PPC marketing and advertising
PPC, or pay-per-click, refers. Online marketers who utilise PPC marketing pay each time a user hits one of their adverts.
The search engine results pages (SERPs) of search engines like Google are where PPC advertising is most frequently done. Advertisers place bids on keywords in this case, and when users perform searches using those phrases, their adverts are displayed at the top of the SERPs.
PPC advertising is also possible on social networking sites like Facebook and Instagram, as well as online with display ads.
What’s the difference between PPC, SEM and SEO?
PPC, SEM (search engine marketing), and SEO (search engine optimisation) are phrases that are sometimes used interchangeably, but they have different meanings.
“Pay-per-click” (sometimes known as “PPC”) refers to a sort of digital advertising in which the advertiser is compensated each time one of their ads is clicked.
Known as SEM, search engine marketing. SEM and SEO are identical save for the fact that SEM is a subset of search engine marketing, or search marketing as it is more often known. Both strategies attempt to increase exposure in search results.
Search engine optimisation is known by the abbreviation SEO. SEO, in its simplest form, is the process of making adjustments to your website in order to improve its visibility to consumers who conduct searches for the goods you sell on Google, Microsoft Bing, and other search engines.SEM that is both paid and unpaid includes things like PPC or organic traffic (SEO).
What is PPC?
PPC is a type of online marketing that uses search engines in addition to other websites and applications like Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube.
Search engine optimisation (SEO) is a technique for improving a website’s content and architecture so that search engines will find it more easily. This is accomplished by keyword research and use, metadata optimisation, the production of high-quality content, and the acquisition of links from other websites. The purpose of SEO is to raise a website’s natural (unpaid) search engine rankings and increase traffic by way of natural search results.
What does PPC stand for?
PPC, or pay-per-click, is an abbreviation. Advertising companies that use PPC marketing pay a fee each time one of their ads is clicked. It is simple to imagine it as a method of paying for website traffic.
How does PPC work?
Advertisers have to submit a bid in order for their ads to show up for certain keywords or phrases in search engine results. The advertiser’s ad will be one of the top results when a user puts one of those terms or phrases into the search field. After that, each time a user clicks on an advertisement, the advertiser is charged. Campaigns are developed by advertisers to target particular demographics, regions, and interests. The maximum bid for the terms they want to target will be decided. The search engine will then choose which ads to display and in what sequence using a complex algorithm.
The algorithm considers elements such as the:
- leading PPC platforms
- sum of an advertiser’s bid
- Planning and strategy for PPC campaigns
- Ad’s suitability for the keyword
- Ad’s level of quality
It is also possible to use social media sites like Facebook and Instagram for this kind of advertising.
Why is PPC important?
PPC generated $2 on average for every $1 invested in 2022, with a $1.16 average cost per click (CPC). Additionally, although social media is still a common platform for advertisements, 40% of ad spending in 2020 was on search, with 73% of that money going to Google.
PPC gives a number of advantages over SEO and social media, including:
- Rapid results: PPC advertising can improve website traffic quickly, however SEO may take some time to show results. Platforms typically accept advertising the same day, giving ads the greatest exposure as soon as possible. This might be a text ad from a Google search, an Instagram image ad, or even a YouTube video. The visibility of your business is increased by using a range of platforms and formats.
- Reach your targeted audience: PPC advertising gives advertisers the ability to target particular demographics, interests, and locations, which aids in attracting the correct customers. You may even target specific people based on their actions and interests; social media platforms like Facebook can assist you in getting your advertisement in front of the audience most likely to result in a sale.
- Measurable: PPC marketing yields quantifiable outcomes. It enables marketers to monitor conversions, ROI, and other key performance indicators (KPIs).
- Cost-effective: Since advertisers only pay when a user clicks on their ad and can set a budget for their campaign, PPC advertising may be more cost-effective than conventional advertising techniques like television or print ads.
- Branding: PPC marketing can aid in raising brand awareness. Even if users decide not to click on the advertisement, they may still see it and remember the brand.
