What exactly is pay-per-click (PPC)

What exactly is pay-per-click (PPC)?

Pay-per-click, or PPC, is a type of advertising in which you pay a fee to have your website appear on the search engine result page (SERP) when someone types in specific keywords or phrases. The ads you create to direct visitors to your site will appear in the SERP, and the fee you pay is based on how many people click on your ad.

If you're wondering where to find pay-per-click ads, look to the right and before the organic search results. Take, for example, the ad that appeared in my search for "cards."

PPC Definitions and Terms

What is a marketing channel without a few acronyms and jargon?

There are a few terms you should be aware of if you plan to enter the paid advertising space. Below, we'll go over the main components of a PPC campaign, from broad to specific.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

The goal of all forms of digital advertising is to rank for a specific keyword, which can be accomplished in a variety of ways. Search Engine Marketing (SEO) is any paid or unpaid digital marketing done on a search engine such as Google, Yahoo, or Bing.

SEO is an umbrella term that encompasses both paid advertising and organic search engine ranking for keywords. It's important to note that not all PPC takes place on search engines; PPC ads can also be found on social media (think: Facebook Ads).

CPC

cost-per-click (CPC) that an advertiser pays for each click on your ad. CPC serves as your bid in an auction that determines where your advertisement will appear. As you might expect, a higher bid results in better ad placement.

You set your CPC to the highest amount you are willing to pay per ad click. The following formula determines what you actually pay:

Actual CPC = (Competitor's Ad Rank / Your Quality Score) + 0.01.

Let's go over the terms in this equation to make sure you understand what

Ad Rank

This value determines the position of an ad on a search engine results page. It equals Maximum Bid x Quality Score.

Quality Score

This is the score that search engines assign to your ad based on your clickthrough rate (CTR) — measured against the average CTR of ads in that position — the relevance of your keywords, the quality of your landing page, and your past performance on the SERP.

Let's go over the terms in this equation so you know what you're paying for:

Bid Maximum

This is the most you're willing to pay per ad click.

Here's an example from WordStream that demonstrates what I mean:

You can set your CPC to manual (you determine the maximum bid for your ads) or enhanced (search engines adjust your bid based on your goals). Bid strategies that automatically adjust your bids based on clicks or conversions are one of these enhanced options.

CPM (Cost per Mille)

CPM, or cost per thousand, is the cost per thousand impressions. It is most commonly utilized for paid social and display advertisements. There are other types of cost-per... like cost-per-engagement and cost-per-acquisition (CPA), but for the sake of your mental space, we'll stick with clicks, a.k.a. CPC.

Campaign

The first step in creating PPC ads is deciding on an ad campaign. Consider your campaign to be the main message or theme you want to convey through your advertisements.

Advertisement Group

One size does not fit all. That is why, within your campaign, you will create a series of ads based on a set of highly related keywords. For each ad group you create, you can specify a CPC.

Keywords

Each ad in your ad group will target a different set of keywords or key terms. These keywords inform search engines about the terms or search queries that you want your ad to appear alongside in SERPs. Once you've determined which keywords perform best, you can set a micro CPC for those keywords in your ads.

Ad Copy

Your ad text should be informed by your keywords. Remember that your Quality Score is determined by how relevant your ad is; thus, the text in your ad (and landing page) should match the keyword terms you're targeting.

The Landing Page

A landing page is an important component of your paid advertising strategy. When users click your PPC ad, they will be directed to the landing page. Follow landing page best practices to maximize conversions, whether it's a dedicated webpage, your homepage, or somewhere else.

Top PPC Platforms

Now that you've mastered the fundamentals of PPC, I'm guessing your next question is, "Where should I advertise?"

There are dozens of online spaces where you can spend your hard-earned ad dollars, and the best way to vet them is to examine your potential ROI on each platform.

The most popular advertising platforms are effective because they are simple to use and, more importantly, very popular. However, if you have a limited budget, you might consider a lesser-known alternative to these major players.

