PPC can be a great way to market your business and reach new customers, but it can be a little confusing at first for those just getting started with the channel.

In this guide, we will help you understand what PPC is, how it works, how you can use it to drive success for your business and explain different platforms, and how they work.

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.

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 software,” our ad might show up in the very top spot on the Google results page.

It’s often considered the “go to” method for online advertisers because they don’t want to pay just to display their ad. They want to pay only when people take action based on their ad.

That seems like a much better way to invest in marketing, doesn’t it?

The Most Popular Types of PPC

There are several ad networks that allow you to run PPC ads. Some of them are more popular than others.

There’s no doubt that Google AdWords is the most popular of the lot. That network allows you to run ads on the search results and on private websites.

But Google isn’t the only search engine in town. Bing has its own version of PPC that allows you to run ads on a variety of Microsoft search properties and partners.

Facebook also offers a PPC advertising model. Many marketers love advertising on Facebook because it’s relatively inexpensive.

You can also run PPC display ads that are a great alternative the more boring, text-based ads that run on a lot of websites.

Finally, you can also run a retargeting campaign with PPC. That’s a great way to reel in customers who’ve already visited your website.

How Much Does PPC Cost?

How much does it cost to run a PPC campaign? It depends.

For starters, PPC campaigns are based on keywords. Some keywords cost more than others.

Why? Because they’re in higher demand. If you want to run an ad with “car insurance” as the keyword, you can be sure that it’s going to cost a lot more per click an ad with “St. Ignatius” as the keyword.

That’s because more advertisers are bidding for “car insurance” than “St. Ignatius.”

The cost of a PPC campaign is also determined by you. Most ad networks give you the option to set a budget so that your costs don’t get out of control.

For example, you might run a campaign with a budget of $100 per day. Once you’ve spent that much, the ad network will turn off your ads for the rest of the day so you don’t spend any more.

The Elements of PPC

As we’ve seen, PPC is more involved than many marketers realize. In fact there are several components to a PPC campaign:

The Campaign Itself – At the top of the hierarchy is the campaign itself. You might, for example, have an advertising campaign that’s based on a holiday theme.

The Ad Group – An ad group is a group of ads related to a campaign. For example, you might have one ad group related to gag gifts for a holiday party. You might have another group related to Christmas cards.

Keywords – Your keywords should be relevant to your ad group. Google will use keyword relevance in determining ad placement (more on this in a bit).

Ad Text – You’ll want to run some catchy text in your ad that tempts people to click on it. It’s usually best to enlist the aid of a professional copywriter when creating ad text.

Landing Page – The landing page is where people “land” when they click on your ad. It should also be relevant to your keywords.

How Does the Auction Work?

Ad networks typically allow people to bid on a keywords in an open auction. But don’t think that you know everything there is to know about bidding on keywords just because you’ve visited eBay a few times.

Bidding for keywords is a bit more complicated.

That’s because your ad placement is determined, in part, by your bid. The other factor that goes into ad placement is the quality of the ad itself.

Google determines the quality of your by evaluating its relevance to your keywords, your landing page relevance, and the ad’s click-through rate.

To determine your overall ad rank, you just multiply your bid by your quality score. For example, if you quality score is 10 and your bid is $1.00 than your rank is 10 (10 x 1).

If that number is higher than the ad rank of other advertisers bidding on the same keyword, then your ad will appear on top.

Keep in mind, though, the amount you pay is different than your bid. It’s going to be lower.

That’s because Google calculates your payment as follows: it divides your quality score by the ad rank of the next highest bidder and then adds a penny. So if your quality score is 10 and the ad rank of the next highest bidder is 9, then you pay 91 cents (9/10 + .01).

Main Platforms

Google Ads

Run on Google, Search Partner sites, and Display Network sites, Google Ads is the largest pay-per-click platform. Google Ads was launched in October 2000 and has gone through several iterations over the last 17 years. Google Ads is geared toward the entire spectrum of companies from small businesses to Fortune 500.

Microsoft Advertising

Similar to Google Ads, Microsoft Advertising is a pay-per-click platform showing ads on the Microsoft and Yahoo networks. The platform also utilizes Search Partners. Microsoft Advertising is primarily keyword-based advertising. As of 2020, Microsoft Advertising has 137 million unique desktop searchers on the Bing Network*.
*Data taken from advertise.bingads.microsoft.com

See? It’s complicated.

Hire a Pro

If you take anything away from this article, take this: you shouldn’t go it alone when it comes to PPC.

There are just too many ways to lose money when you venture into online advertising without professional guidance.

Locate a company (or hire a rock star employee) that can help you find the best ad network for your brand and work with you on ad copy, bidding strategies, and testing. Also, make sure to do plenty of competitive analysis before you start.

You’ve invested a lot to build your business. Keep it profitable by working with a reputable PPC company when you want to advertise online.

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