What is PPC?
Pay-Per-Click (PPC) is an internet advertising model used to quickly increase traffic to your website.
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 relying on “organic” search results. The best part is that you pay for the ad only if the searcher clicks the ad and visits your website.
Search Engine Placements are the most popular forms of PPC. Ads can be placed on a variety of search engines sites:
- First-tier search engines such as Google AdWords and Microsoft Bing Ads
- Social networks such as Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn
- Streaming media sites such as Pandora, YouTube (owned by Google) or Apple Music
A “How it Works” Example
A shopper enters a search for “chew toys for small dogs”. Google compares that search request to known sites and advertisers that best match the search keywords.
If the keywords match your ad’s keywords “Best Chew Toys for Small Dogs”, your ad will appear above the usual search results.
Congratulations! Your business was shown to a shopper looking for a product you sell, and ahead of your competitors.
Our Approach to Creating Your Search Ad Campaigns
Developing and launching your PPC strategy is an ideal next step after your website has been Search Engine Optimized (SEO).
We start by working with you to research and determine what terms searchers have used to locate your business or products in the past. We also look at potential opportunities that you’ve missed, and your competitors have grabbed.
Keyword Research
From our example, we would compare the likely results of ads for a large group of Keywords such as “dog toys” or “small dog chew toys” or “puppy chews” and pick the best sets of keywords for your campaign.
We also look for Negative Keywords a searcher who would be unlikely to purchase your product would use. We wouldn’t want to pay when someone clicked your ad searching for “dog chew toy manufacturers” as they are unlikely to purchase your product.
Your First AdWords Ad
We work with you to write and create your first ad group, starting with headlines that include the keywords searchers would likely use to find your business.
We then insert a web address people see in your ad with an embedded tracking link to measure results.
Next, we write content for the 3rd and 4th lines of your ad describing a benefit and feature.
Here’s a great example of an AdWord ad that won an award from Google and delivered outstanding results. The advertiser was targeting searchers entering “family lighthouse vacation”
- Family Lighthouse Rental
- calvertmarienmusueum.com/Vacation
- Ready for a great family vacation?
- Book our lighthouse on the beach
Measuring Results & Managing Your PPC Campaigns
Once launched, we monitor your campaigns to be certain they continue to be effective and deliver results. PPC campaigns are not “set and forget” programs.
We have several tools to measure how often your ads are showing to potential customers, and which Keywords are producing results for your business.
Knowing what works and doesn’t, we continue to refine your campaign by:
- Removing Underperforming Keywords
- Adding new, relevant Keywords searchers used to find your business
- Adding Negative Keywords searchers used to find your ad but didn’t convert to improve campaign relevancy and reduce wasted spend.
- Refining Ad Groups to improve your click-through rate (CTR) by splitting up ads into smaller groups to create more focused ad text and landing pages
- Refine Landing Pages content to align with individual searches to boost conversion rates
