If you are new to marketing, we are pretty sure you need to understand the world of paid advertising. Even though around 45 percent of businesses use PPC advertising, the question still persists: what are PPC ads? 

If you have found yourself struggling to understand and benefit from this pay per click advertisement, this article is for you. We break down what PPC ads are all about and how you can use them to its optimum level. Let’s get started!

What Are PPC Ads?

This Search Engine Marketing method is also called pay per click. Under this model, you will get paid by the advertisers only if someone clicks their ad on your website. 

It might sound a little scary, but if you manage to build a pleasant user journey, you can get a great return on investment. 

Ever heard of PPC ads on Google or PPC ads on Amazon? Well, these are different platforms that PPC advertising takes on. One of the most popular platforms for PPC ads is SERPs, such as Bing or Google. For instance, the PPC ads on Google can be seen right before the original search result. 

Why Is PPC Advertising Great? 

Yes, you can reach and grow organically through smart SEO and creative content. However, that could take a lot of time. Moreover, there’s no guarantee you will reach your target audience through this. 

Placing keywords strategically throughout your article and strengthening your keyword is great. But, since digital marketing has grown faster than ever before, competition has increased significantly as well. And, if you don’t have domain authority, forget about a top SEO ranking. Almost all digital businesses now use PPC ads that organic search results don’t even show until the end of the search page. 

However, we are not asking you to bitch your SEO strategies. Utilize both PPC ads and SEO to further expand your business. 

We believe that using PPC advertising responsibly will help you reach your target audience much easier than choosing just the traditional digital marketing strategy. And since your ads will be shown to people who are more likely to engage with it, the possibility of conversion is much higher. Even if a click doesn’t convert, your brand awareness is still improving. 

PPC Ads Essential Terms

If you want to ace digital marketing, you need to know and understand the lingo of the business. There are various jargon and acronyms that you need to familiarise yourself with. Here are some of the PPC ads terms that you need to know. 

SEM / Search Engine Marketing

Any form of digital marketing is called Search Engine Marketing, or SEM for short. The main objective of any digital marketing campaign is to get a higher ranking on a search engine, which ensures your visibility amongst thousands of brands. PPC ads Google is one such SEM. SEM also consists of SEO strategies. While SEO strategies are usually limited to SEMs, PPC ads can be done on social media platforms as well, such as PPC ads Amazon and Facebook Ads. 

CPC / PPC Ads

Also called Cost per click. The final amount that your advertiser will pay you for the placement of the ad is called cost per click. Hence, CPC/PPC ads determine the placement of your ad. Naturally, the higher your bid is, the better your ad placement will be. Your CPC should be the maximum amount of money that you would want to invest in your PPC ads. 

Ad Rank

Your ad rank is the ranking of your ad based on its quality. The higher the rank, the better position your ad will receive, which means that more people will be able to see your ad. 

Quality Score

The quality score for your PPC ads is the score that SERPs give your ads. This score is determined through the click-through rate, which depends on your landing page quality, high-quality relevant keywords, and your SERP performance history. 

Maximum Bid

The definition is in the name. What is the maximum amount you would invent on your PPC ads? That’s your maximum bid. 

You also have the option to manually set your cost per click. This will allow you to set your maximum bid easily. If you set it to enhanced, search engines will allow you to modify your maximum bid as per your goal. 

CPC / PPC ads have many things in common, yet they are slightly different. CPC is a term used for the final amount you invest in your ad per click. PPC is a digital marketing model where you pay per advertisement. 

CPM

Cost Per Mille or cost per thousand refers to the total cost for one thousand impressions of your ads. This is usually used in display ads and paid social. Like CPM, there are cost per acquisition, cost per engagement, and other kinds of cost pers. 

Campaign

This one is pretty easy. What’s the main message behind your PPC ads? How does the entire thing come together? How do you want your brand to be perceived by your customers? Who is your target audience? These are some of the questions you should focus on while planning out your marketing campaign. 

