Every digital marketer has thrown the word (or rather an abbreviation), PPC, in your direction. What does PPC or pay-per-click even mean? Well, a basic rundown from a business perspective is that you need more traffic to your website. Unfortunately, having a website alone won’t get you the needed traffic.
Yes, there will be some traffic from organic searches. The kind you don’t pay for if your basic SEO is in place. But then there’s paid traffic. The kind you actually do pay for to rank and reach the desired traffic you need for your business goals. It usually starts with Google Ads; however, it also applies to social media.
How does Google work?
If your website is indexed on Google and someone searches for keywords, Google aims to answer the specific question by showing the most relevant content, and if the keywords match your page/s, Google will show it. Google’s business model is to make information accessible to everyone and satisfy their search needs.
But it’s important to acknowledge that Google is also a business. The only way they make money is from people clicking on ads. The same standard of relevance exists for organic and paid – to answer users’ questions. Google Ads are designed to bid on certain keywords relevant to your business and take people to a specific URL.
A tip from Ribbit if you ever consider Google Ads or PPC for that matter, don’t include your competitors as keywords hoping to direct their customers to your website instead. You’ll end up paying more because if a user searches for ABC cars, Google wants to show ABC cars, not XYZ cars. This interferes with Google’s intent.
Remember, we don’t owe Google anything – no monthly fee. They are successful because they show exactly what people are looking for, and Ads are ranked according to the relevance of the search. If you bid for a click with relevant keywords that take searchers to a keyword-relevant URL, you can actually pay less and outrank your competitors.
The main fact remains, if your ad is a bad run, you won’t rank because it breaks Google’s purpose…
How to apply PPC for my start-up, small or medium business?
If you have a small flower shop, for example, and want to use PPC to generate more traffic, we suggest running a local ad campaign targeting people geographically. Especially for small businesses, people aren’t going to travel kilometres for something they can literally find around the corner. So, it doesn’t make sense to target people in Cape Town when you’re based in Johannesburg.
There are options for setting your ad with geographic inclusions and exclusions. Meaning you only target people in your business’ target location, saving you money. You can see from your Google Analytics where people interested in your business are based by looking at the geographic report by user location. You don’t want to pay for a click when it’s a user outside your target location.
Another thing to keep in mind is that Google’s data is in real-time. With every search, Google can see the IP address of the device where the search is actioned from, the specific device itself, etc. Using this can help you to rank strategically. Google Search Console offers reliable data with impressions on specific keywords, clicks, etc. You can use this to help you improve your rank from page 7 to page 1.
Fun fact before we move on – did you know that YouTube is the second largest search engine in the world? More than 500 hours of video are uploaded every minute, and more than one billion hours are watched daily. Think about it, everyone searches for videos on how-to… So, this is a crucial platform to consider if you have a business with video-valuable content and capability.
What is re-marketing?
Google is on another level regarding tracking people’s online activity. There is a specific code that updates each time a search occurs. When you land on a website, Google Analytics, as the de facto standard, writes a ‘cookie’ in the browser, almost like a serial number.
For example, when you want to see the weather, it picks up you’ve been on Weather24. It then retargets ads to you. When you visit an e-commerce site such as Takealot, and you’ve added items to your cart but didn’t check out, there are ways, using banner ads, to show you what’s still left in your cart or it can offer you discounts after a day or two.
It’s very practical to remind people of what they were busy with because we know how life goes – you’re about to join a meeting, the phone rang, or perhaps you were just doing research. Marketers don’t know the reason, so these ads are very helpful. Even if it’s just the logo that keeps popping up, keeping your business top of mind helps to build brand awareness.
How long until I see PPC results?
It depends on how quickly the ad is set up and starts after it’s been manually reviewed by Google. They need to make sure it doesn’t look like spam and that all ads have a consistent format. It can go live within an hour with general Search Ads, but with Display Ads, it could take up to 24 hours to a week.
As part of Display Ads, Banner Ads have text and visual components displayed on 3rd party websites. If Google doesn’t review these ads correctly, they can get in a lot of trouble as, according to their policy, they exclude anything outside of the PG13 range. One simply can’t advertise adult products or ads for products that alter the mind or body: pharmaceuticals, cannabis, alcohol, tobacco, etc.
Other than the limitations mentioned above, your PPC ads can start generating traffic from day one.
How do I see ROI on my PPC results?
You’ll have to work back on the customer lifetime value (the total amount a customer will spend if you retain them). If you’re paying more on advertising, you’re making a loss.
Customer Lifetime Value = Customer Revenue – the Cost of Acquiring and Serving the Customer
You must find the most effective strategy and adjust your PPC ads accordingly. The best place to start is to determine where your product or service fits into their lives. For example, if you sell pizza locally, set a geographic radius and set up keywords people will search, such as, ‘pizza near me’. You want them to click on your ad, visit your website and convert by placing an order. It can be seen as an effective ROI only when the conversion happens.
Use generic keywords everyone understands. Most entrepreneurs and business owners don’t realise it, but trying to be innovative with weird branding and lingo becomes challenging to find searchable keywords, especially if the product/service is brand new and complex, and people have never heard of it. Speak the language your customers speak. Then bid on those phrases to solve their problem.
Can I run PPC ads myself?
Yes, getting the results is possible when you learn the basics. The web is full of courses, and they’re probably all great, but the best place to start is with Google Skillshop. They’ll help you understand general, video and display ads with helpful tools.
Look into AdWords Express for your small business. You should have a Google My Business Listing account, though. There are a few quick questions Google asks to help them understand your business, and they suggest ads for you to choose from to start running.
The set-up is fast, and it’s designed for small businesses. You might ask if it’s okay to use compared to Google Ads. Definitely! It’s acceptable for DIY ads, but if you want to be more in control with granular control, then Google Ads is better.
No matter your choice, just remember to measure conversions. Otherwise, you’ll be flying blind.
Should I hire an agency to run PPC ads?
There’s nothing wrong with trusting a digital agency such as Ribbit Marketing with your Google Ads. You’ll have peace of mind they know what they’re doing and provide you with the results. However, there are red flags to look out for.
Let’s say you’re approaching an agency specialising in the automotive industry, and they’re servicing your competitors too. How do you know they don’t apply the same ads across all clients?
Ensure you get what you pay for. Obviously, some ads take longer to set up than others, depending on the complexity of the campaigns. If there are 11 services, there will be 11 ad groups, which takes time. Usually, agencies charge for the set-up, tracking code implementation, ad planning, split testing, performance checking, and looking for new opportunities for new keywords. All of the above is necessary because credit cards can stop if an account isn’t monitored, and so will the ads.
How agencies are structured also plays a factor. You might talk to the salesperson or manager, who usually has a slick way of communicating, making you feel at ease. But they’re not the ones working on your campaign. If they don’t oversee it properly, it won’t work.
Steer away from dodgy or shady agencies that don’t show interest in your customers, their personas or their lifetime value. They should act as your spokesperson; if they don’t get you customers or do not measure performance, it’s useless.
Our final thought to you – website visits are great, but conversions are what we’re after. The success of any ad spend is a lead, a call, a download or any other way of measuring success…
Jump for success!
The Ribbit team.