PPC means pay-per-click, and it is used in digital marketing to improve an ad campaign. It is the quickest way to target brand awareness and put you ahead of your competitors. The importance of PPC for a business marketing campaign depends on its ability to utilize its campaign data effectively and assess changes accordingly.
It is the most significant aspect of digital marketing that can increase your ROI (return of investment). PPC can do the following for a business.
- It can maximize the number of ad clicks
- It can target specific conversion styles by using desired cost-per-action (CPA)
- It can help you target ROAS (return on ad spend) to calculate your spend and revenue (ROI)
- It can maximize conversion rates and value while targeting low bids for ad space
- Help you to set up your overall budget estimates
PPC refers to pay per click advertising. Facebook, Google and Microsoft Bing are example of pay per click advertising platforms. Most PPC algorithms are designed to reward advertisers with relevant ads which follow their guidelines. For example, you could show up in position #1 and pay only $1 per click, and your competitor is in position #4 and paying $6 per click. Why is that? RELEVANCY.
Most PPC platforms function like an auction with advertisers bidding for clicks. The PPC platform will assess the website’s quality to ensure users have an ideal experience when they visit the site.
To effectively use PPC advertising, you should follow these tips.
- Establish your marketing goals
- Develop your preferred target audience and cater to them specifically
- Use keywords to structure your campaign
- Bid on your relevant keywords
- Design a quality yet mobile-friendly landing page, focusing on benefits and features
- Use Google Analytics to track your results
- Incorporate routine testing and optimization on your ad copy and landing pages
Ad impressions are a valuable metric that is used for counting the total number of times that your specific ad campaign has been viewed by your target audience. For instance, you will be able to gauge the number of times a single ad has been displayed on the screens of your target audience. Impressions can be measured for different types of ads, and you can also set up Ad Set Impressions that allow you to track a group of ads that fall under the same theme category. Using ad impressions helps you to assess and calculate the total number of views that your ad has generated.
On the other hand, Ad Clicks are a metric that is used to count the number of times that your digital advertisement has been clicked by viewers to access an online site. The online advertisements for this metric can be varied to include texts, banners, or buttons. The primary goal of a digital ad campaign is to increase the traffic that is directed towards a website. Using Ad Clicks achieves this goal effortlessly because it is the best way to assess the quality of your site.
Several variables go into the determination of your advertising costs on Google. As a result, there isn’t a simple and one-size-fits-all approach to answer this question. However, these are some reasons why there isn’t a clear-cut approach to determine advertising costs.
- They depend on the industry
- The customer lifecycle is not a fixed variable
- Trends are constantly changing
If your ad is well written, relevant, and becomes a success, your ad campaigns can become more cost-effective.
Quality Score is an effective tool that Google Ads uses to evaluate the different ways that you can improve your campaign performance. It indicates the precise factors that require improvement. The following are some helpful measures that you can use to improve your campaign performance.
- Review the three components of your Quality Score (Expected click clickthrough rate, ad relevance, and landing page)
- Create ads that are relevant to your keywords
- Find ways to improve your clickthrough rate (CTR)
- Update your landing page
- Use Quality Score in conjunction with other metrics
The most crucial step is to ensure that you set your goals for your ad campaign first. This is how you will be able to understand, track and measure your metrics to know where your ad is performing or not. The most common goals that you can set for measuring your success are the following.
- Your ad impressions
- Your ad clicks
- The expected click-through rate
- Your average cost-per-click
- Conversions as a bidding rate
Once you have established your campaign goals, and you have launched your ad campaign, it is important to do routine maintenance such as product A/B testing.
The short answer is yes. Google Ads automation features can save you a lot of time and generate sales. It is important to know how to take advantage of these features. For example, you can use automation bid management tools to help you access real-time insights, location, language, and operating system. However, you also need to manually monitor your campaign performance to factor in any changes in pricing or new trends that may affect your ad campaign.
The answer is dependent on several factors that are unique to each client. You need to consistently assess your campaign objectives. Have you met your sales goals? Are your lead-generating techniques useful? As a result, you need to do regular reviews to identify any emerging trends and keyword phrases that can affect your ad click and conversion rates.
Your stakeholders can have a negative or positive impact on the output of your ad campaigns. This is why it is important to know who the stakeholders are before you launch the ad campaign. It is important to maintain regular communication about any updates to internal stakeholders. Failure to communicate updates effectively can cause issues with the project being hampered or reduce your budget unexpectedly.