Other factors to consider when selecting a platform include the availability of keyword terms, where your target audience spends their time, and your advertising budget.

The following is a non-exhaustive list of some of the best PPC platforms.

Google Adwords (formerly known as AdWords)

How often do you hear the phrase "Let me Google that?" in a day? Probably more than you can count... which is why Google Ads is the undisputed king of paid advertising.

Google processes over 90,000 search queries per second on average, giving you plenty of opportunities to target keywords that will entice your target audience to click. The disadvantage is that keywords on this platform are highly competitive, requiring a higher ad spend.

Start with our free Google Ads PPC Kit if you intend to use this popular platform.

Bing Ads

The advantages of using Bing Ads over Google Ads include a slightly lower CPC at the expense of a larger audience.

Facebook Ads

Facebook Ads is a popular and effective platform for paid ads (more commonly used as CPM than CPC), owing to its specific targeting options. Facebook allows you to target users based on their interests, demographics, location, and behaviors.

Furthermore, Facebook allows for native ads, which are ads that are introduced and blend into the social feed. Not to mention, you can use Facebook Ads to advertise on Instagram as well.

Ad Roll

AdRoll is a retargeting platform that targets people who have previously visited your website with advertisements. Assume someone read your article on cheese making. You can retarget them with display ads promoting your online cooking classes on other websites they visit.

While Google Ads allows for retargeting, the advantage of using AdRoll is that it can display ads on Google and social media sites, giving you more opportunities to capture clicks or impressions, depending on your goal.

RevContent

RevContent specializes in content promotion via pay-per-click (PPC). It has the same effect as a guest post, where your content is displayed on another site, except it's in the form of an advertisement. You continue to bid on keywords, and your advertisement appears next to content related to those keywords. You will benefit from a low CPC and highly engaged traffic with this platform.

What is the procedure for PPC?

Pay-per-click, or PPC, is a paid advertising model used in search engine marketing (SEM). The advertiser only pays when people interact with their ad through impressions or clicks when using PPC.

With that out of the way, let's look at some of the advantages of PPC ads.

Advantages of PPC

PPC advertisements are inexpensive.
PPC ads produce immediate results.
PPC ads are simple to manage and test.
PPC advertisements enable you to target your ideal customers.
Changes to algorithms have little impact on PPC ads.
PPC ads can help you rank even if your domain has a low domain rating.
PPC ad data can help you improve your SEO strategy.

1. PPC advertisements are inexpensive.

You have complete control over how much you're willing to spend with PPC ad campaigns.

You'll get your money's worth because you only pay when visitors click the link leading to your website or landing page — with a high chance of conversion.

2. PPC ads yield quick results.

Although organic ranking is excellent, it can take months or even years to reach the first page of SERPs.

You probably don't have the time to wait for the effect of organic, social, or direct traffic to kick in if you're a startup or small business.

This is where PPC advertisements come in.

You can shoot to the top of the SERPs with optimized PPC ads within hours of launching your campaign.

3. PPC ads are simple to control and test.

With PPC ads, you can easily control the keywords you're targeting, ad placement, and budget. You can also conduct A/B split tests with different ads to determine which one produces the best return on investment. You can then scale the successful ads until they no longer produce desirable results.

4. PPC advertisements enable you to target your ideal customers.

You can use PPC ads to bypass cold audiences and target a warm audience that is ready to buy your products and services.

You can bid on keywords that solution-conscious personas would look up online. PPC ads, in addition to keywords, provide targeting options such as past online activity or demographics.

Another great way to use PPC ads is to create retargeting campaigns that target visitors who did not buy after landing on your site

5. Changes to algorithms have little impact on PPC ads.

Trying to get free traffic from search engines is more unstable than PPC advertising due to the numerous Google algorithm changes and the 200 ranking factors.

