What is meant by PPC?

PPC (Pay Per Click) Marketing spans a wide variety of platforms including Facebook, Google, Bing & YouTube amongst many others. PPC refers to the method paying per user interaction when your advert appears. It’s really useful to enable your business to be placed above others in search results, like Google, but it can be really time-consuming to research and set up. Once it’s running well for you though, it can be one of the most effective forms of digital advertising around.

How does PPC work?

PPC Marketing enables you to specify which search phrase you would like your advert to appear under. For example, if you sell Electrical Components, you might want your advert to appear under the phrase ‘light switch’. Great! Your listing will then appear for anyone searching that term. When a user clicks on your advert and goes to your website, that’s when you’ll be charged.

How much does PPC cost per click?

Now, this is where it gets complicated.

There are no rules about how much it costs to click on an advert. Infact, you set your own price, so you can decide how much you want to pay per click. Great, right? Well, it’s not exactly that straight forward. The price you choose will essentially be classed as a ‘bid’, almost like an auction. This price is called the CPC (Cost Per Click).

The reason for this is competition. You won’t be the only person wanting their listing to appear at the top of the ‘light switch’ phrase. There will be many other people bidding on that space. So, your CPC (Cost Per Click) becomes a maximum amount that you would be willing to spend on that space. The competition will also enter their maximum bid. The ‘auction’ style will then determine whose advert gets priority against that search phrase.

It’s this part that makes things hard to set up. How much do you know how to spend per click? It’s a case of testing the water against your competitors and finding a level that makes it viable for you to do.

How can I make my PPC effective?

So, how can you ensure a worthwhile PPC campaign? You need to know the fundamentals first, then comes the fine-tuning. But stick to these few rules at the beginning and you’ll be on the right foot.

Know your budget

You need to know what you can realistically spend on getting traffic through to your site, for the product that you want to sell. If you’re selling a high-value item, then your CPC will likely be higher than a low-value item, because the flexibility in the maximum CPC across your competitors. You need to make sure that you’re not shooting yourself in the foot by outbidding yourself, just in order to get to the top.

Choose your search phrases carefully

Try different phrases. If you know you’re going to have lots of competition on the phrases you want, try to think of more specific ones to target your advert to. This benefit is two-fold: you won’t have as much competition, keeping your CPC down; and the person searching has already been quite specific as to what they’re looking for, so more likely to convert.

Keep ontop of things

You really need to keep on top of your PPC Marketing. Never assume that once it’s set up, you’re good to carry on. Unfortunately, it’s something that you really need to tweak and revisit over and over again. The campaigns will always shift and change, depending on competition & pricing. You might be top of the list one minute, but bottom the next. It really is a labour of love that works exceptionally well, as long as you continue to look after it.

Overall, PPC can be fantastic to drive traffic to your business, because it is so targeted & puts you right in front of your prospective customer. You’ll need to have a clear plan, an in-depth budget and the willingness to constantly adjust!