By Alex Jones
Pay per click advertising (PPC) has numerous benefits and is certainly something every business should consider now that we live in a digital age.
It can give you greater visibility in search engines and also be incredibly effective at helping your business grow its sales.
However, there is no point diving into PPC unless your business is ready for it. Here are some of the things you need to consider to help you work out if it is a good time for your business to start using PPC advertising.
Quality of your website
When a potential customer clicks on your PPC advert, they’ll be taken to your website, so you need to make a good impression when they land there.
They then need to be able to easily find what they are looking for. You therefore need to invest in making your PPC landing pages are precisely targeted to the audience you are trying to attract. Sending customers to your home page is too generic for a PPC campaign.
So, if your website is out dated and offers a poor user experience, it’s a good idea to fix this before you start using PPC advertising. It’s no good getting people to click your advert, if they are then put off by a poor website. Your adverts need to lead seamlessly from the landing page to the action you want your customer to complete, whether that’s making a purchase, calling your business, or something else.
Wider marketing strategy
PPC advertising is best used as part of a wider digital marketing strategy. It should be complemented by other digital marketing tactics like search engine optimisation.
Research shows that using paid ads alongside organic search is more effective than only using one of the tactics. That’s because seeing your company in organic search results, as well as in an advert, helps boost customers’ trust in you. So, when deciding whether to start using PPC advertising, consider how else you are promoting your business.
Having a clear strategy in place before using PPC is also a good idea because it will help you make sure you are focussing on the right business goals. A well-researched marketing strategy will also give you crucial details to help inform your PPC advertising, like who your target audience is and who your direct competitors are.
PPC expertise
PPC can be daunting for a complete novice because it offers so many options when you are setting up your ads. Making the wrong choices can easily result in money being wasted. That’s why you need someone with a good understanding of PPC to set up your campaigns.
Whoever looks after your PPC ads also needs to be able to dedicate time to monitoring their performance and optimising them. You can’t simply get your ads up and running and then leave them.
You have a few ways you can get the expertise you need, including hiring your own in-house staff, or using an agency. If you plan on using your existing in-house staff but are concerned about how much time and training it will take, you might find online advertising software like Adzooma helpful.
Adzooma can make sure that your adverts are following the current best practices and automatically review the performance of your account. It will also suggest steps you can take to get more clicks and reduce any wasted spend.
If you are concerned about spending a particular amount, it can give you an estimate of the performance you can expect, so you can set your budget with greater confidence. It will also help you create adverts that look good and drive the actions you want.
Once your campaign is under way, Adzooma’s dashboards make it easy to keep an eye on your performance.
Budget
Deciding how much to spend on PPC can be tricky. A good place to start is to look at the average cost per click (CPC) in your industry and how much each of your products costs.
This information will help you work out if you’ll make a good enough return on investment to make PPC worth it. You may find another marketing channel will be more cost effective for you at the moment.
When budgeting for PPC, don’t just consider the direct costs. Also think about other expenses like paying the experts you’ll need. You’ll also need to set aside money to maintain your website and create suitable landing pages for your PPC campaigns.
Making sure you have covered a few basics before you start using PPC advertising will help you avoid wasting time and money.
Alex Jones is the Head of Earned Media with specialist expertise in Digital PR for Hallaminternet.
