PPC (Pay per Click) is the form of digital marketing where businesses pay a certain amount (which is determined through bidding for their relevant keywords) whenever a visitor gets to their website by clicking on one of their ads. It’s a great way to boost your brand reputation, product / service awareness, as well as the best way for new businesses to get valuable traffic, something that’s especially difficult for them. While SEO can get you on top of search engine results without having to pay for every visitor, PPC will do it much faster and you’ll actually be able to get very accurate data about what’s working and what isn’t.
This guide will highlight some of the biggest reasons why PPC can be a great asset for your business if utilized correctly.
PPC’s Results are Measurable and Accurate
While it’s nearly impossible to calculate how successful your SEO campaign is, PPC, on the other hand, gives you a sigh of relief considering how measurable it actually is. Google AdWords will feed you with a bunch of performance data, from clicks, total traffic, to conversion percentage. It will also clearly let you know which keywords are actually converting for you since you don’t want to be paying for traffic only. There’s nothing secret about how PPC works and full transparency is what you’ll get out of it, which is way more than any other marketing channel can offer. This also means that adjusting your PPC campaign has to be done constantly, or else you’re risking to lose money.
Quick Results
With PPC campaigns, there’s no head start for any of your competitors that are longer in the game. This is opposite to SEO, which clearly favors websites with tradition, as well as years of optimization and reputability. SEO is a marathon, while a PPC campaign is more of a sprint race. Basically, PPC will get you to the same spot that’d take years with SEO in just a matter of minutes, but for a fee.
This is great for businesses that are looking for an instant boost in traffic, and have the money to back it up. It’s also great that you’ll actually be visible to people who aren’t yet aware of your brand since these people are hardest to reach through channels like emails, or social media.
PPC is Great for Combining With Other Marketing Options
If you’re investing your efforts in SEO and PPC at the same time, you’ll get the best out of both worlds. SEO will get you that security in the long-run, you’ll have high-quality content, as well as a beautiful design that’s made to convert. PPC, on the other hand, will bring a lot of traffic to your website so that you don’t have to wait for those SEO results to kick in. The data you get out of your PPC campaign can also be used to further your SEO efforts. For example, if you use AdWords to find out that a certain keyword is converting way better than other keywords, you can implement this keyword into your SEO campaign and let it do the job.
Easy to Control
The only way your PPC can get out of control is if you completely forget about it, which begs the question if you’re the right person to be running a business in the first place. You can easily control which keywords you want to use to reach your target audience, as well as how much you’re willing to pay for them. You’re also just a couple of clicks away from stopping any spending on certain ads. A successful PPC campaign always requires a high-level of PPC management, so business owners who love being in control will always benefit more from it, as long as they’re testing a lot.
Final Thoughts
Businesses that require a quick boost in their traffic to get them to a certain goal can benefit immensely from PPC campaigns, and so can businesses that are just starting and want to improve their overall visibility. As long as you do your keyword research and bid for the right keywords – PPC should be a viable option for you. However, always be aware that you’re paying for people who enter the website, not the ones who actually convert. So if your conversion rates are low, and your keywords are expensive, PPC might prove to be an expensive endeavor for you.