The Beginners Guide to PPC

If you are new to marketing, then chances are you are also going to be new to PPC. PPC stands for Pay Per Click. It has become increasingly more popular among marketing folk, and is being seen as an equal importance as SEO. If you are a new business, or new to marketing in general, navigating PPC can seem like a minefield. This is why we have put together the beginners guide to PPC.

What is PPC

PPC or Pay Per Click as it is known is an online advertising model in which advertises pay each time a user clicks on one of their online ads. There are different types of ads in which you can utilise, however the most common is paid search ads. 

A paid search ad appears when commercial searches occur on Google. For example if you go onto google and search for local heating engineers. If any of them have utilised paid searches you will see them appear higher up on the google ranking. Companies will then pay a fee for the advert if it is clicked on by a customer. Hence the term pay per click.

The beginners guide to PPC will ultimately also revel what key elements of PPC you need to consider first into order to build an effective paid search campaign.

Key things to consider 

When starting out on a PPC campaign, it can be very difficult to formulate a plan, and also know where to begin. The following are all pointers to consider before embarking on your PPC journey.

Define your goals, and make them specific

Simply what are you trying to achieve, and what so you want to get out of your PPC campaign. Being able to set specific goals, means you are then able to tailor your approach to ultimately achieve them.

Creating an advertising plan is not an easy feat in itself if you are new to marketing, however questions you need to ask yourself:-

• What does your business offer? And what makes us special?
• Who is our target audience? And who are our potential customers?
• What is our budget? And how much do we want to spend monthly on PPC?

If you can answer these clearly and very specifically this will set you on the right road to being able to build an effective PPC plan.

Develop a Keyword list

Keywords are going to be your new best friend when it comes to building a PPC campaign. The long tail keywords you are thinking of, are potential search terms of your audience and the people you are looking to appeal to. Long tail keywords are used as they are specific, and can be more cost effective in the long run.

To begin with, do some research into your market and audience. This will give you a way to think of potential keywords to use. Yes, you can use software to generate it yourself, however this firstly costs more. And also is not as organic as you would ideally want. The keywords you generate will ultimately correlate to your success.

Know your competitors

Knowing your competitors is just as important as knowing your audience. If you have established competitors who are already conducting PPC, then study them. Learn from them, and take what they do and make it better. Alongside knowing who operates in your market, you also need to know who are serious players, and who are not. This will enable you to really research who is a potential threat. 

When looking into your competitors the things to look out for are as follows:-

• Are they bidding on keywords you have missed 
• How do their ads look compared to yours 
• Are they utilising different landing pages 

If you can answer these questions then you are already on the way to creating a more powerful and successful campaign.

Track your conversions

When building a PPC campaign it is very important to look at how often your advert is clicked on. This is referred to as a conversion rate. A conversion rate is a very simple calculation to determine if your campaign is successful or not. This also allows you to optimise your spend so if certain key phrases have received more clicks than others, you know where to dedicate your budget.

The overall idea of PPC is to generate leads. Leads can help a business to generate extra revenue. A PPC campaign done correctly should lead to more clicks which should therefore lead to more sales. 

If you would like some more information on where your conversion rate should be then take a look at the following article. What is a Good PPC Conversion Rate? (And How to Increase It).

Continual development

The key things to think about when it comes to PPC will not be learnt over night, and potentially not in the first few months. Each business will need to find its niche, and how best to attract their audience. Being good at PPC does mean having to study your competitors. What are they doing differently, and how are they engaging your audience. 

Starting a campaign is going to also be the best way to develop your skills. In this campaign you will experience the highs and lows of PPC, what works and what doesn’t, and also the little tricks you can use to generate more of a conversion.

To Conclude

Overall PPC is a great marketing tool to utilise if you want to venture into paid search. Setting up a campaign is relatively easy, and can be done in no time at all. The skill with PPC is being able to identify all the factors we have mentioned in this article, and be able to adapt your search over time to increase your conversion rate.