Ad Group

An ad group is basically a small group of categories in your marketing ads that you need to create. This is important because there will be categories in your customer base as well. These categories will be based on different aspects like demographics, gender, interests, etc. You need to make sure that each category is taken care of through your different ad groups. Make sure that each ad group focuses on related and relevant keywords. Different CPCs can be set for different ad groups. 

Keywords

Keywords are one of the most important factors that determine your ranking and the effectiveness of your PPC ads. Ideally, each one of your ad groups should target a set of keywords. Search engines, then, analyze these keywords to determine where your ads should appear. You exchange even set micro CPCs for your keywords if you know they work for you. 

Ad Text

You must take inspiration from York keywords for your ad texts. Whatever text you have in your ad and landing page determines the relevance of your PPC ads, which also determines your quality score. That is why your ad texts should match your keywords.

Landing Page

This term is critical to your PPC ads’ success. This is the page where your users will land on when they click your ad. You get to decide which landing page is best suited for which ad. It can be your homepage or one of your webpages, but you need to make sure that it is relevant and matches your PPC advertisement. 

What Are Some Of The Best Platforms For PPC Ads?

Now that we have covered the essential PPC ads terms, the next step is to understand which platforms are best for PPC ads. 

Digital marketing is not a piece of cake. But, if you understand the workings of the algorithms, you can pretty much steer organic traffic your way. Choosing a relevant platform is crucial to the success of your PPC ads and digital marketing campaign. 

Another thing to remember is that not all ad campaigns work the same for everyone. It depends on what your brand is, where your target audience resides, and what your ads marketing budget is. There are several other factors, but these are the main ones. 

Here are some of the best platforms for PPC ads.

PPC Ads Google

Also known as Google AdWords. Can you count the number of times you have googled things in a day? Probably not. If so, you must already have an idea of how big paid search ads Google is. 

Google AdWords PPC is one of the most popular. To blow your mind here’s a fast fact for you: on average, Google processes more than 40,000 searches per second. With this much traffic, you can definitely find relevant keywords to target your core audience. Unlike social media platforms, almost everyone is on google. There’s no shortage of different categories of customers. The only thing is that you need to know how to reach them. 

One downside to google AdWords PPC is that, since there’s heavy guaranteed traffic, the cost per ad is much higher than other platforms. 

Bing Ads

PPC advertising on Bing is much cheaper compared to PPC ads in Google. If you have a low budget but still want to target a large number of audiences, you should definitely go for Bing Ads. We don’t need to tell you about Bing’s traffic. They are one amongst the top search engines!

Facebook Ads

Facebook started earlier than most other social media platforms, and it’s still running high. There’s no denying that Facebook ads are one of the most effective and popular digital marketing strategies available. It’s also great because it allows a business to specifically target a group of audience that they know are more likely to respond to your brand. Some of the aspects that Facebook ads allow you to access are the demographics, interests, behavior, and location of your target audience. Furthermore, you can also opt for native ads on Facebook. Last but not the least, advertising on Facebook can also be extended to Instagram Ads. 

AdRoll

This is a term used for retargeting audiences, which is much more effective because, since these audiences have already shown an interest in your brand, they are more likely to click on the ads and actually lead to a conversion. This is why AdRoll is one of the best platforms for PPC ads. The option to retarget audiences is available in Google AdWords PPC as well. However, the one benefit that AdRolls provide, which PPC ads on Google don’t, is that AdRoll allows you to place ads in Google as well as other social media platforms. This allows you to have a wider reach than just google. 

RevContent

This platform focuses on marketing through PPC ads mostly. It is very similar to guest posts because your ads will be placed on an external website. The only difference is that in RevContent, it will be displayed as an ad. Bid on relevant keywords to get the maximum return of investment. Your ads will be placed near content that shares your relevant keywords. The great thing about this platform is that it is super friendly in your pocket. The CPC is relatively lower. And, you will receive hyper-engaged organic traffic through this platform. 

