What is Pay Per Click advertising?

Pay Per Click advertising (PPC) is when an advertiser bids for their ad to be shown when people search for content by typing specific keywords on a search engine like Google. In Google’s case, these ads (displayed as sponsored ads) can be seen on the right hand side of the page and sometimes also at the top of the page.

How can PPC advertising cost effectively deliver more sales?

The UK has the most active online population in Europe. Consumers and business buyers are increasingly going to Google to do a search before they make a buying decision. There are over 100 million searches a day on Google UK.

Trying to find a customer who wants to buy your product today is like looking for a needle in a haystack. You don’t have enough budget to reach every prospect every week with a message hoping that today is the day they buy. With PPC advertising:

  • you only advertise to people currently interested in what you are selling
  • you only pay when they respond (i.e. click to your website)
  • pricing is determined by a real-time auction in a perfect market
  • you control how much you want to pay for a click; your daily budget; which keywords you are interested in; what time of day your ads are shown; which parts of the country / world they appear
  • you get great performance analysis helping to improve web marketing ROI

Does it work?

Recently one of my south west clients invested just £310 on Google media and won new business of over £150,000 which is a brilliant marketing ROI.

How do you develop successful PPC advertising campaigns?

You need to commit time and some budget (but not a lot). For most smaller companies, time is the biggest issue. It is possible to get some ads running in minutes, but to get great results takes time and expertise. For example. I have been doing PPC advertising for over 5 years and generally I spend 1 -3 days setting up a campaign for a client. Depending on the media budget and the lifetime value of their customers. I would review campaign performance and implement improvements either daily, weekly, monthly, or quarterly, as required.

Many companies (big and small) find they don’t have the time or expertise to do this themselves to a high enough standard and use a Pay Per Click marketing specialist. Google Pay Per Click is a great way to attract target prospects to your website and significantly improve your marketing ROI.