What is PPC advertising? It stands for pay-per-click. You set keywords and then 'bid' on each one.
If your bid wins, your ad appears in the search results. This can sometimes lead to keyword bidding wars.
But here's the thing. You only pay for that bid when someone clicks on your ad.
It might sound confusing. Or too good to be true.
So, are you itching to learn the benefits of using PPC advertising? Then read on to become a pay-per-click professional.
1. Better Traffic
Google Ads are a type of PPC advertising. It is also a way to leapfrog the organic search results.
It's great to spend time on your search engine optimization (SEO) to bring in traffic. But Google Ads increasingly show up at the top of the first results page.
Seeing your ad 'above the fold' increases your chances of buying traffic to your website. Many people may not even realize your listing is an ad.
While SEO is a great long-term strategy, PPC is better for a short-term traffic boost. Remember, people come to search engines looking to buy things.
That means your adverts are pulling in potential customers to your website. Not just curious visitors.
2. Manage Advertising Costs
There are two types of paid advertising. In PPC, you only pay if someone clicks on the ad. That gives you the opportunity to go back and fix poorly-performing ads.
And PPC advertising is a flexible form of advertising. If a healthy advert stops working? Edit it or turn it off.
If you manage seasonal products, turn ads off and on by season. This is a great way to re-use successful ads from previous campaigns.
That's helpful on Amazon since you can reuse ads that were already approved.
You can also choose how long an ad runs. There are no spending obligations.
3. See Immediate Returns
Content marketing is a great way to bring leads to your website. But it can take weeks, or even months, to see a return on your investment.
Not with PPC advertising strategies. Once your ad is approved, it goes live. Done right, you can start seeing results within minutes or hours.
This makes PPC a good option for short 'windfall' boosts to your income. And it is also useful for product launches.
We should note, for the best chance of success, target your specific audience. That means anyone that clicks on your ad is more likely to buy. Which makes the cost of the click worth it.
4. Test Your Strategy Using PPC Advertising
Because you only pay for clicks, PPC is a great way to test your advertising strategy.
Let's take Amazon as an example. If you get thousands of impressions but no clicks? That tells you that you need to change something about the ad.
Change the photo on the product listing first. If you start getting clicks, great.
Still no luck? Try changing the name of the product so it's clearer what it is.
If that doesn't work, set up a new ad with different copy.
You may start getting clicks on the ad, but no sales. That is a problem with the conversion.
Start testing variations of the product description. Try getting more positive reviews to encourage sales.
Amazon ads are straightforward. But check an Amazon PPC guide if you have never used their ads before. You could even choose to work with an amazon advertising agency to get even better results for your ecommerce sales.
5. Get Great Demographic Data
Running traditional ad campaigns often give you no data after the campaign ends. The digital nature of PPC advertising means you get reams of data for e-commerce success.
This lets you tweak and hone your campaigns for future use.
Take Amazon as an example again. They give you 1000 keywords to target with each ad.
Sure, you can do keyword research to find what you think users are looking for. But what if you could find out what keywords customers actually used to find your product?
Thankfully, this is something you can do within the ads platform.
Go to your dashboard. Select Advertising Reports and create a report based on Search Terms.
The report will tell you what keywords a customer used to find your product.
Filter by the keywords that led to sales. Then plug them into a brand new ad, knowing customers have already searched for them.
6. Ads are Easy to Create
PPC adverts are often very cheap or easy to make. Google Ads and Amazon ads don't give you a million design options. So, you can get up and running within minutes.
Facebook ads are slightly more tricky. But once you have your image and your copy? You're good to go.
Using traditional advertising methods like billboards, magazines, or bus shelters is more expensive. You need to hire professionals to design and roll out the campaign.
7. PPC Lets You Retarget Customers
Facebook ads are a great example of retargeting using PPC advertising. There is a reason 15 million advertisers use them.
Its campaign manager already contains a suite of powerful tools. But one function is especially useful.
Upload your email list and target your subscribers with a Facebook ad. You might think that's counter-productive. They already saw the email, right?
Wrong. They may not have opened it. Or if they did, they forgot to click 'buy'.
Seeing your ad in their Facebook feed reminds them to finish the transaction. If they did open the email and didn't buy? They'll probably won't click, so it doesn't cost you any money.
You can use this same function in a different way. Upload your email list but this time, use it to create a 'lookalike' audience.
Facebook builds this using its vast database of information held on each user. This new audience is like your existing subscribers. So, they're more likely to be interested in your ad.
Then serve up your ad to these 'lookalikes' and track its performance.
Run PPC Advertising for Business Benefits
Remember, when using PPC advertising, conversions are more important than clicks. The conversion is the sale, what makes the click worth paying for.
It is a flexible approach to advertising that puts the control back in your hands. And with platforms like Amazon and Facebook offering PPC advertising? You are not just restricted to Google ads.
Which PPC platform will you try first? And what PPC platforms will you look into for the future?