Your PPC adverts will appear on different search engine results pages (SERPs) to target the customers that would most likely purchase your products. To ensure that your campaign ads appear and rank highly, you need to select the goals that you want to achieve, whether it is to boost sales or drive traffic to your website. You can look out for your ad campaigns on the following:
- Google Search Network
- Google Display Networks
- Google Partner Networks
If your PPC ad campaigns are not showing there may be specific problems that can affect your bidding, conversions, targeting, or campaign settings. There are different ways to troubleshoot this problem, but Google has a specific “Why you may not see your ad” troubleshooter to help fix your problem. It will provide you with reasons why you are experiencing the problem and ways to fix your problem. There is also a list of the most common issues and tools provided by Google Ads to help you troubleshoot the problem.
The Ad Auction is a useful tool that Google uses to show how ads are positioned. Google Ads calculates the Ad rank for every ad that has been bid in the Ad auction. The general rule of thumb is that ads with the highest ad rank will show up in the top position. If your ad is not showing on the top of the page of Google Ads then you may need to consider improving the following without increasing bids.
- Your Quality Score and your Ad Rank formula
- Increase your keyword phrases by using a keyword tool
- Improve your ad relevance
- Improve your website and landing pages
Google Ads is a significantly competitive advertising platform. Unfortunately, you cannot find out from your competitors about what they are doing better than you. However, there are approaches that you can use to work on this.
Auction Insights Report
You can use your auction insights reports to assess what your competitors are doing better than you. There are two options that you can use to create these reports.
- You can use keywords to generate a report
- You can generate a report for all of your keywords
- Google Search Ad Preview and Diagnosis Tool
- Third-Party Keyword Spy Tools
- Adwords Keyword Planner
Once you have figured out who your competitors are, you can use this information to target their ad campaigns.
Your cost-per-clicks can grow on Google Ads, a phenomenon known as CPC Inflation. This happens when other variables remain the same, and you have to spend more to maintain your impression share. The auction algorithm will determine the placement of your ads and the costs that you will pay for your ad campaign. Factors such as your competition, expansion of your ads, less ad space, changes in your quality score, and enhanced CPC limits.
Many factors can contribute to this. For instance, if your ad campaign is new, you must understand that it takes time to create a cumulative impact. So, you need to provide Google Ads with as much information as you can to improve the interaction to your website. When there is more activity with your listing, you can provide Google with more information that is valuable for improving your rankings.
You should also consider optimizing other online assets such as social media profiles. Your off-page SEO also needs to improve. However, other businesses may have extensive historical data when compared to new campaigns.
Yes, you should. It’s an effective strategy to send users to your homepage. When you pay for your ad campaign Google Ads gives you full control over where you send your viewers. This way you can adapt your brand voice whenever you need to while providing your viewers with more information that can be used to dominate your brand search results page.
It is also a better way to increase your CTR to increase your incremental traffic which makes it hard for your competitors to surpass your success. Additionally, it is an inexpensive way to increase your overall quality score.
The best place to start is to set a goal that is well-defined to establish the success of your ad campaign. The goal for your PPC performance should depend on the needs of your business. So, it could be to increase traffic, improve sales, or increase the number of subscribers. Your goals should be clear and realistic so that they can be attainable within the desired timeframe.
The following are other ways to start with improving your PPC ad campaign performance.
- Using high-performance keywords with a high CTR
- Optimize the quality of these keywords so that they are relevant for your ad copy and improve your landing page experience
- You can also create a list of negative keywords to prevent your ad from being paused as a result of inappropriate searches
- Write engaging and relevant ad copy
- Utilize retargeting to recapture the attention of your prospective customers who are aware of your brand
It is important to ensure that you keep track of your PPC campaign by monitoring it regularly. Most new campaigns fail because marketers do not spend enough time evaluating their performance and understanding the factors that are affecting its success. However, if you do not have the time and require an efficient way to monitor your PPC campaign, you can invest in automation as a solution to offer you closed-loop reporting.
PPC campaign advertising helps any sized business to increase its visibility as an effective way to boost conversions that translate to sales.
A PPC campaign that does not have any data or performance history can take up to three months to build and work. However, for most campaigns, the general time frame to see notable results is between one and two weeks.
The timeline can vary according to different factors of that party’s business. The general rule of thumb is that it can take at least three months to mature an advertising campaign. An additional six to nine months can be beneficial to develop a strong and memorable campaign.
The reason why it can take a long time to see results from a PPC ad campaign is that it lacks data and/or performance history. The ad campaign is what generates the advertising data. Factors such as the target audience size can affect how your campaign generates data.
