What is PPC? Introduction To PPC Marketing

What is PPC?

If you have used Google search you might have seen some of the pay-per-click ads that generally appear over the organic search results. You may have also seen them on social media and some other platforms. So, let’s dive deep into the PPC. In this article, we’ll be talking about all the aspects of PPC and how it can affect your business.

First things first, let’s understand what actually is PPC? So, PPC refers to a digital marketing strategy with the help of which, you can place your ad on the Search engine results page, social media websites, and other websites. You will be paying each time some user clicks on your ad.

There are various sorts of PPC advertisements, however quite possibly the most well-known sorts are the paid search ad. These promotions show up when individuals look for things on the internet using a web search engine like Google – particularly when they are performing commercial searches, implying that they’re searching for something to purchase. In this advertisement model, the advertiser pays for each click that he receives on the ad, Hence, it got its name as ‘Pay per click’.

How does this work?

Well, this may sound simple but it is not. There are many underlying factors that determine the performance of PPC. The first thing we need to understand is how the position of the ads gets decided? There is a parameter called quality score, the placement of ads will directly be dependent on this factor. The better the quality score you have, The better position you get on the search results page(A better position means the top slots). Ad positions are also dependent upon what is known as the Ad Auction, a totally mechanized cycle that Google and other significant web engines use to decide the relevance and quality of notices that show up on their SERPs.

You know now a bit about PPC, let’s talk about the benefits you can get by using this. PPC can help you increase your brand awareness. PPC is perhaps the most economical digital advertising procedure out there considering the fact that it permits you to choose the maximum amount you’ll pay for your promotions. You can also control which type of audience should watch/click on your ad. You can do so by choosing the right platform to display your ad. You have a lot of options for this, many browsing pages offer this service, Some websites also offer this service. Using this method, you can target your potential customers.

Let’s compare this with a traditional advertising method, i.e. placing your ad in a newspaper. You have to pay a certain amount only for placing the ad in the newspaper, irrespective of how many people read/see your ad. You are unsure of how many people reading your ad, still, you’ll have to pay a certain amount.

Well, this is not how PPC advertising works. In this, you’ll have to pay only after the user clicks on your ad. In other words, you don’t have to pay for placing the ad, you have to pay for the action that the user takes on your ad. In this way, the ROI on PPC is really higher than other modes of advertisements. When a user clicks on your ad, they’ll be directed to the landing page. This landing page will have all the details about your product/services. This is usually the final step.

Types of PPC Ads

There are different types of PPC ads.

• Search ads are the most common among all these. They appear in search engines like Google and Bing, and they are mostly targeted by keywords. These will appear on the search results page when the user searches for something. They are generally placed over the organic search results but they can also appear on the right side.

• Social media ads are the second type of PPC ads. These are placed on different social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Social media is a great platform to put your ad because chances are there that more people can get to know about your product/service. It is also helpful in gaining new customers from different backgrounds.

• Display ads are the next type. If you want to build great brand awareness, You should go for this option. In this method, Your ads will be placed as banners or text on different websites. They are increasing brand awareness because they are appearing subconsciously on pages that you love to browse, and hence a brand image gets fitted in your brain.

• The final type of PPC advertisement is retargeting ads. These remind users what they had searched for and suggest they buy it. When you visit a website, the cookies get stored in your browser. Other sites that you visit, notice these cookies and show ads for the websites for which the cookies were stored. These can be in the form of banners, images, or texts. This can be of great help even if the user is a little interested in your product/service.

At this point, we are aware of all aspects of PPC marketing on a superficial level. Let’s now discuss what you need to keep in mind while considering PPC marketing. Deciding on your platform will be a crucial factor in ensuring the success of your campaign. You need to have a clear understanding of your target customer base, according to which, you’ll go for the choice of platform for displaying the ad. Doing keyword research is the next big thing. Keyword research will help you target your most valuable potential customer base. You should have a clear understanding of what keyword research is before diving into this step. There are several tools you can use to know more about keyword research. After this step, you will need to set your budget for your campaign because all your activities will be according to this budget. Since PPC is effective for all budget brackets, it isn’t a hindrance to your campaign but you can do better with a bigger budget. Finally, you’ll need to focus on analyzing your ad and find out why your ad is not performing up to your expectations and fixing these issues.