How to approach marketing for your company depends to a large extent on your budget, and everybody is looking for the best possible return on their funds. It’s reported that pay-per-click (PPC) advertising is now used by 45% of small businesses, and among businesses which have more than 50 employees, that figure rises to 74%.
These remarkably high figures make sense when you consider that we’re shifting into a digital age in which increasing amounts of business are conducted entirely online, and that PPC advertising is extremely cost effective. If you’re not already familiar with how to go about implementing PPC advertising, you might initially be reluctant to explore it’s potential, but a lack of familiarity shouldn’t put you off.
If you don’t have time to learn the ins and outs of PPC for yourself, then it’s easy to utilize the services of a PPC management company, who will be able to take care of everything for you.
To get a sense of what PPC can do, here are some of the major benefits of initiating PPC advertising campaigns.
Maximum tracking
One of the best things about PPC advertising is how easily you can track and measure your campaigns. You’ll have access to a constant supply of real-time data, broken down into metrics such as impressions, clicks and conversions.
With all these stats at your fingertips it’s straightforward to quickly assess what’s working and what isn’t going so well, in ways that would never be possible with traditional advertising.
Adapt and improve
As outlined, your PPC advertising campaign provides a wealth of data, presented in fine detail so you can pick out exactly what you need to know. The advantage of this is that you can immediately adapt and improve your strategies, and will be able to react to changing sentiment and new developments, as they occur.
A key characteristic of the internet age is speed, and PPC advertising makes it easy for you to adapt instantly to your circumstances, and improve results on the hoof. By optimizing agility and flexibility, you can take the advantage over your competitors and ensure that you don’t get left behind.
Connect with Your Ideal Audience
Think of a traditional billboard at the side of a road. Does it have impact? Quite possibly, if it’s a good ad. And does it get eyes on its message? Sure, if its in a busy location. So then, how many of the people who look at it are part of the target audience? That’s more difficult to say.
It’s true that with traditional advertising methods, you can think about things like location and time and target your ads as best as possible, but this doesn’t come close to the capacity we now have–through PPC advertising–to precisely target our ideal audiences.
It’s this efficiency in making sure that ads are not wasted on people unlikely to be interested that helps to make PPC advertising so cost-efficient. Your budget will be spent on reaching out to the people you need to contact, and who will benefit from being made aware of your company.
Integrate with other channels
PPC can be easily combined with other marketing channels, giving you a comprehensive, wide-reaching approach. In particular, PPC and SEO compliment each other well, as they are connecting with the same audience, that is, people searching for a product or service on Google. Basically, PPC performance data can inform SEO strategy, and SEO data can be utilized to refine PPC campaigns.
You may also want to make use of remarketing tactics, also known as retargeting, whereby ads are served to users who have shown interest in your website, but have not yet taken action.
By tying together a variety of complimentary approaches, you ensure that you have the maximum possible reach, but that resources are not wasted on gaining impressions from the wrong users.
Reach specific goals
PPC advertising can be refined and adapted to help you reach the specific goals that are your current priority. Whether you’re looking for exposure, signups, sales, or anything else, the power that PPC has–through tracking, targeting, and data collection–can assist you in reaching your targets. Traditional marketing methods don’t have this level of flexibility, and that really gets to the heart of why to use PPC, as it provides solutions to such a wide range of challenges.
Speed and ease
Whether you are personally in charge of managing PPC advertising, or you have chosen to harness the expertise of specialists, you’ll find that a PPC campaign can be implemented incredibly quickly. The critical part comes in initially defining what your goals are and who you intend to reach, and you’ll soon be set to go.
There is still a place for traditional advertising, and there probably always will be, but in this digital era, PPC advertising removes cost barriers while optimizing efficiency and returns, meaning that even the smallest new startup can play smart and get a competitive advantage.