You don't have to worry about algorithm changes with PPC ads; instead, you can focus on how well your campaigns perform.

6. PPC ads can help you rank even if your domain has a low domain rating.

Keywords are becoming more competitive. This makes it more difficult for a company with a low domain authority to rank high on a search engine or to reach its target audience on a social platform.

PPC advertising allows you to quickly rank for keywords that your target audience is searching for, regardless of your domain ratings.

7. PPC ad data can help you improve your SEO strategy.

You shouldn't abandon your search engine optimization (SEO) efforts entirely; rather, your paid advertising should supplement rather than replace your SEO strategy.

When people search for your keywords, you know what they're looking for and can show them the most relevant ad. This means more clicks and a higher conversion rate.

PPC vs. SEO

SEO is the process of optimizing your website to rank high in search engines and gain free traffic. PPC, on the other hand, requires you to pay for clicks. Despite their differences, businesses see the best results when they combine SEO and PPC marketing.

How to Create a PPC Campaign

Now that you understand the benefits of PPC and are familiar with the key terms, let's get started on creating a quality PPC campaign using Google AdWords or another platform.

You don't have to go through these items in order, but you will need to go through them all to create an effective marketing campaign.

Configure the parameters

I know I said you didn't have to do these things in order, but you should start with this step. Without parameters, you risk having an ad that is untargeted and ineffective.

You should consider your ad campaigns in the context of your overall business objectives. Consider how your paid campaigns will help you achieve those objectives. Then consider what you want to achieve with your ads — whether it's visits, sales, brand awareness, or something else — and how much you're willing to spend to get there.

Your advertisements should include the following elements:

Who do you want to reach out to
Your campaign's theme
How will you assess success
What kind of campaign will you run

Make Goals and Metrics

As long as you decide how to measure your campaign goals, you'll have something to show for your ad spend. Your goal metrics should not be confused with your campaign metrics, which we'll go over in more detail later.

Let's go over some common PPC objectives and how to track them.

Brand awareness measures how well your target audience is acquainted with your company. Consider using display ads to supplement your copy with engaging imagery. Brand awareness can be measured through social engagement, surveys, and direct traffic.

Lead generation is the direct result of having a relevant and engaging landing page to accompany your paid advertisement. You should be able to easily track lead conversions in the Google Ads interface via a tracking pixel, or through UTM parameters if you're using a tool like HubSpot, because you'll create a separate landing page for each ad group.

If you're running a limited-time offer, product or service discount, or contest, offer promotion is ideal. Create a separate sign-up page or a unique discount code so you can track which users came from your ad.

The amount of your product or service sold based on your paid ads can be used to calculate sales. This should be possible to track using CMS software or attribution reporting.

Site traffic is an excellent goal if your website contains high-quality content. If you're going to spend money bringing people to your website, you should be confident that you can keep them there and eventually convert them into leads.

Select Your Campaign Type

You must not only know where you will advertise, but also how. There are numerous types of paid advertising campaigns, and the one you choose is determined by where you can reach your target audience. That's not to say you can't advertise in different ways; you can also try a mix of campaign types as long as you're constantly testing and revising.

The most common type of PPC is search ads, which are text ads that appear on search engine results pages.

Display Ads allow you to place ads (usually image-based) on third-party websites, such as social media. Display ads can be purchased through a variety of channels, including Google Display Network (GDN) and other ad networks.

Ads on social media, such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram, are referred to as social. Depending on the platform, you can pay to appear in your target audience's social feed or elsewhere within their profile.

Remarketing can target people who have previously engaged with your company through some action using cookies or a list of contacts that you upload. This action could be as simple as filling out a form, reading a blog, or visiting a page on your website.

Google Shopping works best for ecommerce sites. Your ad, which includes an image, a price, and a brief product description, will appear on a search page carousel based on your target keywords.

