Is PPC The Right Choice For Your Business?

When it comes to marketing your business online, there are several different strategies and approaches you can take. One of these is pay-per-click (PPC), which is in fact one of the most popular and successful marketing strategies for millions of companies around the world.

With that said, the nature of PPC campaigns means they’re better suited for certain types of businesses than others. So if you’re just getting started in business or online marketing, it’s important to get a good understanding of PPC to avoid wasting your money on a campaign that’s doomed from the start!

Here we’ll be taking a look at PPC, what it involves and which types of business it suits. That way, you know if your business is a good candidate or if you’re better off opting for a different approach. 

What is PPC?

PPC is an online advertising model where businesses pay a nominated fee each time someone clicks on their ad. By setting up a PPC campaign, essentially a business is buying traffic to its website, as opposed to bringing it in organically like it would with an SEO campaign.

When you set up a PPC campaign, you’ll be bidding on keywords the customers you’re trying to target are typing into search engines. Once potential customers search for those keywords, the search engine will display ads.

So, with potentially dozens or even hundreds of companies vying for the same traffic, how do search engines decide which ads to show? Well, it mainly comes down to two factors: the amount you’ve bid and your quality score.

Each ad in a campaign is given a quality score which is a metric the search engines use to help determine how relevant an ad and its landing page are. Keep in mind the quality score affects both ad rank and cost per click (CPC), so it’s essential to get this as high as possible with relevant, hyper-targeted ads.

Where Are PPC Campaigns Used?

You can set up a PPC campaign with any platform with an ad network, which connects advertisers with websites willing to host advertisements. An ad network acts as a go-between for advertisers and publishers, which enables ads to reach a wider audience.

Therefore, PPC advertising can be utilised across multiple platforms. The most popular places to set up are search engines like Google Ads, Bing Ads and social media platforms such as Facebook Ads, X Ads (formerly Twitter Ads), LinkedIn Ads and other display networks.

What Businesses Suit PPC?

PPC campaigns are suitable for a wide variety of businesses, in particular those in eCommerce, service-based industries or local businesses. PPC also suits businesses that want immediate exposure and don’t want to wait for months, as would be the reality of an SEO campaign.

On the flip side, some businesses aren’t able to use PPC campaigns as some platforms have bans in place for certain products and services. These include CBD, tobacco, e-cigarettes/vaping products, loans, weapons and “adult” services.

Another difference between PPC and SEO is the cost. As mentioned already, with a PPC campaign you’ll pay each time someone clicks your ad. This means you’ll need to set a budget and keep a close eye on the amount you spend to ensure your campaign is a success

Ultimately, this success will be measured through a variety of metrics such as click-through rate , conversion rate, return on ad spend, cost per acquisition and overall revenue generated. So you’ll have cold, hard data to keep tabs on your campaign from one day to the next, which isn’t always the case with SEO.

So hopefully that gives you some idea as to the type of business that suits a PPC campaign. As you can see, there are many factors to consider, but if you decide that this strategy is for you, we offer a PPC management service.

So get in touch today to see how we can use pay-per-click to grow your business.