- Complementing SEO: PPC advertising can support SEO campaigns. PPC can be utilised to provide instant traffic to a website while SEO efforts are still being made, whereas SEO focuses on growing organic traffic.
- Track your goals: You can keep tabs on your objectives using tools like Google Analytics. By tracking the effectiveness of your advertisements in real-time, you can ascertain what needs to be done to more successfully achieve your objectives.
- Reputation management: PPC can be used to bid on keywords that correspond to a reputation event and lead traffic to a landing page that specifically addresses the issue, allowing you to quickly and professionally manage the narrative.
PPC advertising offers a generally affordable and quantifiable means to connect with a specific demographic, get leads and purchases, and ultimately raise brand awareness.
What is important for PPC strategy and campaign planning?
There are several crucial procedures you should follow while organising a PPC campaign:
- Define your target audience: Determine the age, gender, geography, interests, and other characteristics of the target audience for your adverts.
- Set clear goals: Establish your PPC campaign’s goals, such as boosting website traffic, boosting online purchases, or generating leads.
- Research keywords: When writing your ad copy and website content, use keyword research tools to find the words and phrases your target audience is using to search online.
- Create compelling ad copy: Create catchy headlines and descriptions for your advertising to encourage viewers to click through to your website.
- Choose the right ad platforms: Choose the advertising channels you want to use, such as Google Ads, Microsoft Advertising, Meta Ads (for Facebook and Instagram), etc.
- Monitor and optimize your campaign: Monitoring the effectiveness of your adverts will help you optimise your campaign and reach your objectives.
- Test different ad formats and targeting options: See what works best for your campaign by experimenting with various targeting settings and different ad types (such as text, picture, and video).
- Set a budget: Make a decision about the amount you want to invest in your campaign, and make sure to stay within your budget.
Top PPC advertising platforms
On a number of well-known websites, PPC advertising possibilities are accessible. Google, Facebook, and Microsoft Bing are some of the most well-known. In the form of video (on YouTube or Facebook/Instagram Reels) and other formats including search, display, retargeting, and others, different ad platforms can display different results.
Google Ads
The most popular search engine is Google. It has unparalleled worldwide appeal. The costs for paid adverts through Google Ads are therefore higher.
Advertisers place bids in order to have their ads seen, services rendered, products advertised, or videos featured on Google. On mobile apps, movies, and websites that aren’t search engines (search partners), there is the option to show advertisements.
The most popular pay-per-click system is Google Ads. There is a high likelihood that your advertisement will be noticed by your target demographic and result in a customer or profit because Google processes more than 99,000 search queries each second. For Fortune 500 firms and small businesses alike, Google Ads is ideal.
Facebook Ads
Businesses and organisations can advertise on Facebook to promote their goods and services. Users’ news feeds on Facebook, the right-hand column of the desktop version of the website, and the Stories section on mobile devices all display the advertising.
Types of Facebook ads include:
- Image and video ads: A single image or video, a succinct headline, and a call-to-action button make up these advertisements.
- Messenger ads: The Facebook messenger tab has messenger advertisements. Messenger advertising feels more intimate than scrolling through image or video ads because it’s where individuals spend time conversing with friends and family.
People can touch on your Messenger ads that appear in their conversations to start a dialogue with your business. These advertisements are a fantastic method to get people to engage with your brand.
- Lead ads: Only mobile devices are capable of running lead advertising. This is so that individuals can easily provide you with their contact information without having to do a lot of typing.
They’re excellent for getting folks to join up for your newsletter, try out your product, or request more information from you. They have been successfully employed by several automakers to promote test drives.
- Carousel ads: Users can scroll through up to ten images or videos in carousel advertisements. Each has a unique title, summary, or link.
Carousels are an effective way to display a wide range of goods. Even better, each image in the carousel can link to a landing page created just for that good or service. By spreading out each step throughout several sections of your carousel, this Facebook ad type can also be useful for walking users through a process or showing a collection of similar products.
- Slideshow ads: Ads that play in slideshows often consist of 3–10 photos or a single video. These advertisements consume up to five times less bandwidth than videos do, making them a suitable replacement for them. For those who have never created a video before, slide show ads are a terrific place to start.