Conduct Keyword Research

Each ad group must be assigned a set of keywords to target — this is how search engines determine when and where to display your ad. The general rule of thumb is to choose one to five keywords per ad group, and those keywords must be extremely relevant — your Quality Score is at stake.

Choose keywords that are closely related to the theme of your ad group. If you come across keywords that fall outside of one theme and want to target them, you should create a separate ad group for them.

It is important to note that you are not limited to the keywords you begin with. Indeed, you should closely monitor your keyword list throughout your campaign, removing those that don't bring in the types of visitors you want and increasing your bids on those that do. Do your best to choose the most relevant keywords, but don't feel obligated to get it right the first time.

Configure Google Analytics and Tracking

Google Analytics is completely free to use, so there's no reason not to include it on your website. The tool provides information about how your website is performing, how visitors interact with your pages, and what content is appealing to them. The data from Google Analytics can be used for PPC and other purposes.

Best Practices for a Successful PPC Strategy

Did you think we'd let you spend your hard-earned money on advertisements without providing some best practices to follow? Obviously not. We want to ensure that your next PPC campaign is a success. So, let's look at some PPC strategies that will help you make the most of your efforts and budget.

As a side note, we're going to focus on paid search ads (the little guys you see in search engines) here.

Copy for PPC Ads

Bidding on specific keywords will get your ad in front of the right people, and good ad copy will get those people to click on it. Your ad, like your keywords, must solve for the searcher's intent — you must give the searcher exactly what they're looking for and ensure that this is clear through the words you use.

Search ads are made up of a headline, a URL, and a short description, all of which have strict character limits. Make the most of this space by ensuring that your ad copy does the following:

Speak directly to your ideal customer.
Include the main keyword for which you're bidding.
Make an actionable CTA available so the searcher knows what to do next.
Make the offer enticing.
Use language that corresponds to the copy on your landing page.
Run A/B split tests on your copy.

Best Practices for Landing Pages

The page that leads are directed to after clicking on your ad is arguably the most important aspect of PPC (after your ad copy). This page must be highly targeted, relevant to your ad, deliver what was promised, and provide a consistent experience.

Why? Because your landing page's goal is to convert your new visitor into a lead or customer. A high-converting landing page will also improve your Quality Score, resulting in better ad placements. Nothing reduces PPC profits more than a poorly designed landing page.

What elements should a PPC landing page contain in order to increase conversions? I'm glad you inquired.

A strong headline that corresponds to your search ad
The design and layout are simple.
Easy-to-use responsive form with a prominent CTA button
Copy that is extremely targeted and relevant to your target keywords
Displays the offer that was promised in your advertisement.
A/B testing

Your PPC Ads Should Be A/B Tested

As a marketer, you'll almost never throw something to your audience that works without first testing it. PPC campaigns are no exception. A/B testing is as important as any other aspect of your paid ad campaign. The goal of ad testing is to increase both your clickthrough and conversion rates.

The good news is that you only need to test four parts of an ad: the headline, description, landing page, and target keywords. Minor changes to just one of these elements can have a significant impact on your results, so make changes one at a time to keep track of where improvements come from.

Because there are numerous variations that you could test one at a time, it's a good idea to make a list of all the potential tests you can run and prioritize them based on the most significant impact. Finally, you should run your ads long enough to collect the necessary data and test them early enough to avoid wasting money on a poor-performing ad.

Increasing Your Return on Investment (ROI)

At a high level, maximizing ROI on your ad campaigns entails taking into account customer lifetime value and customer acquisition costs, which will help you determine how much it is worth spending on a new lead and how much of that spend can be attributed to paid advertising.

To get more specific, we need to discuss inputs and outputs, specifically 1) lowering your input (cost per lead [CPL]) and 2) increasing your return (revenue).

Let's break down the factors that will affect both.

Methods for Reducing Inputs

Before you begin, establish an advertising budget.
Create more relevant advertisements. The lower your CPC, the more relevant.
Increase your Quality Score. The higher your QS, the less search engines will charge you for clicks.

