
Where to Start With PPC Advertising
PPC is short for pay-per-click advertising. While organic SEO (search engine optimization) tries to get visitors to your website by creating content that will show up on the search engines, PPC gets people to your website by paying for each time a person clicks on an ad.
It’s a proven strategy for getting customers, and it’s potentially a very lucrative method for you to expand your online business. So how do you get started? That’s easy. Just answer these three questions to start designing a successful PPC strategy for your business.
Is PPC Right for You?
PPC advertising offers many advantages. First, it can immediately bring traffic to your website. Organic SEO can take months, even years, to develop a constant stream of visitors, but with PPC you can essentially turn on a tap and get visitors. Plus, it has the potential to identify and target visitors at any stage of the buying process, including those who are ready to put their money down right now. SEO is more random, and tends to work better with people who are in the early, information-gathering stages of the process. PPC also comes with highly detailed data, letting you precisely measure your ROI and make informed decisions about the campaign. However, PPC does have disadvantages. Because it works fast, it has a steep learning curve, and the potential to lose a lot of money during the learning process. It also requires significant investment of both time and money. You need to design your ads to earn the right clicks to bring purchase-ready visitors to your website. And if you don’t do a good job at earning clicks, you might find your access to markets gets limited. Advertisers that perform poorly get charged more, have their ads demoted (shown less frequently), and can sometimes be banned from a platform. If you want to do PPC, but don’t know how to do it, it’s best to let someone else manage your campaign.Who Do You Hope to Reach?
Next, it’s important to decide who you’re trying to reach with your PPC advertising. Think first of the demographics of your ideal customers. You don’t always need to have a customer profile, but it’s not a bad idea. At a minimum, you should be able to describe your ideal customer if asked. But also think about where in the buying process–like problem awareness, information gathering, narrowing alternatives, or purchase decision–you want to reach them. It’s tempting to try to always get people just when they’re ready to buy, but that’s not always the best strategy. First, it’s usually more expensive and more competitive to target PPC ads there. Second, you might make more sales if you target people earlier in the buying process and develop a relationship with them through your site. This is especially true for expensive products and services, where it’s important to develop customer trust before making a sale.