A
s you explore all the advertising avenues available to your business, you keep coming back to one specific type of advertising: PPC advertising (or pay-per-click advertising).
What are the basics and how can you use PPC services and advertising to help your business grow?
Here is a brief overview:
1. What is Google PPC (or Google Ads)?
Though there are many types of PPC services and options available, Google Ads (formerly just known as Google AdWords) is probably the most well-known. It’s also the most used, generating over 28.6% of the total digital advertising revenue in the U.S.
As Google’s PPC platform, Google Ads represents a paid form of digital marketing where you, the advertiser, pay a fee every time your advertisement is clicked, which can result in a highly cost-effective and measurable form of advertising if used in the right ways.
2. Types of Google PPC (Google Ads)
Your first assumption might be, “I know what Google Ads is! They are those ads that pop up at the top of the search page when you Google something.” You wouldn’t be wrong…but you also wouldn’t be completely right.
Google PPC (or Google Ads) and their extensive range of advertising capabilities encompasses much more than PPC search advertising. Overall, there are nine different campaign types to choose from, including:
Search – Text-based ads that appear in Google search results. These are the most common type of Google Ads (also known as Google AdWords).
Video – Ad placements that are placed within or as a part of videos on YouTube and Google affiliate sites.
Display – Image-based ads that appear on Google, Google affiliate sites, and Google-owned properties like YouTube, apps, etc.
Shopping – Product ads that appear on Google’s shopping tab.
Performance Max – An AI-driven campaign builder that allows advertisers to access all Google Ads inventory from a single campaign.
App – Campaigns designed to help you find new app users and increase your sales within your app through Google Play.
Smart – Fully automated ads within Google that advertise your business across search, maps, videos, affiliate sites, and more.
Local – Ads that help bring people to your physical location or venue through a mix of ads across Search, Display, Google Maps, and YouTube.
Discovery – Similar to display ads, but available in different formats and across different platforms.
What type of campaign you use depends on your overall marketing goal.
For instance, do you want to increase lead generation, website traffic, sales, awareness, or increase your app promotion? Is your business B2B or consumer-based? Are you targeting a very specific audience? All require a different type of campaign and goal to reach your specific objective.
3. Why PPC (Specifically Google PPC) Is Important for Your Business?
PPC advertising, most notably Google Ads, is an important part of an effective advertising mix. Why?
Google PPC reaches a huge audience. As of January 2022, Google sites are ranked #1, reaching just over 270 million U.S. unique visitors and processing over 3.5 billion searches per day. And Google Ads PPC isn’t just Google. It encompasses a large number of additional Google-owned entities and affiliates, making their audience and reach almost unimaginably huge.
Google PPC is very cost-effective. With Google PPC, you can choose to set your budget for campaigns and will only get charged when someone clicks on your ad. That means you are only paying for ads that directly translate into traffic going to your site.
Google PPC allows you to reach the right people in the right location. With Google PPC, you are given an exorbitant amount of tools to allow you to reach exactly the right audience in exactly the right location. Need to target using specific demographics like age, gender, geographic location, hobbies, interests, etc.? You can do that and more, which allows you to market to people and businesses who are more likely to convert, thus driving up your revenue significantly.
Google PPC gives you 100% measurable results – quickly. Google Ads specifically offers a variety of useful tools and features that provide useful insights and metrics into every campaign you launch, allowing you to drive results and easily determine which ads are working and which aren’t so you can focus your ad spend in the right way – with ease and speed.
Google PPC is easy to test and alter. Through a combination of A/B testing, daily performance analysis, and understanding and measuring metrics, you can easily test and alter your Google Ads with just a few clicks, allowing quick changes to ineffective campaigns and helping you increase ad spend with effective campaigns if you so choose.
Google PPC is an effective B2B marketing tool. While some advertising options don’t necessarily cater to the B2B crowd, because of its uniquely specific ability to target, Google Ads is the exception to the rule and a very effective tool to have in your wheelhouse if you are a B2B-based business looking to expand your reach.
4. How much does Google Ads cost?
Since Google PPC charges per click, getting a hard answer on how much Google Ads will cost you is difficult. Even Google has a hard time giving you a straight answer. We can tell you that if you don’t know what you are doing, it could cost you way more than you think, and you won’t necessarily get that money back in conversions.
We can also tell you that if you have a dedicated PPC agency by your side like Ready Ads, you could pay as little as $50+ per day for a very effective campaign.
5. Can I do PPC myself?
You can absolutely do PPC advertising yourself. Companies do it every day. But there are some real pros and cons – and even real risk factors to consider if that is the road you want to go down.
The best rule of thumb: If you are asking this question in the first place, we’re going to go ahead and assume that you don’t have much experience in the PPC landscape. If that’s true, while you could go ahead and give it a go, you’ll most likely find that for the hours and days you spend taking training courses, watching videos, learning what to do and what not to do, and analyzing and managing campaigns after you do learn, could be better spent managing your business.
That, and if you don’t know what you are doing, PPC ad costs can really add up – and always not in a way that makes sense for your business.
Ready Ads has PPC management options for businesses of all sizes and audience types.
If you want to consider hiring a PPC agency, consider Ready Ads. Trusted and used by companies of all sizes and types, we’ve helped a multitude of B2B and consumer-based businesses reach their specific marketing goals within budget, meeting and exceeding their expectations and marketing goals.
Take a look at our case studies if you want some examples.
Best of all? We don’t require a contract, so there is no risk to you.