Is pay-per-click (PPC) worth it for SMEs?

When it comes to advertising your business online, you’ve probably looked at different options. From search engine optimization (SEO) to social media marketing, many campaigns make sense. However, these are not the only digital marketing tactics. More and more small and medium-sized businesses are investing in pay-per-click (PPC) advertising. But PPC costs money and has numerous pitfalls. You can find out in this article whether pay-per-click advertising can be worthwhile for you.

What is PPC Advertising?

Pay-per-click is part of the large area of ​​online marketing. You pay a certain amount to have ads displayed in Google search results and on other websites.

In search results, PPC ads appear above organic search results, indicated by a small box labeled “Ad” or “Ad.” As the name suggests, you only have to pay for these ads when users click on them.

To get started with PPC, you need a Google Ads account. Then select the appropriate keywords and bid on these terms. When users search for these keywords, Google displays ads from the highest bidders at the top of the search results. If a user clicks on your PPC ad, they will be redirected to your special landing page. You will be charged for each ad click.

What are the advantages and disadvantages of PPC advertising?

Like any form of advertising, PPC marketing has numerous advantages and disadvantages. If you also want to use pay-per-click advertising for your company, you should consider a few factors beforehand.

These are the advantages of PPC

Pay-per-click offers numerous advantages. There’s a reason so many companies use PPC. The main advantages are:

• Fast Results: Unlike SEO, which takes time to get results, PPC ads can generate revenue from the first second. One day is enough to give you results that you can analyze and benefit from.
• Top Rankings: Even the best SEO content will not be displayed with “position zero”. The results at the top of Google search results are reserved for advertisements. PPC allows you to be at the top of the results page – above the organic content.
• Flexibility: Once an ad has been published, you can change it immediately. You can replace landing pages as needed and drop keywords that aren’t working for you.
• Targeting: PPC ads only appear for keywords you bid on. You can additionally use targeting to narrow your focus even further. For example, you can limit ads to searches performed in a specific geographic area.

The Disadvantages of PPC

Unfortunately, no marketing method is perfect and PPC is no exception. Here are some disadvantages of PPC:

• Expenses: With PPC, you only pay for ads that users click on. However, depending on your industry, you will need to budget a lot per click. In highly competitive industries, sometimes you have no choice but to bid high to win the top spot.
• Reputation: Many users differentiate between paid and organic search results. These users simply scroll past PPC ads to organic results because they see them as more credible.
• Conditions: If you create content using SEO and it ranks well, that’s it. You have no further expenses. With PPC, however, your ads are only visible as long as you pay for them. If you stop bidding, you also stop the ads.

Is PPC worth it?

Let’s say your company sells high-quality clothing. You start your PPC campaign by creating a landing page. You then go to Google Ads and use that landing page to target around 50 different clothing-related keywords from “suit” to “top hat.” Once these steps are completed, sit back for a few weeks and wait for the income to flow.

However, to your shock, no income comes. In fact, your campaign is using up your entire PPC budget, but you’re barely generating any new sales. At this point, your first thought is probably, “That wasn’t worth it!”

How could this happen? How did you achieve such poor results? The problem is: you haven’t optimized your PPC campaign properly. If you had done a few things differently, things would have gone better. PPC can actually be worthwhile for small and medium-sized businesses – as long as you know how to make it work for you.

How to optimize your PPC campaigns

Here are some steps to ensure maximum return on investment:

1. Target relevant keywords: Only target keywords that are actually relevant to your business and target relevant landing pages. This gets interested buyers to click on them. Don’t use broad one-word keywords that have a lot of competition.
2. Limit ad group size: Don’t target a hundred different keywords with one ad. You end up with a display that is too wide. Use no more than 15 to 20 keywords per group and make sure they are all very similar so that the ad is as specific as possible.
3. Use negative keywords: In the scenario above, targeting a keyword like “dress” likely caused your ad to show up for searches for summer dresses that aren’t relevant to you. Select “summer dress” as the negative keyword to avoid the problem.
4. Track Results: Whether you use Google Ads or not, you need a platform to track the results of your PPC campaign. The more data you collect, the more likely you will know how to optimize your PPC campaigns for better results.

Conclusion: This is why pay-per-click advertising is worth it

Without financial investment, your company will remain invisible on the vastness of the Internet. PPC advertising is your investment in a successful business and attracting new customers. With Google Ads you apply one of the most important strategies and can generate additional income through professional analysis, conception and execution. Hopefully you found the points above helpful in deciding when to use pay per click. However, it goes without saying that these points are not a complete PPC checklist. If you’re not sure how to start optimizing your PPC campaigns, don’t worry – we can help!