Pay-per-click advertising is simply advertising on search engines and paying only when a user clicks on your link. Pay-per-click advertising can be done with Google Ads, allowing your product or service to appear at the top of the search results page, right above organic SEO results.
Your business can make 10x the profit you currently make by simply implementing some pay-per-click best practices and avoiding some of the deadliest mistakes we have found experts making with regards to PPC advertising. This article will show you all you simple ways to boost your profits using PPC ads.
What is PPC?
Pay-per-click advertising is an online advertising model that allows advertisers to place their ad online and pay the hosting platform each time someone clicks on the ad. Search engines such as Google or Bing display the ads at the top or bottom of a SERP (search engine results pages).
Pay-per-click ads are also offered by popular social media sites. Facebook and Twitter ads are the most popular apps for PPC advertising on social media. However, search engine advertising is the most popular form of PPC.
How Does PPC Work?
PPC is essentially buying visits to your site instead of earning those visits organically. Advertisers pay for ad space on a search engine results page. The ad is made up of keywords related to the product being advertised. Whenever someone searches for that particular keyword, various ads related to it pop up
Each time someone clicks on the ad, it sends them to the advertiser’s site. The advertiser pays the search engine a fee known as the CPC (cost per click) for each visit.
The fee is considered a small token because it’s worth more than you pay for it. So if you pay $4 for a click but make a $400 sale from the click, you’ve just made a huge profit off your PPC campaign.
See also: 10 Most common PPC mistakes you must not make.
Building Successful PPC campaigns
A whole lot goes into building a successful PPC advertising strategy. It’s important to Failure to get it right would mean a loss for your brand. The reason why you’re running the campaign will greatly determine how you plan your PPC marketing.
It could be to increase sales, generate leads, or promote brand awareness. All three are different goals and will take different tones. Below is a step guide to creating profit-driving PPC ads.
1. Choosing the Best Platform
You’re putting a good sum of money into running your ad. You must choose the best platform that offers ease of use and tons of leads. Google and Microsoft run a bid-based pay-per-click model. They run a real-time ad auction to decide the cost of ad clicks generated by searches.
The second model is the flat rate model where publishers charge a fixed price.
A. Google Ads
Formerly known as Google AdWords, google ads is the singular most popular platform that offers PPC services. It offers services that range from search ads which are text-based to image-based shopping ads and video ads that are run on the Google display network.
How high up your ad appears in search results is determined by your ad rank which is based on your bid and quality score. Google is a valuable platform so ensure that your quality score is always up to par for better ranking. Competition on Google is very stiff so you have to be on top of your game at all times.
To be able to run shopping ads, you’ll have to set up a Google merchant center account that is linked to your Google AdWords account. If you’re just starting, it’s best to start with search ads and progress from there.
See how we increased this Cleveland’s podiatrist’s revenue bye over 40%.
B. Microsoft Advertising
Although less popular than google ads, Bing ads. Just like the former, you have to open an advertising account too. Ads placed on this platform appear on Bing, Yahoo, and AOL which are all owned by Microsoft.
According to InstaPage, Microsoft has an audience of over 136 million people, 63 million of which are not reached by Google. That’s a huge number by any standards. Also, Bing has a higher CTR rate for financial and shopping services.
Depending on the demographics your ad is targeted at, Bing might be your best bet for reaching the elderly and educated more as they account for over 40 percent of their total users. The pricing for Bing is considerably lower than that of Google, this is another advantage it has over Google.
You have the option of importing your already existing AdWords campaign on Bing. Consider also that Bing has the market on lockdown when it comes to devise-targeting.
2. Keyword Research
Keywords determine how often your ad appears. It’s a vital part of your ad campaign as your entire campaign is built on keywords. The more relevant the keywords, the more relaxed your ad will be. It’s also a painstaking and time-consuming process, a continuous one.
A successful ad is one whose PPC keyword is continuously updated. This ensures that your keywords are always targeted and produce a higher PPC click-through rate. Your goal after all is to drive profit so your keywords must be closely related to the offer you’re selling to increase profit and ensure effective cost-per-click rates.
Your keyword list should be exhaustive. Do not include only the most popular search words in your niche. Include less competitive and less expensive long-tail keywords. These are less frequently searched but are more specific and drive more specific search-driven traffic.
Don’t forget to add negative keywords which are non-converting terms. They improve the relevance of your campaign and reduce wasted ad spend. While negative keywords are not as relevant, they improve your overall quality score.
See also how we are using SEO and SEM to boost sales and profits for companies in Ohio.
3. Audience
You want to ensure that you’re not only reaching your target audience but also appealing to them. It’s imperative to create ads with them in mind. You can create targeted ads to direct specific demographics to your site. Because these ads satisfy the specific needs of these individuals, you’re more likely to make a good ROI on your ad.
4. Ad Copy
Your ad copy needs to be compelling, creative, and enticing. Your copy has to catch the attention of users and compel them to click on your ad. You can use ad extensions to improve the quality of your copy.
How to Manage Your Ad
Now that you’ve done all the hard work and have published your ad, managing it comes in. Remember, it’s a continuous process where you have to keep improving to ensure you drive profit from your pay-per-click campaign. Here’s how to manage your campaign:
Creating a relevant ad group goes a long way but creating ad groups that contain two or more relevant groups goes further. Each ad group can contain multiple ads.
Periodically review expensive keywords that aren’t performing well and cut them off, this will help you save cost and create more optimized ads.
Your landing page has to be attractive and concise. Create aesthetically pleasing landing pages that have a clear call to action and that cater to specific search terms. All your traffic shouldn’t go to the same page. Create different content and CTAs for each group.
Create a custom ad schedule that allows you to adjust your bid anytime you deem it necessary. Ad scheduling allows you to when your ads will show for optimum maximization. You can even choose to turn off your bid.
Advertisers’ bids can be adjusted at any time. If a particular campaign does well on mobile devices, the advertiser can adjust the bid to make sure the ad shows more frequently on phones and tablets.
Conversion Tracking
Conversion tracking is as important as setting up the ad campaign as it helps you track your ad revenue. You need to know if your PPC ad is driving profit or eating into your profit. There are various ways to do this but you can use a tracking tool online to determine how your ads are doing.
To calculate your conversion rate manually, divide the total number of conversions by the total number of clicks within that period. If, for instance, you got 1000 clicks but only 100 people paid for your service, your conversion rate is 10 percent.
Online advertising already costs a ton of money, ensure you’re getting value for your money. The average conversion rate across the industry is 3.75 on Google and 2.58 percent on Bing per search according to WordStream Although the rates fluctuate, this is considered a good rate.
Google offers the option of using your tag manager to install conversion tracking tag
Check out the conversation rates of your competition, and compare and contrast to see how you’re doing. If you’re below par, you should check out their strategy and what’s working for them. Experiment with new techniques until you find one that works for you and converts well
Final Thoughts
Pay-per-click advertising certainly has a lot of advantages over traditional advertising. For best results when running your pay-per-click (PPC) campaign, do not run your advert on one platform. You can run concurrently on both platforms and reach more people that way and also take advantage of social media advertising.
Alternatively, if you have a thriving website you can also earn by creating a Google Adsense account. Paid advertising is a vast industry that never runs out of avenues to make income. Milia Marketing assures you of matchless results with our PPCC advertising campaigns. Hop on a discovery call with us and let’s discuss how to 10x your profits using PPC advertising.