Methods of Increasing Revenue

Follow best practices for landing pages to increase conversion rates.

By being specific with your ad, you can target high-quality leads. The higher the quality of your leads, the more likely they are to convert and become customers.

Additional PPC Strategies and Techniques

There are a few other things you can do to improve the ROI of your paid ads, regardless of time spent, budget, clicks, or conversions.

Audiences

Google allows you to target your audience in order to save money on marketing while reaching the right people. You can upload a customer list to avoid wasting money on people who have previously purchased from you.

Google also provides options for prospecting audiences. For example, In-Market Audiences uses user behavior tracking to put you in front of prospects who are looking for a product or service similar to yours.

You can also raise your bid for more relevant subgroups within your target audience, a technique known as layering audiences. For example, HubSpot may layer on people who are looking for CRM software and add a 30% bid adjustment because those people are more likely to convert.

Bid Changes

Bid adjustments allow you to increase or decrease your bids based on performance. You can even make changes based on device, demographics, language, and other factors.

For example, if a keyword isn't performing as well on mobile as it is on desktop, you can include a negative bid adjustment so that when someone searches your keyword on mobile, you'll bid X% less than your normal bid.

Ad Scheduling on Your Own

In Google Ads, you can schedule your ad to appear only on certain days and times. This can reduce ad spend while increasing relevance for your target audience. your business hours and location These extensions take up more space on SERPs and thus stand out. Not only that, but they help to improve your Ad Rank.

Extensions to Sitelinks

Sitelink extensions allow you to add more information to your ad. For example, if you're running a seasonal promotion at a local store, you can include a sitelink extension that displays your store hours and location. These extensions take up more space on SERPs and thus stand out. Not only that, but they help to improve your Ad Rank.

Tracking Conversions

Conversion tracking measures how well your landing page is performing by placing a tracking code on the page where people land after completing your form (typically a "Thank You" page). By enabling this feature, you will be better prepared to make changes that will improve your conversions.

Keyword Research

Don't wait too long before checking how your keywords are performing. You can increase your bids on the keywords that are producing the best results for your campaign while "defunding" or eliminating others.

Types of Matches

Match Types in Google Ads allow you to specify how closely related your ad group should be to a search team. There are four types of matches: broad, modified broad, phrase match, and exact match. Google will display your ad in search results based on your selection. as well as "geese catch how."

If your keyword phrase is "how to catch geese" and you select "broad match," Google will show your ad for queries that include any word in your key phrase in any order, including "geese catch" and "geese catch how."

Keywords That Are Negative

A negative keyword list informs search engines about what keywords you do not want to rank for, which is just as important as what keywords you do want to rank for. Some of these you may be aware of right away, but the majority will be determined by what isn't performing well in your campaign.

Ads on Social Media

Although CPM is more common on social platforms, PPC is available, which works similarly to search engine ads in that you set a budget and bid on ad placements.

The difference is that on most platforms, social media ads can appear directly in your news feed, reducing the effectiveness of ad blockers. Social media platforms, such as Facebook, allow you to set targeted demographics and target people based on their interests. While paid search is more keyword-focused, paid social broadens into a demographic focus, allowing you to target your persona in more ways.

Retargeting and Lookalike Audiences are two paid ad functions on social media that are critical to ad success. Retargeting is the practice of remarketing to individuals based on site visits or manually uploaded contact lists. Lookalike Audiences analyzes the people on your marketing list and creates an audience that is similar to your list, thereby broadening your potential target. Paid social advertising also allows for a wider range of ad formats, such as images, videos, text, and more.

PPC Management and Monitoring

Paid advertising is not something you can "set and forget." To achieve the best results, you must manage and constantly monitor your advertisements. Management, analysis, and tracking are critical components of a PPC campaign because they provide valuable insights and assist you in creating a more effective campaign.

