From Pennies to Profit with PPC: A Google Adwords Guide for Beginners
Sandy Rowley
Did you know consumers make more than 160 billion searches per month on Google alone?
Everyone wants to take advantage of this, either through PPC campaigns or a strong SEO strategy. How far do some companies go? More than 7 million marketing professionals and advertisers spent a total of $10.1 billion in PPC ads.
The PPC approach is one of the go-to strategies in marketing websites. It uses consumer searches on websites and even social media. Using Google Adwords for this strategy can bring you an average revenue of $2 per $1 spent on PPC.
So how can you take advantage of this method in gaining more revenue for your business? This Google Adwords Guide will shed light into what PPC is, how it works, and what it can do for your business.
1. What is PPC?
PPC stands for pay-per-click.
As the name suggests, it’s a model of internet marketing wherein advertisers pay a fee each time one of their ads gets clicked. In a sense, it’s a method that allows you to buy visits or hits to your site, instead of organic hits. PPC has its associations with first-tier search engines, such as Google AdWords.
This online advertising method provides varying types. The most common one is the paid search ad. These ads appear when people conduct a search online. Especially if it was a commercial search, where the intention is to buy something.
In most PPC advertising, the only time a business running the ad gets charged is when a user clicks the ad. Other types of PPC advertising may have different methods and operations.
PPC was once open to issues like click fraud. There were instances of companies using bots or even hiring people to click on their competitor’s ads without proceeding to buy something. This meant the advertiser who put up the PPC ad would spend all their budget on their PPC campaign but receive only a few legitimate visitors.
2. Google Adwords Guide: How It Works
Pay-per-click advertising is a rather broad category. It includes a wide range of platforms and mediums. These ad campaigns are either Google Ads or Social Media Advertising.
With Google Ads, you first pay with your PPC Campaign budget to Google. This is how much you wish to pay them. Once you have done so, Google will list the ads for your site at the top and right of the organic search listings.
Here you only get charged when people actively click on the ad. Google deducts the cost-per-click from your budget for every click on that ad. Once the budget runs out, Google will no longer display your ads until you add more funds for it.
Social PPC ads have a different method and platform. Using social media platforms like Facebook, you get a wider and more refined set of prospects. In this case, Paid Social Ads allow your ads to appear to more than 1.55 billion active users.
3. Types of Google Ads
There are a variety of PPC Ads from Google that fall into these few categories. Under this category include Search Ads, Local Search Ads, Display Ads, and Remarketing. Here are some details on how they work and what makes them different from each other:
3.1. Search Ads
This is the most common form of PPC advertising. Search ads appear on the screen either above or beside the Google Search Results in response to a user’s search. These search ads will appear whenever a customer looks something up.
If the user is looking for a product or service that you offer, your ad may end up being the first thing they see.
In setting up a Search Ad campaign, you will need to write your ad copy. Then you choose the keywords you want to appear in, and then set the daily budget. It may need a more detailed process of management and fine-tuning to get the best out of this.
3.2. Local Search Ads
This is more of a specialized subset to the standard Search Ad in that these are location focused. They target users searching for businesses or services near yours via Google or Google Maps. These get charged the same way as the standard Search Ad.
Google Ads will set your campaign on a national scale by default. Are you a local business that caters to a specific geographic location? You will need to customize your Location Targeting in Google Ads.
3.3. Display Ads
While this is not a pay-per-click model, it has a similar process with a broad reach. These Google Display Ads can be text-based, or banners rich with media. They can also appear on more than two million websites and over 650,000 apps.
It has a streamlined setup process, where you only need to create the ad to fit your chosen format. After which, you choose your audiences that you wish to reach, and determine your budget. There are also payment options that you can choose:
Cost Per Click
Cost Per Thousand Impression
Cost Per Acquisition
Setting your budget would not guarantee that your ad displays immediately. Instead, an automated auction comes to play for each payment option. The winner of this auction gets awarded with the ad getting displayed.
3.4. Remarketing
These ads appear before people who visited your business’s website or mobile app before. They help you reconnect with these visitors. Those interested in your products or services in the past.
You can make use of these remarketing ads by showing them on the Display Network, or via Search Ads. There are extra steps to set up but it can pay off.
4. How Much to Invest?
When it comes to the budget for your PPC campaign, you have to consider the factors behind it. The last thing that you want is to spend a lot and not get your return on investment from it.
First, set your lead or revenue goal. Are you aiming to generate leads much larger than your current ones? If so, the amount you need to spend should be equal to it as well.
Also look at the cost-per-click in Google Adwords. Estimate your budget from there and you will be able to see how much you need to pay to generate clicks.
Check your analytics for the Conversion Rate of those leads. Google Analytics is your friend in checking those details.
5. Tools for Better PPC
In setting up your PPC campaign, you will need tools to aid you with your efforts. Acquaint yourself with using Google Adwords and make use of ways to improve your visibility in searches.
You might also need tools to put you ahead of the competition. This is where tools like SpyFu, iSpionage, and Wordtracker would come into play. These tools allow you to have an insight into what your competitors are using.
For instance, SpyFu allows you to look into the keywords that your competitors used and how many hits they get from it. You can also see how effective those keywords are while tracking the ones you used. It’s perfect for PPC Competitor Research.
6. PPC or SEO?
You might be wondering about which is better between these two methods. In this case, it would depend on the needs of your website. Including the available resources that you have.
When you look at SEO, there are methods that you can make use of to increase traffic without spending. Instead, you make use of achieving high rankings in the natural search results. This method requires SEO best practices to come up on top.
PPC may need you to shell out money but it works wonders as well. Paid search results gain 1.5 times as much traffic from click-throughs as organic search results.
PPC ads also allow you to appear on the first page on the search results. In fact, many consumers are unable to distinguish between paid ads and other content.
So, which is better between the two?
When choosing between the two, consider the following:
Available budget for advertising
Average cost-per-click (CPC) in your industry
Competitiveness of the search engine results page (SERP)
Your choice between the two methods depends on your needs. Choosing between the two is not exactly necessary. The best way is to find a good mix between PPC and SEO.
By using both, you can bring your website into the first entry in search results while not spending too much. When you manage to find a good mix between PPC and SEO, the benefits from it are immense. You get credibility, organic growth and visibility with this integrated approach.
Optimize Your Website Today!
With the right resources, tools and keywords, the PPC method can aid you in bringing in more people to do business with you. Alone, it can do wonders and may be the best option to use given the budget available. Combining PPC with SEO can bring wonders to your website’s traffic.
Along with this Google Adwords Guide, we also offer web solutions. From custom web designs to SEO strategies and PPC advertising plans. To know more about how we can help you, contact us today to get started.