How To Get PPC Ads?

We have broken down the essential PPC terminology and the best platforms for PPC ads. Now, we give you a detailed guide on how to get PPC ads. It’s a craft that can be learned. Just make sure that you follow each of these steps. 

Set Clear Parameters

What are your PPC ads campaign goals? What do you want to achieve with each ad group? Of course, the overall goal is to expand your business by creating more conversions. However, you need to have clear parameters set in order to strategically improve your digital marketing campaigns. 

This should be your very first step. If you don’t set clear parameters, your ads will have no target (or worse, too many targets), which will essentially make it ineffective. 

You need to analyze how each ad contributes to you achieving your marketing goal. Is your PPC ad focusing on sales, brand awareness, visits, or is it something entirely different? Like we mentioned earlier, there is no one rule that works successfully for every brand. You need to customize your marketing strategy based on your understanding of your brand. 

What’s your campaign’s theme? Who is your target audience? How do you know your PPC ads are successful? These are some of the questions that you should consider to set clear parameters. 

Set Your Goal Metrics To Ultimately Achieve Your Goal

To succeed in digital marketing, you need to be systematic, smart, and clear on what you want to do. The algorithms are right there, all you need to do is know how to influence them. 

Your goal needs to be clear cut. Now, we are not just speaking about your long term goals, your short term goals should be clear too. Note that your goal metrics are different from your campaign metrics. 

Here are some of the most common PPC ads goals.

Brand Awareness

This term refers to the level of visibility you have. One question you can ask to have a clear view of your brand awareness is: How much of your target audience knows about your brand? You need to focus on display ads to strengthen your brand awareness. This PPC ad goal can be measured through surveys, direct traffic, and general engagement between your brand and your customers; existing and potential. 

Lead Generation

This is another goal that is crucial for your brand’s success. Having effective PPC ads and an awesome landing page can directly result in lead generation. This is something that you should definitely track so that you know which PPC ads are successful, if at all. You can use the tracking pixel or Google Ads interface to track the resulting conversions. If you have access to HubSpot, you can use their UTM parameters to do the same. 

Offer Promotion

It basically refers to offers and deals that you introduce to promote your brand. It’s a great idea to give unique codes to each ad group so that you can track which customer game from which ad group. This will help you understand and modify your existing and future PPC ads. 

Sales

You can track your sales through attribution reporting or CMS software. Sales under PPC ad campaigns refer to the same is service or product through your particulars paid per click ads. 

Site Traffic

This is another goal metric this is crucial to your brand’s success. If you are confident about the content on your website, it is important to track your overall site traffic. If you notice potential buyers, you can turn them into existing customers by keeping track of your site traffic and sending out targeted PPC ads to them. 

Paid Search Ads Example

There are several kinds of PPC ads, you simply need to figure out which one works best for you. Be creative with it. Mix and match. Remember that it’s your brand, and you are responsible for your PPC ads. 

Search Ads

These are one of the most popular PPC ads. These are the text ads you get when you look for something on a search engine. 

Display Ads

These are the ones where your image-based ad will be placed on an external website. PPC ads on Google also allow display ads. 

Social

Any PPC ads that appear in cocoa media platforms are called social. These include ads on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, etc. this is another popular paid search ads example. 

Remarketing

Platforms use your provided contact or cookies to target customers who have previously shown an interest in your brand. This is one of the most effective marketing strategies. It takes into account your customer’s behavior and targets ads accordingly. 

Google Shopping

Another great paid search ads example. It takes into account your relevant target keyword to place your ads effectively. 

Keyword Research Is A Must For Effective PPC Ads

What are we trying to achieve with these ads? Ultimately, we want our brand to expand and reach our target audiences. That can happen only when our quality score improves. And, our quality score is dependent on our keywords. This is why conducting thorough research for relevant keywords is a must for an effective PPC Ads campaign. 

One way to do so is to find at least five keywords for each of your ad groups. Remember that keywords keep updating, so you need to be updated on the trends. Always revise your keyword and keep finding the most relevant ones. 

