Attracting traffic to a business website requires both organic and paid marketing efforts.
Organic results come from efforts that do not cost money but it takes significant time and effort to establish a position in the “top 3” of Google search results. Search engine optimization (SEO) and content marketing are two typical examples of organic marketing.
These efforts are important, but most businesses require additional efforts to keep a steady flow of traffic to the website. This is where pay-per-click (PPC) marketing enters the picture.
What is PPC campaign management? We’ll answer that question in this blog.
Understanding the Concept of PPC Advertising
The term PPC advertising refers to the process of placing highly targeted ads in strategic locations across the Internet. For example, a company that sells pet monitoring equipment might consider placing ads on pet-related blogs or bidding on pet-monitoring-related keywords in Google Ads. The people searching the Internet or visiting the website are already looking for advice or products to help them take good care of their pet and are more likely to be interested in the pet monitoring product than a non-targeted audience.
Businesses set their own budget with PPC marketing and only pay when someone clicks on the ad. Marketing teams call this cost per click or CPC. The more a company bids on specific keywords, the more it will pay when someone clicks on a targeted ad.
CPM is another abbreviation to remember when running a PPC campaign. This term describes a company’s cost per 1,000 impressions and refers only to video and display ads. Clients pay for the opportunity to show these specific types of ads to potential customers whether they click on them or not.
What is PPC Campaign Management, and Why Should Businesses Consider It?
PPC campaign management is the term used when a business outsources the work of creating and monitoring pay-per-click advertising campaigns to an individual marketer or team. Some specific tasks of a PPC management team include:
- Analyze the competition: Research the keywords that close competitors are bidding on and the types of ads they use. More often than not, if a competitor is running those ads, they’re profitable. Unless it’s a new campaign, they’ve likely determined that the CPL (cost-per-lead) is worth it and delivering positive ROI.
- Campaign optimization: Monitor top-performing keywords and focus on them to improve return on investment (ROI). Paid campaigns are not a set-it-and-forget-it activity. Even when a campaign is profitable there can be room for improvement.
- Keyword research: Identify the top keywords the client’s customers use when completing an online search. Knowing how your prospects look for you and the exact terminology they use is valuable information! Your prospects likely use a large variety of keywords to find you, not just a few obvious keywords.
- PPC campaign monitoring: Determine the effectiveness of each keyword and campaign and adjust as necessary. Your paid ads team should be reporting to you how things are going on the regular.
- Select advertising channels to target: Research various alternatives, such as Google Ads and display networks, to decide which ones to use. We’re huge fans of Google Ads. Facebook Ads and Instagram Ads can have a place in your paid search repertoire too – but only if it’s the right fit for your business.
- Split testing: Run different versions of an ad on multiple channels to see which ones perform best. You’d be surprised to find that often the combination of copy and images that you thought was the best doesn’t perform the best. Split testing eliminates bias. Letting the data make the decisions is the best way to deliver results that improve over time!
Canopy Media offers these services and more to our PPC clients.
Top Benefits of PPC Marketing
PPC is just one of several available marketing methods available to companies trying to increase traffic to various websites and landing pages. What makes this option a good choice?
1. Display PPC Ads to a Highly Targeted Group
PPC campaign managers select who to show a client’s ads to based on keywords and demographics such as age, income and education level, interests, shopping habits, language, gender, and the type of device used most often. Why show your ads to prospects that aren’t going to be a good fit for your business? Poor targeting is a common reason why many businesses fail at paid search marketing – they waste money delivering ads to people who would likely make use of their services! As a result, their cost-per-lead is too high to rationalize the ad spend, even though their business was likely a good fit for paid ads.
2. Ability to Re-Target Previous Website Visitors
On average, only two percent of people who initially visit a website follow through with a purchase in the same visit. Two percent! With re-targeting, people who clicked away from the site after just looking around see ads that remind them to return and reconsider their purchase. At Canopy Media, we operate by a “Rule Of Seven” – your audience often needs to see your brand 7x before they will remember you at the time of purchase. Remarketing accomplishes this, and what’s best about this is that often your remarketed prospect doesn’t click on the remarketing ads. That’s free exposure for your brand AND an increase in the likelihood that your prospect will choose you!
3. Faster Results than Organic Marketing
A good PPC campaign can boost a company’s search engine ranking within days, not weeks or months as is often the case with content marketing and other types of non-paid advertising. You’re paying for the ad space, so it’s likely you’ll get it. However, sometimes ad space is sold like an auction with the top spots going to companies that are willing to pay more. Paying for ad space isn’t a guarantee, but a PPC campaign can give businesses a jumpstart as they continue to work on building organic traffic.
Only Pay When a Prospect Clicks an Ad
PPC is cost-efficient because money only comes out of the ad campaign when someone clicks on the ad. Some people will buy right away while others may need re-targeting opportunities to get them back to the website.
Tracking Results is Easy
There’s no more trackable marketing medium than digital paid advertising. PPC management teams consistently monitor campaigns and can adjust them in real time if the clicks from a certain ad do not meet client expectations. Tracking also provides actionable data on which campaigns are performing well to help with future marketing budgets.
Ready to learn more about PPC campaign management for your business? Contact Canopy Media to receive up to $150 in free consulting services. If you have an existing campaign, our Paid Search team will audit it for free and provide you with recommendations. If you’re new to this, we’ll prepare a recommended strategy for you.
Remember, you won’t know if this marketing channel will yield results for your business unless you try it out. For that reason, we recommend a 120-day paid advertising experiment for your business.
If it’s working we keep on advertising. If it’s not, we recommend you stop! But you won’t know until you try 🙂
Talk soon?
