Setting up a Pay-Per-Click (PPC) campaign for the first time can feel overwhelming. But for many businesses, it’s a great way to generate website clicks and increase your on-site conversions. Small businesses all over the world have started to harness the unique power of PPC.
If you’re thinking about implementing your own PPC campaign, there are a few things you should know first.
What you need to know about PPC marketing
PPC marketing uses paid advertising to generate traffic to your website through ad clicks. Every time a visitor sees your ad and clicks it, you’ll pay a fee based on the price of the keyword they searched.
For instance, say you set up a keyword that costs $3 per click and someone clicks it only to make a $150 purchase. You already see a significant return on investment.
That’s one of the reasons so many businesses use PPC.
Why makes it such a powerful marketing tool?
On the advertiser’s side (that’s you!), you have a lot of power to define who sees your ad. From keywords to demographic options, you can narrowly define where the ad shows up. More importantly, since that customer had to use one of your keywords to see the ad, you know they’re actively searching for a product or service like yours.
When customers are ready to purchase, you’re much more likely to make a sale than if they casually stumble across your ad at a random moment.
Even better? The more your ad gets clicked, the more likely it is to show up in future searches with your keywords. Google awards quality ads with more views, which helps to boost your marketing campaign.
When is the right time to start?
There’s no wrong time to start marketing your website. However, for PPC to be effective, you need to do the keyword research and have a budget to work with. While it’s a lower-cost marketing technique, a significant budget is still required to reach the right number of customers.
If you’re unsure how to conduct keyword research or don’t have a customer profile developed, you might want to wait. There are plenty of digital marketing agencies that can take you through the process step-by-step, but if you want to do it yourself, it’s time to get prepared.
How do I prepare to set up a campaign?
Your first step is to do some keyword research. Your campaign is designed around the keywords you choose, and they ensure you’re put in front of the right audience.
Using tools like the Google Keyword Planner can help you get started. You want to gather both relevant, long tail, and popular keywords. You’ll always want to take a look at their cost-per-click and how often they are actually clicked.
Review the data and begin to prepare your list of keywords. Take out anything that isn’t relevant to your audience and define your strategy. With great keywords and ad copy, you have a major opportunity to make an impact.
Setting up a PPC campaign is the easy part. Rather, it’s the strategy, research, and fine-tuning throughout the process that’s difficult. If you’re ready to launch your first campaign, make sure, you put the work in and keep an eye on the data.
