bid and the relevance of each keyword.

The Advertiser’s Ad Rank

The businesses that are displayed are based on each advertiser’s ad rank. This metric is figured by multiplying the CPC bid, or the highest bid amount the advertiser wishes to spend, and the quality score (a value that is assessed by an account’s click-through rate, landing page quality, and relevance).

Therefore, this type of model permits the top advertisers to reach potential clients at a cost that meets their budgetary requirements. You might look at PPC then as a type of auction that begins with a query.

How Ads Are Displayed

When an individual searches for a specific service on Google, the search engine surveys the Google Ads advertisers and decides whether or not an “auction” will occur. If an advertiser or advertisers are bidding on keywords that are considered relevant to a search query, an “auction” begins.

However, the keywords are not considered search queries. Instead, specific keywords may be entered into the “auction” process for a broad range of queries – depending on the match type.

Advertisers, in turn, bid on keywords after identifying the keywords they want to use and how much they are willing to spend. From this activity, they create a group of keywords that are used for online ads.

Google’s Input

Google, in response, inserts a keyword from a grouping that it decides is the most relevant. It also looks at the maximum bid that the ad user specifies. Only one entry is permitted into each search query for each account.

The Maximum Bid Amount and the Quality Score

Google looks at two major factors to determine where your ad ranks in the search results – the maximum bid amount and the quality score. Therefore ad rank equals the cost-per-click (CPC) bid times the quality score. The quality score is the metric that is used to determine the relevancy and usefulness of your ad to the user. Therefore, the higher the score, the better.

Google Ads and PPC

Performing PPC marketing via Google Ads is helpful, as it triggers more traffic, which leads to more clicks. How frequently your PPC ads appear in the search results will depend on the keywords and match types you choose. Therefore, when conducting PPC marketing activities, you want to focus on the following:

Keyword relevance – It is important to create relevant keyword lists, ad texts, and concise keyword groupings.

Quality score – The quality score is the rating made by Google of the quality and relevance of your chosen keywords, PPC campaigns, and landing pages. Advertisers with higher quality scores pay less for more ad clicks.

Landing page quality – Producing an optimized landing page with relevant content and a call to action will assist you in obtaining more qualified leads.

PPC Keyword Research

While conducting keyword research for PPC can take a good deal of time, it is also vital to your success in getting bona fide leads. After all, your whole PPC campaign is based on choosing the right keywords. Therefore, as a Google Ads advertiser, it is essential to constantly expand and refine your keyword listing.

Making a Keyword Selection

Naturally, you do not want to pay for web traffic that is not interested in your business. Instead, you want to find keywords that will trigger a higher number of PPC clicks – clicks that will also lead to a higher click-through rate and a cost-effective cost per click. Therefore, any keywords that are selected should be closely associated with your company's service offerings.

Long-tail Keywords: Why They are Important

When keyword research is performed, you should include frequently searched terms in your business niche as well as long-tail keywords, or keywords that are more specific but used less frequently. That is because long-tail keywords comprise more of the search-driven traffic. When long-tail keywords are used, your cost goes down too.

Grow Your Keyword List and Make Adaptations

It always pays to refine and expand on your PPC campaigns. That way you can constantly grow your list and adapt it as needed. When you partner with a company that provides responsive web design, SEO, and PPC, you can manage your ad campaign with greater clarity.

Establishing a PPC Campaign

Once you have set up your PPC campaign, keep track of the activity. Make the following modifications, as needed.

Add new keywords – Expand your PPC’s reach by continuing to add keywords that are relevant to your business.

Include negative keywords – Include terms that are non-converting to enhance your PPC campaign’s relevance and reduce wastes in spending.

Review expensive keywords and eliminate them: Take a look at costly keywords that are not giving you a good return on your ad dollar and get rid of them, if necessary.

Divide ad groupings – Improve your quality score and click-through rate (CTR) by dividing ad groupings into smaller and more relevant groups – groups that assist you in developing targeted landing pages and ad text.

The Goal of Pay-per-Click (PPC)

Pay-per-Click’s advertising model enables you to place ads on an ad platform and remit a payment to the platform’s host whenever the advertiser’s ad is clicked. Therefore, the objective of PPC, or a PPC ad, is to draw a visitor to your site by clicking on an ad. Once the visitor lands on your site, the goal is to get him or her to complete an activity, such as requesting a service or setting an appointment.

Get on board the PPC train. See how this express service can increase your earnings and customer interest online.