PPC What is it?

PPC is Pay Per Click

How do we use it? Pay Per Click is a form of targeted marketing. It allows an advertiser to reach a specific audience, including demographic and geographic when they want to and within a set budget. It is one of the most popular and efficient ways to market. As such, it usually forms the basis for most of a business’s digital marketing campaigns.

PPC uses an auction-based system where advertisers place a bid on the click to target users online. So each time a user enters a search term with your keywords, you are bidding to show your advert.

So, what platforms use PPC?

• Google (also available to YouTube)
• Bing
• Ask
• Yahoo
• AOL
• Facebook

So where do these ads appear?

You will see them displayed at the top and to the side of the first page of any search listing. The top 3 are listed before the organic results and then 4-10 can be displayed on the side.

They can also be set to be shown on what is called the display network. This is a connected network, millions of sites (partnered with the above platforms) that will display adverts on their sites. These ads are also more rich text and media ads than just text, as shown on the search results pages.

So how does it work?

Each time a user enters a search query in a platform like Google, results are displayed and if you have paid for a matching keyword to that query, your ad can be shown based on the bid price you have agreed. If you bid is the highest, you are displayed first. If the user actually clicks your Ad, then you are charged. So you pay for the click, Pay Per Click.

Targeting your Ads

So, we do not waste money. There are many targeting options for you to use:

• Geographical location
• Demographics like age, sex, interests
• Times, Hours, Day or Week
• Device specific for Desktop or Mobile
• If using Display Network, you can set individual websites you want to be shown on.

You can set ads to achieve specific criteria or goals for your business;

1. Lead Generation
2. Local or Brand Awareness
3. E-Commerce direct sales

When starting a PPC campaign, you need to first consider your business objective. Why are you advertising? Then you will need to choose the keywords and phrases that will be used by users. What are they going to type in to find your product or service?

Then you can write the copy for the advert that matches your goals.

Now set the price/budget you have for the advert. If you use Google, for example, you can see what the current bids are to see how competitive it is and your positioning.

When a user searches, ads are displayed, and you will only pay if your ad is clicked on. Using any of the platforms above will provide a wealth of metrics and data to help you get the best results and see what is happening.

You can run multiple campaigns with multiple different goals. These will be based on your business and industry.

Some considerations:

• What do you do? What is your product or service?
• Who is your target customer/s?
• Are you selling or promoting?
• What do you want the user to do when they click your ad?
• What would be a good result?
• PPC provides a wealth of options for the advertiser.