PPC Paid Marketing

Pay per click advertising is one of the fastest ways to generate new sales and leads through digital.

Introduction to PPC

PPC stands for Pay Per Click. It’s a well established advertising model that’s been around for 20 years. It works by directing customers to your website though adverts – you ‘pay’ when the customer ‘clicks’ on your advert to visit your site. Google runs the biggest PPC programme, but Bing, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and many others run their own platforms.

Understanding the cost of PPC

As PPC runs on an auction basis, the more people that want to advertise on a particular key term or interest type, the higher the bid price. For that reason it’s really hard to answer the question on what PPC actually costs, because it’s different for every organisation, depending on audience and key terms and your conversion rate.

In some industries it’s as little as 5p per click, in others it’s as much as £50 a click. What I try to do with clients is not focus so much on the cost per click, but rather talk about the cost per acquisition, how much it will cost to generate a new lead, sale or customer. I normally run through a ROI calculation with clients so they can understand what this is before going ahead with a PPC campaign.

Why PPC is useful and of benefit

It’s targeted

The beauty of PPC is that you can be laser focused. For example a self storage company may want to just target customers within a 10 mile radius, a car garage may only want to focus on servicing on a particular brand of cars – PPC allows you to target very specifically and just advertise to those who are looking for those services or products, excluding everyone else.

It’s measureable

Every single impression and click is measured and followed through so you can see which campaigns, specific adverts and individual keywords create enquiries and sales for you. If tracking is set up correctly, you can measure every single penny you spend on PPC.

It’s fast

It’s quick to set up. A qualified PPC marketer should be able to get a campaign set up and running within a couple of weeks. Larger campaigns can take a bit longer, but there are no barriers to entry.

It’s agile

Providing you have a big enough audience, PPC can be scaled easily by increasing your budget and reach – increasing your budget will mean more sales. If your business is shutting down over the summer, or perhaps we go into another Pandemic lockdown, simply scale back your campaign and don’t spend. Changes are instant and can have an immediate impact on your sales pipeline.

The data is valuable

Perhaps one of the most interesting parts of PPC is the data that you can see, which keywords trigger sales, which adverts do people respond to best. This data can be used to refine your PPC campaign so it works even better, but it can also be used in making SEO decisions, or deciding on what content to create, or calls to action to make on your website. It’s powerful stuff.

Attribution

Understanding how much it costs to generate an enquiry and a sale has never been easier. With PPC you can quickly see the cost per acquisition (how much it costs to generate a sale) and compare this to other types of advertising, or use it to benchmark against other digital or traditional channels.

Affordable

Providing the ROI calculator stacks up, PPC can be very affordable compared with other forms of marketing. There is no minimum spend and you’re in control of the budget, whether you want to spend £100 a month or 100K a month.

How to make PPC work for you?

Getting set up

Most of the customers I work with choose to use an agency or qualified expert to do this, although you can set up Google Ads with little knowledge (through their very simple setup wizard) I wouldn’t recommend this. If you pay an expert, they should bring enough value and save you money in the long run, both by reducing your time input but also through good bid management to save you money on clicks.

Set your campaign objectives or goals

Setting goals or objectives is the next step, do you want new calls, leads or enquiries, a download of a digital product, booking a demo, or completing an online sale? Setting out clear objectives and outcomes is essential as you’ll use these to measure the success later on.

Start off small

Don’t be tempted to set up a campaign for everything on day one. Focus on products and services that you have proven, that sell well and you make a good margin. Get these working well on a modest budget and then expand it out, that way you won’t dilute yourself too much at the beginning.

Decide on campaign specifics

Which keywords should you use, what geographic area do you cover, what time of the day should your adverts show. These are all important decisions and will make or break your campaign. I recommend getting professional advice on this.

Decide on where your Ads show

Google’s search results page is a good start point for a PPC campaign, but you could also consider Google Shopping, the display network, Youtube or on Mobile Apps that take adverts. If you’re just starting out in PPC, then I’d recommend for you to keep it simple and go for a Google Search campaign.

Creation of your messages and landing pages

Crafting compelling adverts and calls to action is not difficult, but there is a Knack to it if you want really good click through rates. Setting out your landing pages so that they are highly relevant to the adverts will give you a better quality score and reduce your cost per click.

Decide on your budget

Your budget should be dictated by your objectives and targets – how many sales, leads or new customers do you want? Understanding what the likely cost per acquisition might be ahead of time, will help you decide this.

Test and refine

More than any platform, PPC requires continual testing and refining. Get this right and your campaigns will become more and more focused over time, reducing your cost and generating better quality leads and sales.

Icebreaker

In order to find out if we’re the right kind of fit for each other, I ask all clients to fill out my icebreaker. This allows me to follow up with meaningful responses so that we can get down to roots of where you need help.

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Understanding your proposition and competition

It’s easy to rush straight into PPC, infact Google Ads makes it so easy for you to set up with but taking a little time to understand your proposition and how competitive the digital marketplace is, will be time well spent. What does your product / service offer above your competitors, what are the unique benefits or features you bring and how does your pricing compare to others?

How much will it cost?

customers often want to know up front what it will cost. That’s why I run through my ROI calculator with you. This uses Google’s data, industry specific conversion rates and your margins. This simulates the opportunity and cost to generate new sales via PPC. I tend to focus on the average cost per acquisition, as this then allows you to see up front if PPC is viable. Often it comes in a lot cheaper than more traditional sales campaigns such as telesales, direct marketing and exhibitions.

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What to look out for

If you are thinking of running or overhauling your PPC campaign and are looking to get help with it from a professional, there are a few things to look out for.

1 Qualified

Both Google and Microsoft (Bing) have an official qualification, which requires study, practical knowledge and an exam. Always look for individuals and agencies that have these. Larger agencies may have a Premier Google Partner status, meaning they have multiple people qualified and handle a greater volume of Ad spend. If you are looking to specifically focus on a channel, there are qualifications on Google for Search, Video, Display and Shopping, each one being a specialism with it’s own certification.

2 Sector experience

A winning PPC campaign requires insight and good knowledge of your market and customers and the subtleties involved. Two previous companies I worked with, one was a Coach company (buses) and the other was a Coaching company (mentoring). On the face of it both wanted to appear for the phrase ‘executive coaches’ but the reality was that keyword was a total waste of money for one but very profitable for the other.

3 Commercial acumen

There are lots of PPC executives that know how to set up a good campaign, but having access to a strategist who understands the subtleties of your organisation and products and sees the larger marketing objective is very useful.

4 No long term contracts

Most PPC agencies work on a short retained basis, with 1 month or 3 months notice is normal. Be wary of signing a long contract, especially if you are fairly new to PPC.

5 You own the work

Clarify with your agency that the ads and work they do is owned by you. After paying them to work on your account, the work they do, and more importantly the data that has been collected should be owned and retained by you, should you part ways in the future.

6 Transparency

Make sure that you have full access (as an Admin) to the platform you are using (such as Google Ads) – that way you can see the bid prices, campaign settings and results. Don’t accept anything else but direct access to the platform. If you fall out with your agency you can then kick them off the platform and get someone else to take over.

7 Pricing

I normally recommend my customers go for a fixed price for management, campaign optimisation and reporting, which is normally charged monthly. Be wary of those that offer a ‘price per lead’ or a fee based on a percentage of your Ad spend. This may seem appealing or lower risk, but this approach will always cost you so much more.