Pay-Per-Click Advertising can be difficult to navigate, but this article will give you a beginner’s guide to PPC. Whether you are just getting started in the industry or simply wanting to learn more; we will walk you through the basics. You can start with our PPC Advertising video below, and then read the article for more information.

Pay-Per-Click Advertising

 

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PPC Advertising Explained

In this article, we will focus on answering some of the most popular questions about PPC. If you are just getting started with PPC Advertising, you have come to the right place. Our goal is to teach you everything you need to know so you can get the most out of your advertising budget. You can also check out our PPC Tutorials if you want to know how to use Google Ads, Bing Ads, and more.

What Is Pay-Per-Click Advertising?

Pay-Per-Click Advertising (PPC) is a form of advertising where the advertiser pays for each click to their website or app. The most popular PPC advertising networks include Google Ads, Bing Ads, and Facebook Ads. Technically, Facebook Ads is a social advertising network; but the concept is the same; so, we typically include this network.

Advertisers Pay For Clicks

The most important takeaway is that advertisers only pay when their advertisement is clicked; they don’t pay for impressions. To gain these clicks, advertisers are setting bids on keywords or audiences. For example, we recently ran a Google Ads campaign for our Farmhouse Goals website, which you will see in the corresponding image. This is an example of a Search PPC campaign in Google Ads. As you can see, we have impressions and interactions (clicks) being tracked. You see impressions and interactions (clicks). With over 3,000 impressions and 16 clicks, the average cost per click is .61 cents; with a total cost of $9.77. We only paid for those 16 clicks; we paid nothing for the impressions.

How Does Pay-Per-Click Advertising Work?

Advertisers generally set a bid for clicks to their website or app based on the keywords and/or audiences they are targeting. Pay-Per-Click Advertisers enter an auction against other advertisers for each click. Bids can vary based on the industry you are in and the level of traffic your keywords receive. So, for something like home décor, you may be bidding $1-2 per click; but real estate agents might be bidding between $5-7; depending on the market they are in.

Lawyers and insurance companies can pay in the $20-30 range per click. In addition, some of the highest click rates can reach up to $50 per click or more. A contributing factor to the price of each click is how much revenue each click will drive to a business. For lawyers and real estate agents; they are willing to pay more per click because one client can bring in thousands of dollars.

How Does The Ad Auction Work?

When you are running ads and submitting bids; every time someone types your keyword into Google, you are going to be entering an auction to get your ad more exposure. If other advertisers in our industry with matching keywords are willing to pay more than you; it can be hard for you to win during auctions.

For example, if you type in a Google search for “accounting software”, you will see the top four search results are all advertisements. Each of these companies entered this keyword auction; including the shopping ads on the side of the screen.

The advertisements that appear are based on a combination of the bid amount and an Ads Quality Score. The Quality Score is an estimate of the quality of your ads, keywords, and landing pages. Higher quality ads can lead to lower prices and better ad positions.

You can see your Quality Score (Quality Score is reported on a 1-10 scale and its components (expected clickthrough rate, ad relevance, and landing page experience) in your keywords’ “Status” column. The more relevant your ads and landing pages are to the user, the more likely it is that you’ll see higher Quality Scores.

Google Ads Quality Score

 

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How Can You Get Started With PPC Ads?

First, you will need a website or an app to promote. You can start by using popular PPC Advertising Networks such as Google Ads, Bing Ads, Facebook Ads, and more. We recommend creating different landing pages for the best results. Once you have completed these steps, you can complete sign-up and payment information with your chosen PPC network and create your first campaigns. We have tutorials on our Surfside PPC YouTube Channel for the top ad networks. If you would like to get started, check out more of our videos for assistance.

Once you begin your advertising campaigns, you will want to test and optimize the campaigns to determine what is and isn’t working for you.

Is Pay-Per-Click Advertising Worth It?

The key to Pay-Per-Click Advertising is testing and optimizing your campaigns. To achieve success; you also need knowledge of the PPC Ad Networks. Large companies use PPC Advertising every single day with million-dollar yearly budgets to drive more leads and sales. The same holds true for smaller businesses on a smaller scale. It works for any size business.

With the rise in PPC Advertising, it can be difficult to rank high on Google and other search engines if you are simply relying on organic traffic. For example, if you go back to the Google search for “accounting software”; if you are ranked organically at the top you are still below four advertising links. This is why more and more companies consider PPC advertising a regular component of their marketing campaigns.