Should Your Business Use Pay-Per-Click Marketing?
Digital marketing doesn’t end with SEO and quality content. There are a variety of techniques your business can implement to increase sales and awareness to your brand.
Pay-per-click marketing, or PPC, is a short-term marketing technique that allows businesses to increase their presence on the most popular search engines.
Pay-per-click marketing comes down to bidding on specific keywords through search engines to get your page to the top of the page after those keywords are searched.
How Does Pay-Per-Click Marketing Work?
The search engine decides who wins the bid based on the size of the bid on the keyword, the quality of the site and the relevance of the keyword to your business.
There is a lot of consideration that goes into deciding who gets the top placement so you have to be smart when determining the keyword you choose and the amount you spend.
Once your business is chosen by a search engine, like Google, your page will display in the top spot, plus you can use callout extensions, when the keyword is searched. You then pay a small fee to the search engine for each click your site receive. The intended goal from this is to pay a small price relative to the large profit you will gain from the traffic to your site.
Due to the specificity of the keyword to the items you search, PPC will not be beneficial to every company. There are certain characteristics that define what businesses will benefit the most from PPC.
This is not to discourage your business from trying it. But it is important to remember that the cost can add up very quickly and if you don’t receive the profits you hoped to see, significant losses will accrue.
PPC is also not meant to be used alone. You must pair it with a high-converting sales page or at least quality web design to get the most ROI out of it.
Do your research and consider consulting to make sure pay-per-click marketing will be the right fit for your business.
The Advantages Of PPC
Pay-per-click has great benefits when it works like it’s supposed to.
First Site Spot On Google
The first and one of the largest advantages to using PPC is gaining that front page, first site spot on Google. Much like SEO, PPC advertisements brings your target audience to your business.
In fact, 65% of users that intend to make a purchase go to search ads to get their products. PPC makes sure your business is there for the users that want to spend their money.
Immediate Results
Another advantage to pay-per-click marketing is the results are immediate, as opposed to a long-term SEO strategy. This is a marketing technique that produces results instantly.
The results are also measurable so you can tell right away if the technique is working for your company.
This can help your business get a general idea of its performance in the present time since most of the other techniques you will pair with PPC will be long-term techniques that take months and years to show results. It is a great way to get traffic and increase sales fast.
Pay-per-click marketing increases traffic to your site, whether or not the user decides to make a purchase, which allows you to gain data insights. You can see what parts of your website are converting sales and not based on the amount of people that make a purchase and the amount of people that click on the page, spend very little time looking at it, and then leaving it without spending any money.
You can then use these insights to fix your web page to accommodate the user, bring new customers in, and keep loyal customers returning.
Flexibility With Price
Another advantage to pay-per-click marketing is the flexibility with price. PPC is expensive and will stay expensive, however, the search engine will charge you lower prices if your page is helpful and useful to the consumer.
You have to pay a fee per clicks to your website, that part is inevitable. But with good content and an easy to use website, search engines will reward you with lower prices per click.
One final advantage to pay-per-click marketing is the fact that your page will be the top spot on search engines.
Trying to gain traffic organically is becoming increasingly hard. In fact, of the 77% of marketers that use social media for organic traffic, only 48% saw ROI. PPC gets you to that top page spot almost immediately.
One important note about this advantage is the results are short term. You need to have quality content to keep people returning to you page and to maintain the profits you gain from PPC.
Types of Businesses That Should Utilize Pay-Per-Click Marketing
There are five traits that make a business fit for PPC. Not to say any business can’t use search ads, these business just see the best results upon implementation of PPC.
High Customer Lifetime Values
The first trait that makes a business fit for search and display ads is a business with high customer lifetime values.
These businesses include dentists, doctors, schools, internet providers, etc. who gain their ROI from providing lifelong services.
These companies receive a decent profit from the services they provide to clients because they are investing in people they trust for services that they will need over the span of their life.
Most people tend to stick with the same doctor or internet provider as long as they are keeping them satisfied. Businesses like these thrive on high customer loyalty because their customers trust them to give them the utmost quality of service.
That’s why the small fee they pay for clicks to their website pay off with the large profit they receive from their customers.
These types of businesses accounted for about 16% of Google’s overall revenue in 2011.
High Margins
The next trait that makes businesses fit for PPC search ads are businesses that provide products and services at a high margin. The one purchase or investment a person spends is typically large.
For example, realtors running Facebook ads is smart because they can make 10-20x the cost of the ad spend when the house sells.
These can include high end jewelry, like an engagement ring, or a car. These are high-ticket purchases that the business can cash in on even if they only get a few sales a day, which makes PPC worth it.
One single purchase provides high ROI for the business and may return more results with referrals and future purchases.
These businesses accounted for about 12% of Google’s overall revenue in 2011.
Hard To Find Products
The next trait that makes business fit for PPC are businesses that provide products that are hard to find. These are rare products that you can’t just find at your local Walmart or CVS.