Track Your Performance Through Google Analytics 

It is super easy to track your performance through Google Analytics, so, why not use it? The best part is that the data you will receive from this can be utilized for CPC, PPC, and much more. 

Guaranteed Tips That Will Give You A High-Quality PPC Ads Marketing Strategy

Spending on PPC advertising can be a very tough decision, especially if you are a new and independent business owner. Here are some of the best tips that will guarantee help you expand your business. 

PPC Ad Copy

You need to make sure that your PPC ad copy is exactly what your customer is looking for. An effective PPC ad copy will result in a conversion. To do this, you need to make sure that you speak clearly to your target audience. Your main keyword should be included. Make sure that your landing page matched your ad and that your CTA is clear and actionable. 

A Strong Landing Page

We cannot emphasize enough the importance of a strong landing page. This is the page where your customers will land after they have clicked on one of your ads. You need to make sure that the layout and design are clear, your keywords are relevant, and match your particular PPC ad. 

A/B Tests

Before investing in any PPC ads, you need to make sure that they work. Not just their click-through rate, but their conversion rate as well. The four important aspects of your ads are keywords, landing pages description, and headline. Make sure that you track all the samples and prioritize the one that shows the biggest impact.

Tailor Your Audience Through Google

Here’s the thing. As we have mentioned, again and again, the key to a successful PPC ads campaign is not to work harder, but to work smarter. Why spend so much money on targeting people that will never engage with your brand? Simply use Google and tailor your audiences to get the maximum conversion rate. You can use In-Market Audiences to track and identify people who will genuinely be interested in buying your products. Layer your audience by bidding on the most relevant subgroups. 

Adjust Your Bids

One important thing for you to remember is that digital marketing through PPC ads is a constant process. Don’t make the mistake of thinking that once an action is done, it is over. You need to revise and readjust if needed. You can adjust your bids according to different categories like demographics, devices, language, etc. 

Custom Schedule Your PPC Ads

Another great thing about Google AdWords PPC is that you can custom when you want your ads to be shown to your target audience. What are the specific times and days that your target audience is most active on? Make sure that you schedule your PPC ads accordingly. 

Sitelink Extension

This term refers to the additional information that you can add to your ads. If you have read the article carefully, you must be aware by now that Google pays more attention to websites that have the most details. This is why site link extensions are so important. It can even improve your Google ad rank, which will further improve your chances of brand awareness and expansion. 

Match Types

This term in PPC ads Google refers to the matching quality of your particular ad groups with the associated search terms. You can choose from four kinds of match types. They are broad, modified broad, phrase, and exact match. Generally, there’s no one rule to set this. It depends on the kind of brand you have. But if you have to, many people go for exact and short-tailed keywords. 

Negative Keywords

This term refers to search terms that you don’t want your PPC ads to correspond with. These are as important as the keywords you want to be associated with. 

TakeAways

Although we have detailed out some of the most important questions regarding PPC ads, what we want to leave you with is that PPC advertising campaigns need constant revision. As we have already mentioned, you need to be in touch with the trend. 

Managing and analyzing your current PPC ads will help you understand the effectiveness of each ad group. This in turn will help you create an even more effective future PPC ads campaign. 

Managing a PPC ad campaign requires creating your goals, adjusting them, testing your ads, researching for the keyword, looking for the best conversion strategy, and modifying your PPC ads to match your current goals. 

Another thing you must keep in mind is that you need to focus on each platform, social media networks, and search engines. Craft different PPC ads for specific platforms. Some of the tested and effective software you can use are WordStream, HubSpot, NinjaCat, Optmyzr, and SEMRush. 

As a quick review, we are reminding you again that you should track your CPC, CTR, impressions, click, Ad spends, return on ad spends, conversion rate, cost per conversion, and quality score to get the most out of your PPC ads. 

That’s all from us. Keep these pointers in mind and get started!