- Stories ads: Ads stories
The proper way to hold a mobile phone is vertically. You can maximise screen area with Stories ads, a full-screen vertical video format only available on mobile devices, without forcing viewers to turn their devices.
A story can be told by carousels, videos, or simply photographs.
- Instant Experience ads: Users can interact with your promoted content on Facebook with Instant Experience ads, formerly known as Canvas Ads and available solely for mobile devices. Users can swipe through a carousel of images in Instant Experience advertising, move the screen in different directions, and zoom in or out of the material.
In order to increase the likelihood that users will engage with each Instant Experience ad, Facebook advises employing five to seven pictures and videos. You may save time and keep your main theme consistent throughout the advertisement by using premade themes.
Companies can also opt to let Facebook’s algorithm choose which products from their catalogue are shown to each user.
Large firms that sell a variety of goods and services might consider collection advertisements. Other ad forms, such as carousels, can be more appropriate for smaller companies with a more constrained product offering.
- Collection ads: Similar to immersive carousels, collection advertising improves the customer experience. Collection advertising lets visitors browse your product line on their mobile devices like window shoppers. More customizable than carousels, they are full-screen. Users can make direct product purchases through the Collection advertisement.
Campaigns can be created by advertisers to target specific demographics, geographic areas, and interests.
Facebook uses this information in its algorithm to show ads to users who are most likely to be interested in the products or services being promoted.
YouTube
With the help of YouTube advertising, companies and individuals can advertise their goods and services on the YouTube network.
These adverts can be seen in many different forms, such as:
- Skippable video ads: After a predetermined amount of time, usually five seconds, you can skip these advertisements. Their maximum duration is 60 seconds.
- Non-skippable video ads: Before accessing the main video, these advertisements must be seen in their entirety. They can last for up to 15 seconds.
- Bumper ads: These are brief, skippable advertisements that last no more than six seconds.
- Sponsored cards: These are tiny cards that show up on the television screen during the advertisement and provide more details about the good or service.
- Overlay ads: The lowest part of the video has these semi-transparent advertisements.
A target audience can be chosen by an advertiser based on characteristics like demographics, interests, and behaviours. YouTube ads are available for purchase on a cost-per-view (CPV) or cost-per-click (CPC) basis and the advertiser is billed each time the ad is watched or clicked.
Microsoft
Through the Microsoft Bing search engine and the Microsoft Advertising Network, a collection of websites and apps that interact with Microsoft to display advertisements, businesses and individuals may find one another. A platform for advertising, Microsoft Advertising was formerly known as Bing Ads.
The platform allows advertisers to build a variety of ads, including search ads, product ads, shopping ads, display ads, and video ads. These advertisements, which can be bought on a pay-per-click or pay-per-impression basis, are targeted at certain audiences based on demographics, interests, and behaviours. According to this, the advertiser is billed each time their advertisement is viewed or clicked.
TikTok
Through TikTok advertising, individuals and businesses can promote their products or services on the TikTok app.
These commercials generally incorporate TikTok challenges, trends, or music in an effort to be entertaining and inventive.
TikTok offers several different types of ads, including:
- The app’s home feed features “in-feed” advertisements, which are full-screen, image- or video-based advertisements.
- Brand takeover advertisements—full-screen, image- or video-based advertisements—appear when a user launches an app.
- By seeing commercials for hashtag contests and uploading their own films with the branded hashtag, viewers are encouraged to take part in branded hashtag competitions.
- Branded effects are distinctive effects created by brands that customers can use in their own videos.
A target audience can be chosen by an advertiser based on characteristics like demographics, interests, and behaviours. On a cost-per-thousand-impression (CPM) or cost-per-click (CPC) basis, advertisers can buy TikTok commercials, and they are charged each time their ad is viewed or clicked.
In addition, TikTok provides a managed solution for larger companies and a self-service platform for small and medium-sized organisations to handle their campaigns.
LinkedIn advertising enables companies and individuals to advertise their goods or services on the site. These advertisements are made to appeal to professionals, and they are frequently used to generate leads, increase brand recognition, and advertise job openings.
