Your Guide to Understanding Digital Marketing: Pay-Per-Click

Have you ever searched for something on Google? Never mind, of course, you have. Google Ads, a form of PPC marketing, is one of the most effective types to advertise your brand. If you read our blog about the basics of digital marketing, you have a fundamental explanation of what PPC is, but now it’s time to learn the specifics and how utilizing it can help you achieve your business goals. 

What Is PPC?

PPC is a method of advertising online where you pay every time a user clicks on your ad. You’ve probably noticed these ads alongside search results and social media platforms. While there are many forms to use, at UNANIMOUS we primarily utilize Google Ads, where advertisers pay to place their ads on Google and its advertising network. PPC is one of the best ways to reach your customers because you can customize each campaign based on the specific audience you’d like to target and the action you’d like them to take. The platform is goal-oriented and helps your business acquire new customers fast.

How It Works

Most prospective customers begin every purchase by searching on Google. There are over 3 billion searches every day; each time, a different person is looking for a solution to their problem. PPC is an advertising method that ensures your product or service is front and center during those searches.  

PPC is an incredibly powerful tool for advertising your business in the digital era. More inbound clicks and leads eliminate the need for cold calling, networking, or other forms of push advertising. Often times, a paid ad can even be validated and associated with business credibility. A primary benefit of PPC is you get results instantly. Unlike traditional advertising, when a customer sees your ad, it can be clicked on, driving traffic to your website immediately. While there are various types of PPC ads, a few examples that we’ll discuss are search, display, remarketing, and shopping.

Search Ads

Google search ads are the most common type of PPC, placing your ad at the very top of a Google Search. You target users with keywords by placing text ads in the search engine results and only pay when your ad is clicked. For example, say you are looking to switch banks but aren’t sure what options you have. So you go to Google and type in “banks in Lincoln, NE”. Multiple bank advertisements will come up at the top of the page. Once you click on the ad that appeals to you the most, the ad will take you to a landing page where you’ll learn about that specific bank.

Putting your ad at the top of Google search is a great way to market your products and services and make sure your brand is the first customers see when they begin their search. The top three ads above the organic search results have historically received 41 percent of the clicks made after a user performs a search.

Display Ads

Display ads are very similar to search ads, but instead of placing them on a Google Search, you can place display ads on a vast network of websites and social media platforms. You target users by multiple categories, such as their interests, websites they’ve visited, social media brands they follow, and more. For example, you’re taking your bank search very seriously, so you’ve been reading blog posts all about the best features a bank should have. On those blog posts, you may see an ad for a bank either along the side or near the top. This bank is assuming since you’re reading an article related to banks, your interests are relevant to their ad. 

Remarketing

Remarketing is a form of digital marketing where you target customers who have already shown an interest in your brand online. You can place remarketing display ads on websites, social media platforms, apps, and more. You’re letting these customers know that your brand is still relevant to them because they previously showed interest. You might have gone to a bank’s website and did some looking around but then exited the browser. The next day, you’ll be on Facebook and see an ad for that same bank. Since you didn’t perform an action on the bank's website earlier, they are remarketing to you since you were previously on their website.  

Shopping Ads

Shopping ads are also similar to search ads but are used strictly for e-commerce. The ads still appear near the top of a Google Search, but rather than being a text-only ad, they show a picture of the item, price, website, etc. Depending on the campaign, the ad can refer to just one product (product shopping ad) or a series of several related products (showcase shopping ads). After you’ve picked your bank and gotten your new card, you decide it’s time to buy a new wallet, so you Google “women's pink wallet,” at the top of Google, you can see pink wallet ads for brands such as Kate Spade New York, COACH, Target, and more.  

Landing Page Optimization

All of these PPC strategies encourage your customers to click and go to your landing page. But if your landing page is lacking in design and development, your customer is just going to exit and you’ll be left with a high bounce rate. It will feel like all that hard work is for nothing. Having an optimized landing page is the ultimate driving factor for a successful PPC campaign. It’s crucial that your landing page is optimized and designed for the best user experience. So once a customer clicks on your PPC ad, they stay on your website and complete their purchase. 

Combining all of these tactics into a detailed and well-executed PPC strategy can lead to more customers and profit for your business. To achieve quick and effective results, you need a partner who can help you take advantage of marketing opportunities across a variety of channels in real time. UNANIMOUS offers a full range of PPC services, and we follow a detailed and research-led strategy to achieve great results for your business. 

PPC is an excellent way to advertise your brand and gain new customers fast, but it’s just the beginning of digital marketing and cannot be used alone to achieve long-term success. Next time we’ll discuss all the details of search engine optimization (SEO) and how our SEO services, combined with PPC, create an online strategy that will dominate.

Are you ready to learn all the details of SEO? Stay tuned for the next article in our blog series, all about SEO. From keyword research to blogging, SEO is another type of digital marketing crucial to achieving your company's goals.