These can include obscure products like frayed iPhone chargers. These items are so niche that it requires a specific place to sell them.
This trait works best for PPC because there are not going to be many competitors that want the keyword. And the business is providing a product that customers are specifically looking for.
The ROI comes from the uniqueness of the product, if someone is searching for something that specific, they intend to buy it.
Diverse Array Of Products
The fourth trait that makes a business fit for ppc is having a diverse array of products. These types of business sell so many different types of products and consolidates them on one website to make it easy for consumers to purchase many things in one place.
These include many of the ecommerce websites like Amazon and Ebay. The high ROI comes from the amount of purchases one person makes on each site.
On Amazon, a person can find hiking gear, a dress for a fancy dinner and paper towels to make in one purchase. The mere convenience these types of business provide to customers are what give them the profits necessary to make the money spent on clicks miniscule.
These types of businesses accounted for about 7% of Google’s overall revenue for 2011.
Seasonal Or Event-Based Value
The final trait that makes a business fit for PPC ads on search engines like Google are if they’re seasonal or event-based. These types of businesses sell products that are specific to a time period. These can include flower shops, Christmas stores and wedding registries.
Companies like these don’t sell these products daily but again, they are for a specific, niche product that people need for certain occasions.
Flower shops are one of the biggest businesses to profit from PPC in this category because many people last minute remember an anniversary or Valentine’s Day and frantically search “flowers near me” to spend money.
These businesses sell products that people are specifically looking for and will use a unique keyword to find results. This is how these businesses gain ROI from search ads.
These types of businesses accounted for about 3% of Google’s overall revenue from 2011.
Types of Businesses That Should Avoid PPC
PPC marketing works well for specific businesses. This doesn’t mean that if your business doesn’t fit under any of the five traits mentioned above that it won’t work for you. If you think that PPC might work for you then go for it.
However, there are businesses that should avoid ppc and save themselves the lost they may incur from implementing the technique.
Organic High Traffic
Does your business have loyal customers and is already experiencing high traffic to your site? Then you should consider focusing on SEO and the content of your site to keep those results up. PPC is unnecessary for this type of business because you’re already seeing the results that search ads are meant to result in.
Sometimes it is not worth it to change your marketing techniques if they’re already working. No need to spend more money that would be better spent pleasing your loyal customers and focusing on the progress you have already made.
Lack Of Results From PPC
Has your business has already tried implementing PPC and didn’t see the results you wanted or didn’t receive a high ROI? It might be time to try something different that is more suitable for your business.
PPC not working for your business doesn’t mean that you’re doomed to fail. It just means that this technique isn’t fit for your business and you should be focusing your time and efforts elsewhere.
If your business is small and competing with large companies, PPC might not be worth it.
Chances are, these large, corporate businesses are already investing their money in this technique. This is why it is extremely important to come up with a well-researched strategy. This strategy will help you understand how much the click will actually be worth to your company. Try focusing your money on increasing the quality of your content and developing a loyal local customer base.
Lack Of Time
If you don’t have the time to invest in managing PPC then you might consider avoiding the technique. PPC takes time and effort to do correctly and to save your business from losing out on decent cash. Perhaps you are already managing your time on SEO and you’re struggling with that and managing your business. It might not be worth adding another technique.
You don’t want your business to crumble so if you really don’t think you’re going to have time to manage this technique then don’t implement it.
Personal Touch Is Key
Finally, if your business relies on contact with your customers, PPC might not be as beneficial. This means your business relies on your personal touch to keep customers coming to your business.
Focus on your presence and the happiness of you customers instead of trying to get people to click on your site. You’re already proving to your customers that you intend to invest much of your time on them, which already will make them happy.
Let your satisfied customers advertise for you by telling their friends that your business is someone they can trust to fulfill their needs and invest in them.
One important note is if PPC doesn’t work it doesn’t mean your business is a failure. There are very specific traits that define who PPC works for. There are a number of other marketing techniques that will be perfect for your business. Just keep the best interest of your customers and business at heart and seriously do your research to figure out what will work best for your business.
Wrap Up
Pay-per-click marketing can be a great thing for your business. It can give you immediate client acquisition while your long-term marketing strategies are in progress.
Getting a top spot on Google and then focusing on your content to keep it there can be huge for you business.
The main goal is to increase traffic to your site to get new customers and keep your old customers happy.
If you plan on trying PPC for your business, make sure to:
- Do deep research and come up with a thorough strategy.
- Manage these ads and stay on top of the results it produces
- Consider hiring a PPC marketing firm like Robben Media to manage Google ads for you
- Check out our Paid Ads page
- Make sure you clearly define your target audience and come up with a detailed budget.
- Make sure that your keywords are relevant to the product you sell and that you have the tools to maintain the short-term results
PPC relies on strategy and going in blindly will end in disaster.
Good luck out there, we hope to see your business flourish with PPC marketing.