Businesses and brands have the ability to reach millions of people globally digitally. There are many ways to achieve that, one of them being pay-per-click (PPC) marketing.

PPC marketing is an entirely new area to understand and comes in with many pros of its own such as ability to target specific audiences, huge reach and more. Here’s an introduction of PPC marketing and its basics.

What is PPC marketing?

PPC is an advertising model in digital marketing that requires paying money to have the website on search engines. This form allows marketers to place ads on search engines, social media, and third-party websites as well. The ad works by paying a fee whenever someone clicks on it. PPC is not a replacement for SEO, instead these two should be strategized in a way that they complement one another.

Pros and Cons of PPC Marketing

One must wonder if PPC is the right path for the digital strategy. Like all other marketing forms, PPC comes in with a list of pros and cons. PPC marketing has many benefits, for instance, it can give you immediate results, they are highly targeted and can have extremely specific audience, the success of ads is easy to track and can quickly measure the ROI, and it contains the potential for huge exposure.

However, the form also has few cons. PPC marketing is a costly long-term option, and it cannot be used for building assets, instead the success is only dependent on continued ad spend.

Steps for a PPC Marketing Campaign

Starting a PPC campaign is actually very simple. A basic PPC marketing campaigns consists of six steps that should be followed.

1. Determine the PPC Budget – To start with the campaign, it is important to set up an initial budget for the ad. Budget impacts ads’ success rates greatly.
2. Figure out the Campaign Goals – Different businesses require different goals for PPC campaigns because each goal has a different value. Right goals can help target the correct audience and measure the ROI. For instance, a pre-launch campaign’s goal will be to create awareness, whereas a seller campaign’s goal will be conversions. Goals can include brand awareness, lead generation, offer promotion, sales, and traffic.
3. Determine the Type of Campaign – Next, it is important to know the type of PPC campaign to run, such as search ads, social media ads, remarketing ads, instream ads, e-com ads, or display ads. You can even use a mix of different ad formats.
4. Keyword Research – Keywords can the main tool for targeting your audience. Determine the keywords for your campaign and narrow them down.
5. Choose the Goal for Your Keyword – You can choose different goals for the keywords and optimize them, such as, to maximize clicks, maximize conversions, target cost-per-action, etc.
6. Create Keyword-focused Copy and Landing Pages – People will only click on your ad if the copy interests them and is relevant to what they are looking for. The page you send to after the ad is clicked is also an important element, and should be highly targeted, ad relevant, and keyword-centric; all while providing a seamless experience.

All in all, PPC marketing is a very effective way to reach a highly-specific and targeted audience in a short span of time. PPC can bring good ROIs and can be a significant part of digital marketing strategy.