Microsoft’s LinkedIn, which features a variety of advertisements, includes:
- Sponsored content: These advertisements, which show up on users’ newsfeeds, resemble genuine posts which can be text, images or videos.
- Sponsored InMail: These advertisements are instantly visible in users’ email inboxes.
- Sponsored jobs: These job opportunity advertisements are located at the top of the platform’s jobs section.
- Display ads: On the right side of the platform, there is banner advertising that may be tailored to specific audiences.
- Dynamic ads: These are advertisements that produce personalised content for every user depending on their browsing habits automatically.
Advertisers can target specific audiences based on factors like demographics, job title, company size, industry, abilities, and habits. You will be charged each time an ad is clicked or viewed if you decide to buy LinkedIn adverts on a cost-per-click (CPC) or cost-per-thousand-impression (CPM) basis.
Larger businesses can use a managed service offered by LinkedIn to manage their campaigns, while small and medium-sized businesses can use a self-service platform.
Instagram Ads
Through Instagram Ads, individuals and businesses may promote their products and services on the network. These advertisements are presented as sponsored posts, which are easily incorporated into users’ newsfeeds and mimic ordinary posts in appearance.
Instagram offers several different types of ads, including:
- Photo advertisements: To promote a good or service, just one image is used in a photo commercial.
- Video ads: These advertisements offer a good or service using a brief video.
- Collection ads: Instagram collection ads are a cross of carousel and shopping ads. Collections advertisements feature products right from your product range.
Since they enable customers to purchase things directly from the campaign, collection advertisements are perfect for e-commerce enterprises. Users are directed to an Instagram Instant Experience Storefront after clicking the advertisement, where they can learn more about the product and make a purchase.
- Carousel ads: These let companies show a lot of pictures or videos all at once and let viewers swipe through them. Stories are advertisements that show up in Instagram’s Stories section and vanish after 24 hours.
- Story ads: In between user tales, full-screen Instagram images or video advertisements are shown.
Every day, more than 500 million Instagram users watch Stories, making it a well-liked aspect of the app. Engagement is typically higher with Stories ads because they take up the entire mobile screen and are far more immersive than in-feed ads.
The best Instagram Stories adverts are those that blend in with other users’ stories and don’t stand out. When producing Stories advertising, businesses may make full use of Instagram Stories’ built-in capabilities, including filters, text, GIFs, and interactive stickers.
Ads for stories can make use of carousels, videos, and still images. At the bottom of the Story, a swipe-up link contains the call-to-action.
- Explore ads: The Explore page of the platform, where users find new material and accounts that are customised based on their Instagram usage habits, contains explore adverts. Instagram Explore ads are displayed after a user clicks on a photo or video from Explore rather than in the Explore grid or the topic channels. Explore advertising lets companies be displayed with content that is currently hot and relevant to culture since the content in users’ Explore tabs is always changing.
Images and videos can also be used to explore advertising.
- Reel ads: Instagram recently announced that Reels would now support advertising following the successful debut of Reels.
Commercials, which can last up to 60 seconds, are shown in between reels. They are full-screen vertical videos with identical specifications to Stories ads. They should have sound or music in order to fit in with organic Reels properly. To blend in effectively with organic Reels, they should have sound or music. A Sponsored mark will appear next to the account name in every Instagram Reels advertisement.
Note- Instragram reel vids will continue to loop until they are stopped. Users may also “like,” “share,” “comment,” and “save” your Reels advertisements.
- Shopping ads: Given that 44% of Instagram users make transactions on the site each week, it makes sense why Instagram has dramatically improved its e-commerce facilities over the past two to three years.
Thanks to Instagram’s most recent shopping functionality (limited to businesses who have enabled Instagram Checkout), users may now view and purchase items without leaving the app.
Instagram Shopping advertisements direct users directly to a product detail page within the Instagram app. They can then purchase something on your mobile website after that.
To run shopping advertisements on Instagram, you must first set up your Instagram shopping catalogue.
