PPC Marketing Secrets Revealed
What is PPC marketing?
PPC or Pay-Per-Click Marketing means paying Google to display your advertisement in search results. You spend money whenever somebody clicks on a link to your website.
The PPC marketing concept is simple. Setting up an Adwords account correctly and having a high return on investment (ROI) is challenging and time-consuming.
Should I do it myself, or should I hire a PPC marketer?
Consider the following:
Advantages of doing it yourself.
- You are in control. You make all of the decisions regarding the keywords and prices for the keywords.
- You don't have to pay a monthly fee to the PPC marketing company. This fee is usually 20% or more of your advertising budget.
- Google Adwords program doesn't enforce a specific minimum, while most PPC marketing companies have minimum advertising budget requirements. Usually, it is $10,000.
Disadvantages of doing it yourself.
- Running a PPC campaign for your business can be very time-consuming.
- The PPC marketing program is based on a complex bidding system and involves knowledge of many technical terms. You have to master it if you want to run your PPC advertisement successfully.
- Getting a positive return on investment (ROI) for your PPC campaign is challenging. Sure, if your goal is only to raise public awareness of your company or product name, you can do it yourself. But if your goal is to convert clicks into new customers, it is better to hire a professional PPC marketing company and pay them for their services.
PPC marketing and SEO
Regardless of what you decide to do, hiring a PPC marketing company or buying clicks directly from Google, we recommend optimizing your website for search engines before you do anything else.
Only after you can say that you have done everything in your power can you begin planning your first PPC campaign.
According to SEO marketing company Conductor.com, PPC will increase the number of clicks only by 30 percent after you optimize a website for search engines. So, don't expect miracles!
The only time PPC marketing is your ONLY choice is when you need results immediately, and getting organic traffic may take time. In all other situations, we recommend bringing the maximum number of visitors to your website in a natural (direct) way.
Price per click/cost per click
Keep in mind the price per click can be very high. When this article was written, the cost per click for the keyword phrase “car accident attorney” in Las Vegas ranged from $86 - $320, and for the keyword phrase "truck accident attorney," $83 - $240.
PPC marketing (or Google AdWords advertising) is a powerful tool to bring more visitors to your website and, ultimately, get new business. At the same time, Google AdWords can be a risky investment, and you need to monitor your PPC statistics very closely.
Need more recommendations? Keep reading this article.
Set your goals
Think. What are you trying to accomplish?
It could be any of the following:
- Raising brand awareness
- Generating new business
- Increasing traffic to your website
- Improving return on investment
If the above seems equally important to you, then prioritize the list. Which is the most important, and why?
Set your daily budget
It's often a good idea to start small and test a handful of keywords before you invest too much money and time in pay-per-click campaigns. You can start at $5 a day and take it from there. And you can put your Pay-Per-Click advertising campaign on hold at any time.
Set the benchmarks
Decide how you will measure the success of your Pay-Per-Click advertising campaign.
Will success be the number of clicks to your website? The dollar amount of the new business? What return on investment is fair to you?
Only you know the answers to these questions. Remember: "What gets measured gets managed." (Peter Drucker). And what gets measured can also be improved.
Learn to love statistical reports
Many people think that statistical reports are boring. Still, when you start paying for Pay-Per-Click Ads, the Google statistics (Google Analytics and Google Webmasters Tools) plus AdWord performance reports will become your Bible.
If you don't have time to check these reports daily (and often a few times a day), we recommend hiring someone who would do it for you. Otherwise, you inevitably will lose money on PPC.
Products: Calculating ROI
With products, calculating ROI is easy. Let's say the visitor bought your product for $12, you paid $2 for the click, your product cost is $7, and $3 is your profit. Of course, this is an overly simplified version, but that is how you calculate your investment return when selling products on the Internet.
Service: Calculating ROI
Selling services on the Internet is more complex. The fact that somebody clicked on your Google Ad does not guarantee that this person will end up hiring you.
Since the number of visitors to your website is NEVER equal to the number of new clients, the click is often just a click.
PPC marketers call them empty clicks.
PPC marketing: Who is clicking?
Think about who will be clicking on your Google Ads.
It could be:
- People who want to learn about you and compare you with somebody else,
- People who are looking for a second opinion,
- Competitors who want to know what you are offering and your prices,
- College students who are writing research papers.
Only a tiny percentage of these people are actual customers.
Reviews and ratings
Don't underestimate the role of reviews from previous clients.
Today people want to know what you tell about yourself and your business and what previous clients think about you. Your potential clients will read reviews about you and your business on Yelp, Google, Avvo (an attorney rating website), BBB (Better Business Bureau), and many other rating websites.
So, even if you paid for clicks and somebody is interested in your services, they will hire somebody else if they don't like your business reviews.
Final thoughts
Running a successful PPC marketing campaign is both an art and a science.
1. Many marketers consider 4% to be a good return on investments. Depending on the industry, it could be 1% - 2%.
2. Another thing to remember - Google modifies its AdWords platform every few months. You must monitor their revisions regularly and apply all changes.
3. To stay current with what is happening in the AdWords universe, sign up for notifications from the Google AdWords Blog.
Last updated on January 2, 2024.
NEXT, read our article "PPC Marketing: Writing a Pay-Per-Click Ad."
Additional Resources:
Adwords Official Blog. Reading the Google Adwords blog will help you to learn about the latest AdWords changes.
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