What exactly is PPC management?

PPC management encompasses a wide range of techniques, including goal creation and modification, split testing, introducing new keywords, optimizing conversion paths, and shifting plans to achieve objectives.

Managing your PPC requires an examination of your strategy and ad spend. On the one hand, it means refining your strategy to improve keyword effectiveness. On the other hand, it entails considering how to allocate resources to specific keywords and how to adjust those resources in order to maximize ROI.

A good management strategy also pays attention to providers, such as search engines, social platforms, and ad networks, to monitor changes and updates that may have an impact on paid campaigns.

Overall, PPC management is a difficult task, which is why investing in good PPC management tools may be a good idea.

PPC Software and Tools

PPC management tools should make things easier with all of the variables you need to track. You can monitor your ads within the platform, but if you need more help and organization, a robust, easy-to-read spreadsheet or sophisticated software that provides insight into ad performance is essential.

If you decide to go with software, look for the following features: multi-user support, cross-platform management, A/B testing, scheduling, reporting, and ad grading.

Here is a list of some well-known and highly regarded PPC software and resources.

Here is a list of some of them. HubSpot provides a robust template to help you monitor and manage your campaign's moving parts, making it simple to keep track of your ad groups, keywords, and A/B tests.
WordStream automates the time-consuming tasks of creating and managing your PPC campaign.
NinjaCat allows you to combine all of your analytics from different platforms into a single report, allowing you to track your entire campaign in one place.
Optmyzr provides complete PPC support, from creation to reporting, and it offers a free software trial.
SEMRush can assist you in managing the most crucial aspect of your PPC campaign — keywords. You can search for relevant keywords, manage and optimize your keyword lists, and even create negative lists.
Unbounce is a landing page builder that allows you to create landing pages for each of your PPC campaigns.
Databox assists businesses in tracking the performance of their advertisements and displays key metrics on a single dashboard. You can also use Databox's predictive analysis to forecast how well your advertisements will perform in the future.
Ahrefs is more than a simple SEO tool. Ahrefs can help you determine how well your PPC ads are performing. With Ahrefs, you can also spy on your competitors' keywords.
Microsoft Advertising Editor (formerly Bing Ad Editor) is a tool for managing PPC ads that you run through Bing. You can use this tool to manage your bids, research keywords, and make changes to your ads.

Tracking PPC Metrics

Metrics are crucial (but you already knew that). Here are some important metrics to monitor in your PPC campaign.

The total number of clicks on an ad is referred to as the number of clicks. This metric is influenced by the keywords you choose and the relevance of your ad copy.

The cost per click (CPC) is the amount you pay for each ad click.

By paying close attention to each of these metrics, you can increase the ROI of your paid campaign while spending less for better results.

Go Paid!

Whether you started your business yesterday or have been around for decades, PPC may be the boost you need to get an edge on your competition — or at least ahead of them in the SERPs.

Applying the lessons learned in this guide about creating a PPC campaign and the best practices for a quality PPC strategy will get you well on your way to increasing the traffic and conversions to your website.The percentage of ad views that result in clicks is known as the clickthrough rate (CTR). This metric dictates how much you pay (CPC). Industry-specific CTR benchmarks exist.

The number of impressions is the number of times an advertisement is viewed. For every thousand impressions, the cost per mille (CPM) is calculated. Impressions are especially important in brand awareness campaigns.

Ad spend is the amount of money you spend on advertisements. You can improve this by raising your Quality Score.

The ROI of your ad campaign is defined as return on ad spend (ROAS). This metric computes the revenue generated for every dollar spent on advertising.

The percentage of people who complete the call-to-action on your landing page and become a lead or customer is referred to as the conversion rate.

The cost per conversion is the cost of generating a lead. This is calculated by dividing the total cost of an advertisement by the number of conversions.

Because Quality Score (QS) determines ad positioning, it's an important metric to monitor.