To access your catalogue directly from the Hootsuite dashboard, use the Shopify interface between Hootsuite and Shopify.
X (formerly known as Twitter)
X (formerly known as “Twitter”) unique way of content delivery contributes to its higher average click-through rate compared to other platforms. A typical CTR for X (formerly known as “Twitter”) link advertisements is 2%, compared to 0.72% on Facebook. 0.94% on Instagram These mass audience-targeted commercials are regularly used to generate leads, build brand awareness, and increase website traffic. X (formerly known as “Twitter”) offers several different types of ads, including:
- Website cards: To promote a website or landing page, these adverts include an image, a title, and a description.
- App install cards: An advertiser can select a target audience based on traits like demographics, interests, and behaviours. The cost-per-engagement or cost-per-click for X (formerly known as “Twitter”) commercials is the number of interactions (likes, reX’s/retweets, replies, etc.) or clicks that the ad receives.
- Promoted accounts: These are advertisements for X (formerly known as “Twitter”) accounts that show up in the platform’s “who to follow” section.
- Promoted trends: These advertisements are at the top of the list of trending topics and promote a certain hashtag.
- Promoted X’s: Xs that are marked as “promoted” and show up at the top of users’ timelines or search results pages are referred to as this. They can be in the form of text, images, or videos.
To conduct their ads, X (formerly known as “Twitter”) also provides larger organisations with a managed service and small and medium-sized enterprises with a self-service platform.
What are the types of PPC ads?
The most common PPC ad format is search-related PPC advertisements. When a user types a particular query (keyword or phrase) into a search engine (the most prominent ones being Google and Microsoft Bing), a search ad will show up at the top of the first page of search engine results also known as SERPs.
These advertisements, which are primarily text-based, are made to be extremely pertinent to the user’s search.
The cost of each click is known as CPC, or cost per click, and advertisers normally pay each time a user clicks on one of their adverts. The most common method used by companies to advertise their goods or services and increase traffic to their websites is search ads.
Display
A specific type of advertisement that displays on websites, mobile applications, and other digital platforms is a display advertisement.
It often takes the form of a banner or other graphical element. Display advertisements can feature a range of media, including photos, videos, and interactive elements, and are created to be aesthetically pleasing.
Display advertisements are frequently used to market goods or services, build brand awareness, or increase website traffic. Typically, display advertising is bought on a cost-per-impression (CPI) or cost-per-thousand-impression (CPM) basis, which means that the advertiser is charged each time the ad is shown a specific number of times.
Remarketing (or retargeting)
Remarketing is a form of marketing that allows businesses to target customers who have already interacted with their website or mobile application with advertisements. When consumers utilise mobile apps or visit other websites, remarketing ads are frequently offered to them. They are designed to reinforce the brand and encourage repeat use of the website or app.
The formats in which remarketing ads can be distributed include display, search, video, and social media. The most popular ways of payment are cost-per-click (CPC) and cost-per-thousand-impressions (CPM).
Remarketing campaigns are very targeted and effective at raising conversions and sales. They work by keeping track of user activity on a website or mobile app and then using that data to show consumers relevant ads while they browse other websites or use other apps. A cookie or pixel is put on the user’s browser or device to achieve this. This allows for the user’s identification and the transmission of relevant advertisements to them.
VIDEOS
A video advertisement uses video content to promote your business, service, or product. Numerous platforms, including websites, streaming services like YouTube, and social media (posts or reels), may be used to view these commercials. On YouTube, pre-roll, mid-roll, and post-roll video advertisements can appear before, during, or after a video. Video advertisements can be skipped or not.
Interactive video advertising usually includes calls to action, links, and other clickable elements. They are typically purchased on a cost-per-view (CPV) or cost-per-click (CPC) basis, in which the advertiser pays each time the ad is viewed or clicked.
HOW MAY WE ASSIST YOU?
At one2one Digital, we have a dedicated team of experts in PPC marketing who can help you find the best solution when it comes to PPC.
We will guide you and support you through the process of getting you noticed on search engines.
Contact one2one digital (PPC agency) and get your brand noticed.