For instance, once the campaign is up and running, various networks notice the quality of your ad campaign. This can influence ad metrics as they gather more information about your campaign’s performance.
A: Pricing for PPC is categorical and is dependent on various aspects. As such, it may seem as though it is not a fixed cost. When you choose to use PPC bidding for your ad campaign, it means that you have chosen to pay for each click that is generated on your ads.
The average cost of a click (CPC) which is based on the actual cost per click is calculated by dividing the cost of the total click by the sum of the number of clicks. This average CPC may differ from the highest amount that you are willing to pay for a click.
The maximum bid that you choose to pay will determine your search engine rankings.
PPC targets prospective customers that are already in need of your products/services for more qualified leads. Another factor that is considered by search engines is the quality score of your ad campaign for placement purposes.
Several factors affect the cost of PPC, while others can be controlled- many cannot be. The 10% fee is the average management cost that is a percentage spent for generating leads and conversions that are an ROI for you as the client.
A good PPC management agency understands how to use content strategy and numbers to improve your company’s overall return of investment. It has a team that can use a combination of industry knowledge and expertise on target audience growth to develop campaigns with a high yield.
Additionally, a good PPC agency will communicate with its clients about all the information it uses to run an effective and legitimate ad campaign.
PPC advertising for eCommerce businesses can be a complex marketing process. The market is highly competitive and professional PPC management services can be affected by various factors.
Ecommerce PPC pricing can sometimes go up to $5000 depending on the size of the business, or it can amount to between 10% — 20% of the monthly ad spend.
These costs generally include but are not limited to once-off setting up costs, agency management costs, and the total monthly ad spend.
Other PPC agencies charge a flat rate for eCommerce management services, while others charge a percentage fee of the ad spend i.e. 10%. For example, if your eCommerce startup costs are $2000, and you are charged 10% for ad spend, you will pay the agency $200 p/m to manage your campaigns.
The PPC pricing model can be divided into three standard pricing criteria.
- Flat-rate: There is a recurring and fixed monthly fee.
- Percentage of ad spend: The monthly management fee is determined by your ad to spend.
- Performance-based: The total amount of the monthly management fee will be based on the ROI results.
Other factors such as the agency’s specific features can influence the eCommerce startup fee and recurring costs.
The most obvious difference between these ad campaigns is automation. A Google Smart Shopping campaign will take a standard campaign and incorporate automation for bidding, targeting, and ad placement. This makes it a convenient option for ad campaigns because it doesn’t require maintenance.
A standard Google Shopping Ad campaign is the one that every retailer uses to market and sell their products/services. It uses SERPs to help customers compare and shop for different products from manufacturers who have paid for Google Ads.
The most notable differences are the following:
- Google Smart Shopping is quick and fully automated while Google Shopping Ads are time-consuming to set up and provide you full control.
- Google Shopping Ads give you control over network placement while Google Smart Shopping doesn’t. This can affect the control over location targeting.
- Google Smart Shopping limits the number of landing pages while Google Shopping Ads gives you multiple landing pages.
To configure phone tracking, you need to purchase several additional phone lines that will forward to your business line. Each PPC campaign or landing page can be allocated a unique telephone number to ease the tracking process. You can place these numbers directly on your PPC campaign or the locations. You can also set up dynamic number insertion to effectively assess how your ads can lead to phone calls from your site. This type of conversion strategy can help you identify and measure calls when someone visits your website. It uses a simple script to change the listed number seen by visitors to your website.
The number that is chosen depends on several factors such as the geographical location, specific PPC ad, the landing page, and types of keywords used. A call tracking platform sets up PPC call tracking within minutes to provide you with these benefits.
- Tracking sources
- Split testing
- Call data
- Keyword data
- Overall campaign performance
When you have an ad campaign with historical data it is easier to forecast your PPC projections or even if you have a new client who has had a few campaigns before. The following is the type of data that can be used to estimate projections.
- Monthly ad spend. The maximum amount that will be spent on a PPC campaign. The projections can estimate whether it should be decreased or increased to meet the projected goals.
- Average sales. This is the benchmark for PPC campaigns, revenue is the ultimate goal.
- Conversion rate. This gives an idea of how well your ad is performing and the trajectory of future performance.
- Cost-per-click (CPC). This gives an estimate of how much will be spent per keyword.
- Competitor data. This will give you insights into how your ad campaign measures up against competitor campaigns.
