PPC advertising effectively reaches more people and increases leads and website traffic for small businesses. As digital business models have become more common after the Covid-19 pandemic, PPC marketing has more importance than ever. Local PPC campaigns can be competitive, but the right PPC ad strategy can help you get more website leads and increase sales. This guide will explain everything you need to know about PPC campaigns for small businesses.
What is PPC?
PPC, aka Pay-Per-Click, is a digital marketing method where advertisers pay a fee each time a potential client clicks on their ad.
Advantages & disadvantages of PPC advertising for small businesses
Advantages:
Consider the benefits of incorporating PPC marketing into your small business.
You can increase conversions:
Google allows you to target your ideal customers on various options such as location, age, gender, type of device, and keywords. These targeted options help you run campaigns for targeted audiences that are likely to be interested in your services or products. It can increase your conversion rate and produces the highest ROI.
Fast and tangible results:
As a small business, you might not have much time to wait to see the effect of organic website traffic kick in. Successful PPC campaigns offer fast and tangible results, like an immediate increase in website traffic and a boost in sales.
You can measure ads’ effectiveness:
By using Google Analytics or other programs you can measure how well your ad campaign is doing. Tracking will help you know the ROI without spending extra bucks. Moreover, choosing your target audience based on demographics helps to get customized results. Best of all, you can still make changes in your pay-per-click campaigns to improve it as it goes.
Complete Budget Control
When using Google AdWords it will allow you to set a daily or monthly budget according to your business needs, giving you complete control over how much you want to spend and how long you want to run your campaign. Once you reach your maximum budget limit, Google will pause your PPC campaign.
Disadvantages:
Here are some disadvantages of PPC marketing:
Finding a winning formula takes time:
Finding the winning formula for your PPC campaign is half the battle. Setting up an effective PPC campaign is a skill that takes time to learn. Even a highly skilled and experienced PPC advertiser may need time to find an effective strategy for your business or brand.
Very competitive:
As small businesses have a limited budget, that means they can’t target some keywords they’d like. Bidding wars for the most popular and short-tail keywords can drive the cost up beyond the reach of small businesses.
Costs can quickly add up:
Monitoring and optimizing your PPC campaigns is essential for a return on investment. If you don’t do the same, your money could be wasted. You need to allocate some budget for your PPC marketing, unlike SEO strategies, where your investment is skills and time.
Website visits don’t always lead to conversion:
You should have an optimized landing page that convinces the users to convert once they click through. If your landing page is not optimized, you will not make the most of your daily or monthly ad budget.
How much should small business spend on PPC camping?
According to Google, you should spend $10 to $50 on average daily as a beginner. If you are a small business, your Google AdWords budget should be anywhere from $1000 to $10,000 monthly. However, Google ads budget depends on various factors, including what industry you are in, how you manage your Google AdWords account, ad network, your customer’s lifecycle, and campaign targeting.
The best PPC strategies for small businesses to save money on ad spend and gain customers
Around 50% of PPC visitors are likely to purchase compared to organic website visitors. Depending on your industry or the type of ads you want to run, the average CTR (click-through rate) can range from 2.09 percent to 6.05 percent. According to a recent study conducted by Google, it is estimated that businesses can earn an average of $8 for every $1 spent on pay-per-click ads. However, having the right PPC strategies to gain new customers while saving money is essential. There are many strategies that small businesses should use to get the most out of their monthly budget for PPC campaigns.
Choose smart keywords and also use negative keywords:
Choosing the most relevant and intelligent keywords for your local PPC campaigns is a great way to maximize your PPC ad budget. Choose precise long-tail keywords when you have limited money to spend on PPC marketing. Selecting the short-tail keywords with high search volume is usually the most expensive to bid on. With the proper keyword selection, don’t forget to develop a list of negative keywords for PPC marketing to help focus your marketing efforts as a small business. It is crucial if you use keywords that can mean different things allowing you to target the audience you are wanting from your PPC ads.
Boost Your Quality Score:
Ad networks like Google Ads assign a quality score to businesses that rate the relevance and quality of selected keywords and ads. The quality score of your ad alongside your maximum bid determines how your PPC ad ranks in the bid auction. The expected CTR (click-thru rate), ad relevance, keyword relevancy, and landing page experience are some factors in quality score calculations. So it is crucial to boost the ranking of your quality score by focusing on relevancy and quality.
Craft converting ad copy:
The ad copy you develop for your PPC camping should be closely related to your targeted keywords. Make sure to use the language that captures the attention of your audience. Include a compelling and clear CTA (call to action), address the customers’ pain points, and make a time-limited offer to captivate your audience. Don’t forget to monitor how your ads perform with different CTAs.
Set a daily budget:
If you are new to PPC marketing as a small business, it is best to start small. You can set a daily budget with Google Ads, which means your PPC ads will be paused for 24 hours once you reach your daily budget. It will allow you to experiment with different things and monitor what performs well without exceeding the budget.
Conclusion:
PPC advertising gives small businesses the boost they need to get ahead of their competitors in the SERPs and even an edge on their competition. However, using the best practices for an effective PPC strategy is vital to improving website traffic and conversions.
A mini guide to PPC Campaigns for Small Businesses | Blog Article | SEO After Coffee | All Rights Reserved | Greenville SC | July 3, 2023