As a marketing agency, it's crucial to stay on top of the latest digital advertising strategies to drive results for your clients.
One of the most effective and popular online advertising models is pay-per-click, or PPC.
In this comprehensive guide, we'll dive into what PPC is, how it works, key PPC statistics, and best practices for agencies to master PPC management for their clients.
What is PPC Advertising?
PPC stands for pay-per-click, a model of internet marketing in which advertisers pay a fee each time one of their ads is clicked.
Essentially, it's a way of buying visits to your site rather than attempting to "earn" those visits organically through SEO, organic social media posts, or content marketing.
Search engine advertising is one of the most popular forms of PPC.
It allows advertisers to bid for ad placement in a search engine's sponsored links when someone searches on a keyword that is related to their business offering.
For example, if we bid on the keyword "PPC management tools", our ad might show up in the very top spot on the Google results page, but it will cost us $8.00 per visitor (or cost per click, CPC).
How Does PPC Work?
Every time an ad is clicked, sending a visitor to the advertiser's website, they have to pay the search engine (Google or Bing) a small fee.
When your PPC campaign is managed correctly, and your ROI and spending are managed well, the fee is trivial because the visit should be worth more than what you paid.
For example: if you pay $3 for a click, but the click results in a $300 sale, then you've made a hefty profit.
A lot goes into building a winning PPC campaign, from researching and selecting the right keywords to organizing those keywords into well-organized campaigns and ad groups to setting up PPC landing pages that are optimized for conversions.
Platforms reward advertisers who can create relevant, intelligently targeted pay-per-click campaigns by charging them less for ad clicks.
Why is PPC important?
To understand the importance of PPC for marketing agencies, let's look at some key statistics:
- Advertisers are projected to spend $190.5 billion on search advertising globally in 2024.
- 79% of marketers say PPC is hugely beneficial for their business.
- 45% of small businesses use paid advertising today in 2024.
- For every $1 spent on Google Ads, businesses earn an average revenue of $2.
- 46% of clicks go to the top 3 paid ads on the search results page.
- The average click-through rate for an ad in the first position is 6.30%.
- Search ads increase brand awareness by as much as 80%.
- 52% of PPC clicks come from mobile.
These statistics demonstrate the effectiveness and popularity of PPC advertising. With the majority of marketers increasing their PPC budgets and seeing significant ROI, it's clear that PPC is a channel marketing agencies need to master for their clients.
Benefits of PPC for Marketing Agencies
There are several key benefits of PPC that make it an attractive strategy for agencies:
- Quick results: If you compare PPC vs SEO, SEO can take months to drive organic traffic, PPC ads can start sending targeted traffic to your client's site the moment they go live.
- Reach your exact audience: PPC allows you to target people who are searching for what your client offers. You can target by keywords, time of day, day of the week, geography, language, and device.
- Measurable ROI: PPC provides tons of data and metrics that allow you to see at a granular level what works and what doesn't. You can easily calculate your ROI and adjust accordingly.
- Brand awareness: Even if people don't immediately click, PPC ads are great for putting your client's brand in front of their target audience. This increases brand recognition and recall.
- Budget control: With PPC, you have full control over your budget. You only pay when an interested person clicks. You can set daily budgets and maximum bids to ensure you don't overspend.
- Complements other marketing channels: PPC works well with other marketing efforts like SEO, content marketing, and social media. Together, they create a full inbound marketing machine.
PPC Platforms and Ad Types
There are several major PPC platforms, each with their own strengths:
- Google Ads: The largest and most popular PPC platform, Google Ads (formerly AdWords) operates on Google's search engine and other Google properties. Including Google Shopping.
- Microsoft Advertising: Formerly Bing Ads, this platform allows you to reach users on Bing, Yahoo, AOL, and other partner sites.
- Facebook Ads: Facebook's massive audience makes it a great platform for advertisers, especially those targeting B2C audiences or e-commerce.
- Instagram Ads: Owned by Facebook, Instagram Ads are great for visual and e-commerce brands. It has great video content.
- LinkedIn Ads: B2B advertisers often see great results advertising on LinkedIn, the world's largest professional social network.
- Amazon Ads: For e-commerce brands, Amazon has become a major player in the PPC space, allowing advertisers to reach consumers as they're ready to buy.
Within each platform, there are different ad types available, such as:
- Search ads: Text ads that appear at the top of search engine results pages.
- Display ads: Visual banner ads that appear on websites that are part of an ad network.
- Social ads: Ads that appear in social media feeds, often with advanced targeting options.
- Shopping ads: E-commerce ads that allow retailers to promote specific products, often with pricing and images.
- Video ads: Video-based ads that appear before or during video content, such as on YouTube, TikTok or Instagram.
PPC Best Practices for Agencies
To run successful PPC campaigns for your clients, follow these best practices:
- Conduct thorough keyword research: Use SEO tools like Google's Keyword Planner and third-party tools to find keywords that are relevant to your client's business and have good search volume.
- Organize keywords into tight themes: Group related keywords together in their own ad groups. This allows you to create highly relevant ads and landing pages.
- Write compelling ad copy: Your ad copy should be engaging, relevant to your keywords, and include a strong call-to-action. Continuously A/B test to improve results. (Tip: read our best ad headlines)
- Use ad extensions: Ad extensions provide additional information and links, making your ads more useful and engaging. Use sitelinks, callouts, structured snippets, and other extensions.
- Create dedicated landing pages: Don't send PPC traffic to your homepage. Create dedicated, conversion-optimized landing pages that match the intent behind the ad.
- Set up conversion tracking: To measure your ROI, set up conversion tracking. Track key actions like form submissions, phone calls, and e-commerce purchases.
- Monitor and optimize regularly: PPC is not a set-it-and-forget-it channel. Monitor your campaigns daily and make optimizations based on the data. Pause underperforming keywords and ads, and reallocate budget to top performers.
- Stay up-to-date: PPC platforms are constantly evolving. Stay informed about new features, ad types, and best practices. Attend webinars, read industry blogs, and consider getting certified.
Conclusion
PPC advertising is a powerful way for marketing agencies to drive quick, measurable results for their clients. By understanding how PPC works, keeping up with key PPC statistics, and following best practices, agencies can create PPC campaigns that increase brand awareness, drive website traffic, and generate leads and sales.
Whether you're just getting started with PPC or looking to take your campaigns to the next level, the key is to continuously test, measure, and optimize.
With the right approach, PPC can be a highly profitable channel for your agency and your clients.
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