- Industry trends. To optimize the adaptability of your campaign, you need to know the current trends and possible trends.
To get the best possible projections for a campaign that doesn’t have historical data, you need to use whatever data is available to make the estimated projections. The starting point should be determining the cost-per-clicks (CPCs) to understand your estimated budget.
If your ad campaign fails to generate profits, you will lose the money invested in your campaign. To calculate your ROAS, you need to divide the generated revenue by the amount spent on the campaign. To spend more without lowering your ROAS you can do the following.
- Increase the generated revenue while stabilizing the costs.
- Lower the ad costs while maintaining your revenue.
- Increase the revenue while you lower the costs.
To achieve the above-mentioned, you can:
- Improve your website
- Assess what your competitors are doing
- Refine your keyword targeting
- Include geo-targeting
- Optimize landing pages
- Optimize your conversion rates
- Promote seasonal offers
- Use the negative keyword feature
There are other things that you can use to ensure that your return on ad spend stays above board.
Updating your ad campaign is dependent upon different factors such as the industry or budget. For example, a new ad campaign requires consistent weekly updates. However, as time goes by, you can only update it every second week or once a month depending on your reach. The following are other factors that influence how many times you need to update your ad copy.
- The historical data of your campaign
- The number of targeted keywords
- Your budget
- The success of the campaign
There are many reasons why you need to constantly update your ad campaign, your changing competition being one of them. Moreover, search engines like Google are always updating and revising features. And most importantly, the way that your prospective customers search for information is always changing.
To calculate your monthly budget, you need to know what your daily average budget will be. So, you should calculate what you are comfortable spending on a per-day basis. A PPC management agency will optimize your campaign spend according to your clicks and conversions. However, even though your campaign spend may vary, you will not be expected to pay more than your daily average budget or your monthly spending limit.
You can use tools such as Google Ads’ Performance Planner to help you optimize your budgets for all of your existing campaigns.
To run a successful ad campaign, it is important to utilize seasonal marketing strategies to increase your sales and customers. However, to do this, you ought to be careful in the strategies that you implement so that the changes you make do not overwhelm your customers. Below are some of the strategies that you can incorporate to make effective and timely changes to your ad campaign.
- Qualitative learning of your customers’ purchase history.
- Quantitative learning can help you to gain vital insights for a successful seasonal ad campaign.
- Launch your campaigns before the trends hit.
- Use retargeting.
The changes that you make to your campaign and how often you make them depend on the ad campaign goals.
A paid campaign and organic search SEO run parallel to each other and can even compete with each other. Studies suggest that organic search has a direct influence on the number of clicks a PPC campaign receives. For example, when the organic search results are stronger, they will increase the PPC click rate on the same SERP. Similarly, this can work in reverse with PPC boosting the results of organic search.
However, you can make PPC and organic search work together to achieve a common goal- profit and customer conversions.
You can use promotion extensions to share relevant information about special offers or certain events on your ad campaign. They offer flexible scheduling and can be edited without losing essential data. However, if the special offer relates to an occasion-specific promotion extension, Google Ads requires it to be launched or edited within 6 months of their start date to ensure that they are eligible.
When you work with a PPC campaign management agency, you require consistent communication and feedback. However, how the review meetings are structured, depends highly on the urgency of the ad campaign, the budget, and the volume of the work. For example, small-scale projects require less frequent meetings in comparison to larger projects.
You should use Bing Ads with Google Ads for your PPC strategy for the following reasons.
- Google is not used by everyone
- It makes it easier to import campaigns
- There are several Bing Partner program partnerships
- It expands device targeting
- It is more affordable
- Bing treats negative keywords differently
- You need both Bing and Google for your PPC strategy
When your ad campaign is not showing, it is an alarming situation. However, these are some reasons why this may happen.
- Your payment did not go through
- The bids set for your keywords are too high or too low
- The keyword volume is probably low
- Your ad campaign has been paused, removed, or disapproved due to policy consideration
- There is a mistake in your Ad schedule tab
- The negative keywords trump the active keywords
- Optimization issues
Solid Leads!
Request Marketing Proposal
We’ll get back to you within a day to schedule a quick strategy call. We can also communicate over email if that’s easier for you.
Visit Us
Search Engine Pros
101 Burton Circle
Santa Barbara, CA 93101
View On Map
Sales Inquiries
sales@thesearchenginepros.com
Phone: (805) 627-3255
Support Inquiries
support@thesearchenginepros.com
Phone: (805) 627-3255
201 W. Montecito St.
Santa Barbara, CA 93101