For every business, the dream scenario would be for them to show up first on search results just when a customer is looking to buy. With the help of Pay Per Click (PPC) advertising services, that dream scenario is a reality.
With organic SEO, as one aspect of digital marketing, it can take months for results to be beneficial. Pay Per Click advertising ensures your brand is at the front of the search results, immediately. Unlike other digital marketing strategies, you only pay for an ad when a potential customer clicks it, making it one of the best value and most effective forms of digital marketing. They are especially great for new companies trying to find early customers, and established companies trying to grow their revenue. PPC advertising services give you total control over your audience, the results, and the budget.
This guide is going to take you through everything you need to know about Pay Per Click advertising services from the basics, to the most effective platforms, to the ways a professional PPC management strategy can benefit your business.
Pay Per Click advertising services are a digital marketing strategy that works by an advertiser paying each time that specific ad is clicked. Rather than gaining website traffic in an organic manner, companies buy ad visits from a specific and targeted audience.
To manage paid advertising campaigns, professional services manage all aspects of paid campaigns. These include keyword research, plans, ad design, bid management, AB testing, and performance assessments. Digital advertising agencies offer professional PPC services. They manage paid campaigns using their skills and various tools to ensure the highest ROI with every dollar invested.
PPC is a form of advertising based on an auction system. When ads are triggered by users search queries, advertising platforms conduct an auction for advertisers bidding on that search term. The highest bid does not guarantee a win. Platforms also consider quality, relevance of the ad, and expected click-through rates. Therefore, an optimized PPC campaign can win over a competitor with a bigger budget.
Every Pay-Per-Click advertising campaign is built from the following elements:
The goal of every business that contracts Pay Per Click advertising services is the same: achieve positive results. There are not many other marketing channels that can deliver the same immediate, scalable, and measurable results as professionally managed PPC campaigns.
Search Engine Optimization is not an immediate result. Pay Per Click advertising is, however. A well built Pay Per Click advertising campaign can dominate the top of the Google search results in a matter of hours. For this reason, Pay Per Click advertising is especially useful for business promotions that must meet an immediate business objective.
PPC advertising allows for the best targeting reach because of the extent in which you can customize who sees your ads. Customizations can be made for:
Because of the extent of customization, companies can make their ad spend reach customers who are likely to convert.
PPC advertising allows a company to set their own budget. Budget caps are set per day or per month. You can never spend over your set budget. This is unlike traditional advertising. In traditional advertising, companies spend money and hope to make sales. With this advertising, targeting ads becomes a budget boost because companies can get rid of ads that are not profitable.
Most advertisements are difficult to measure, not PPC advertising. With PPC advertising, you can easily measure what advertisements or what keywords made people take actions that your company values. Because of this, companies can easily measure advertising efforts and determine what their advertising goals or values are.
When competitors are utilizing PPC and your business is not, they are winning clicks from your potential customers. A strong PPC plan makes it possible to compete with larger businesses because larger budgets do not necessarily guarantee success — the auctions are won by ads that are most relevant to users.
PPC advertising services can be found on a number of different platforms. These different platforms tend to attract different target audiences and allow for the creation of different types of advertising. Knowing your options will help you create more effective paid media strategies.
Google Ads is the largest PPC platform with a wider search coverage than any other platform. Google Ads breaks down into four main types of ads:
Advertising through Microsoft (the owner of Bing, Yahoo, and AOL) is easier than advertising through Google. Bing operates with less competition, offers lower clicks, and captures a wealthier and older demographic. Microsoft Advertising is a key element in your PPC strategy because it will yield a positive return.
Meta offers ads on both Facebook and Instagram, which combined have over 3.5 billion active users. Meta Ads are organized by interest and catered toward specific target demographics. Within those demographics, specific interests may be selected. Meta Ads are great for:
If your company is B2B, LinkedIn Ads are the best choice. They allow you to pinpoint users by:
This makes LinkedIn the best advertisement platform for pinpointing company decision-makers. Ad options consist of Sponsored Content, Message Ads, and Lead Gen Forms, which generate leads by allowing users to fill out a form directly within the platform.
If your business is product-based and you sell on Amazon, Amazon Advertising is essential for PPC. The key ad types include:
These advertisements place your products in front of shoppers with high purchasing intent on the largest online retail platform in the world.
Hiring a professional PPC advertising service provider is much more than hiring a firm to set up your ads. This service covers all aspects of your PPC campaign, including the following:
PPC managers conduct an account audit of your existing ads (if applicable) and analyze your competitors’ ads. This helps them:
A cornerstone of any successful PPC campaign is the proper selection of keywords. Professional PPC services use keyword research to locate:
The design of a PPC account has a direct correlation to its success. PPC professionals design their accounts to reflect a logical structure that relates to:
This segmentation is done at the ad group level to help improve Quality Scores and lower costs.
PPC copywriters craft ads that:
For display, social, or video campaigns, this extends to images, graphics, and video scripts.
All great ads are of no use if users are not presented with an optimal experience on the destination page. The best PPC services either optimize existing landing pages or create new ones to ensure:
One of the most complex parts of managing PPC campaigns is bid strategy. Professional managers blend:
Continuous testing and improvements drive results. Managers run A/B tests on:
Without accurate conversion tracking, responsible PPC management cannot exist. Professional Management Services:
To ensure campaigns and business goals are aligned, stakeholders receive consistently transparent reports that:
No matter if PPC is managed in-house or with an outsourced agency, knowing these metrics will help you evaluate and improve campaign performance:
Launching an advertising campaign is just one component of driving results through PPC. The work does not end after launch. It must be continuously monitored and optimized. Below are the best PPC practices to follow:
Each keyword can be classified based on the user’s intent — informational, navigational, or transactional. The best PPC campaigns match the intent of the keyword by strategically aligning the ad copy and the landing page. A user searching “buy running shoes online” has different intent than one searching “best running shoes for beginners,” and your ads should reflect that difference.
Ad extensions allow you to add more information to your ads, including:
Extensions make your ads larger on the SERP, improve click-through rates, and are completely free to use.
Negative keywords exclude search terms that do not help you and save money that would have been spent on useless clicks. Regular negative keyword audits are one of the most impactful optimizations in any PPC account.
Message match improves conversion rates. If a user clicks an ad about a specific product and lands on a generic homepage, they will leave. Always send users to a landing page that is about the specific offer being advertised.
Remarketing reaches users who have already been to your site. Because people already know your brand:
PPC is never a “set and forget” process. Successful campaigns stem from a culture of rigorous testing and optimization. Commit to a testing schedule that includes:
The smallest consistent changes result in the largest gains over time.
PPC advertising services are useful in all industries and types of businesses. The services are especially beneficial for:
Choosing the right PPC partner is a vital decision for any company and should be done with care. Look for the following qualities:
When you want to rapidly drive relevant traffic to your site that will immediately convert to sales, PPC advertising done right is the best option. There is no other marketing channel that so quickly impacts a company’s bottom line.
There is a thin line between wasteful PPC advertising and campaigns that drive sales. The deciding factor is quality management of every aspect of the process — from selection of search terms, crafting the ad, the user experience on the landing page, how much a company is willing to pay for a click, and the time-tested changes made over time.
Launching a PPC campaign for the first time can be intimidating, and worrying what your competitors will think is always in the back of your mind. However, knowing what is and is not working for your competitors helps your PPC campaign thrive.
Ready to grow your business with high-performance PPC advertising? Contact our team today for a free account audit and discover how we can turn your ad spend into measurable, scalable revenue.
To assist you on your PPC journey, we have included some resources: