If you’ve spent time online searching for marketing assistance, you’ve likely come across a flood of terms and acronyms that can feel confusing. You’ll encounter words like inbound, content marketing, SEO, PPC, SEM, H3, CTA, and many others. It can be a lot to take in, but don’t worry; today I’ll share a bit about PPC and what it means to me. If you still have questions about those other terms afterward, I suggest you check out our entire blog, where we cover these topics in detail.
So What Is PPC?
PPC stands for Pay-Per-Click, and in short, it’s a form of online advertising. PPC can appear in many different forms, but the easiest way to explain it is that PPC ads are those you see at the top of a Google search results page that say “ad.” Keep in mind that these online paid ads can run in a lot of different places but to prevent this blog from becoming a novel I will be keeping my examples limited to Google search result ads.
There are many different reasons a company might choose to use this form of marketing and advertising; for me personally, it’s fast, effective and the results are often clear as day. For many companies, the concept of knowing the ROI down to the penny is appealing. When you are setting up a PPC campaign, you might create a system where you pay per ad viewed (viewable impressions), ad clicked (thus pay-per-click), or you’ll pay if a specific action (a conversation) is taken. These actions might include having a potential customer click on an ad and end up on a landing page where they fill out a form on your website.
Some Thoughts On Paid Ads
Ok, we could discuss what PPC is and how to use it all day, but I have other things to say as well. When I was first told I should start to familiarize myself with PPC I had some serious doubts. Me, have doubts? If you’ve ever read one of my other blogs, you are well aware I start apprehensive about a lot of marketing concepts until I can learn about them more. So yeah, I had doubts. I’ve never put a lot of trust in paid ads, but that was coming from an uneducated consumer’s perspective. You might be interested to know that my negative view of PPC ads puts me in the statistical minority of Google users.
After taking some classes and picking up some certifications, I started to take over campaigns for our clients. What I found was that by making smart, logical decisions you could impact a client’s ROI overnight. I was not only impressed with the performance of the ads, but I was also impressed by the fact that other consumers were apparently not as apprehensive about paid ads as I had been. In fact, if the ad offered the consumer what they were looking for they were going to click on it without worry. This trust in paid ads means that PPC works. Some estimates show that every one dollar spent on PPC results in gross revenue of two dollars.
Additionally, as I became a PPC “insider,” I realized that not only do people trust these ads, the ads themselves can be beneficial to others. If done with the right intent, the ads are a service to consumers. What I mean by that is if an ad delivers what it promises and appears above search results, then a consumer can immediately find the solution they are looking for.
The First P Stands For Personal Growth… Not Really
Perhaps the most fantastic thing about PPC was the personal growth that occurred when I started to dive in. Running PPC campaigns satisfies my need for order and organization better than any other aspect of marketing has ever done for me. The entire concept behind PPC is that you are supposed to make small educated changes to the account and then watch the data to weigh the impact of said change. I cannot express enough how much I love this. If you are a slow, calculated worker like me, then you will enjoy running PPC campaigns. The ability to prove with numbers that your careful approach was worth it in the end, helps me cope with the anxiety that comes with taking a long time to complete my work. I take comfort in the ability to say, “I know this campaign took me two weeks to overhaul but we are picking up an additional three leads a day now.”
What can I say? I love PPC. Checking the previous day’s results have become an obsession. It’s become my new professional passion and has re-energized me. So what does that mean for you the reader? Well, if you’re in marketing and looking for a structured, personally satisfying way to help your clients quickly and efficiently, this is it. However, if you are looking for marketing help and love the idea of running ads with easy to understand ROI reports, then you should talk to your marketing agency about PPC. As always, if you are looking for some marketing help feel free to contact us. I’d love to talk to you about PPC and creating a marketing plan that meets the needs of your business.
