Help and Support with PPC Management
Chances are, you’re already well aware what Pay Per Click (PPC), also known as Cost Per Click (CPC) is, but just in case and for those who may not be aware. It’s an online advertising method for bringing direct traffic to websites, but more importantly, traffic that is interested in what you have to offer.Pay Per Click Advertising is most commonly associated with the two most popular search engines; Google (Adwords) and Bing (Bing Ads). You cannot have failed to notice the Ads above and below the main (Organic) search results when using Google or Bing.In simple terms, the way it works is Advertisers (website owners) will bid on keyword phrases which are relevant to their target market, so when somebody types in these keywords. They will see the Advertisers Ads predominantly at the top of the page and once clicked, they will be redirected to the Advertisers designated landing page on their website.Pay Per Click can also mean and be used within the context of websites who run their own advertising and allow other websites to add a “Banner Ad” which once clicked. Will redirect the visitor to the Advertisers website. Some website owners will charge for a period of time the “Banner Ad” is displayed, other based on the number of impressions (times the Ad was seen by somebody) and others on a Pay Per Click basis with the Advertiser charged for each click of the “Banner Ad”.
PPC Advertising – Google Adwords and Bing Ads
We help businesses with getting their Ads shown on Google Adwords and Bing Ads which are the most popular ways of getting traffic to websites. In fact, a study showed that 64.6% of people click on Google Ads when they’re looking to buy an item online (this includes products and services). So you would imagine that this is a very popular method for driving traffic to websites?Well according to another source, 63% of businesses say generating traffic and leads is their biggest challenge. Now, we love SEO here at The SME Lab, it’s something we’ve been doing for well over 10 years. But the problem remains, it’s just not as easy or guaranteed that SEO will work in the short to medium term like it once did. It still works, it just takes longer to achieve the same success.Whereas, advertising on Google and Bing enables you to increase traffic to your website within hours, rather than months which is the important difference for those who are struggling to generate traffic or have time sensitive offers and promotions.
Is PPC Right for Your Business
Of course there is no, “one size fits all” and you will be the best judge of whether you believe PPC can help your business increase sales or improve lead generation. For instance, if your business sells online, whether that be products, services or information (online courses for example), PPC will help to get people to your website that are interested in what you have to offer.However, if you do not have anything to sell online, such as filling rooms within a retirement home, landscape gardening services or offering low cost, or free trials to gyms or fitness classes, to name but a few of businesses who may feel PPC wouldn’t work for their businesses. PPC can still help you to generate “warm leads” of people who have shown an interest in your business.One reason for many businesses avoiding using PPC, has been due to the negative discussion around it. Of course it is very easy to get PPC wrong which is likely why research shows that around 33% of inbound marketers listed paid advertising as one of their top wastes of time and resources. So if one third of marketing professionals do not understand believe in PPC sufficiently enough to recommend it. It’s clear why so many businesses fail to get it right when they have tried it.Ultimately, getting it wrong can become very costly with wasted clicks becoming a very expensive lesson at best, and causing real hardship for others who may have found their entire years marketing budget has been wasted in a matter of days or weeks, making it difficult to market their business in future.
Should you Hire a PPC Professional or Do It Yourself
This is very much a decision for you to make, and depends on your objectives, your budget and indeed your own level of knowledge and understanding of the particular PPC platforms you wish to use to advertise your business. If you do plan to work on your own accounts, both Google and Bing also have online learning resources which can be found
here (Google) and
here (bing).One important consideration for paying an experienced professional to work on your account, is their level of experience and how much you value your own time. If you know how much your own time is worth, how much your own billable hours are worth and then consider how long it will take you to get up to speed with setting up and managing your own PPC account proficiently.This will go some way to allowing you to better understand and judge whether paying a PPC professional to manage your account is better value for you and your business. Or if learning and getting an better understanding how to manage your own accounts is going to be better value for you and your business.
Hiring a PPC Agency or Professional to Setup and Manage your Accounts
Here at The SME Lab, we have a vast amount of experience of both setting up and managing PPC accounts for businesses of all sizes in a whole range of industries. We will work with you to understand your business objectives, your main focus and which products or services you’re most focused on selling. Of course if your website is focused on lead generation, we’ll work with you to better understand your target market to better focus our efforts.We’ll work with you every step of the way, right from the initial keyword research, to planning and building (or updating) PPC landing pages, through to setting up and optimising your PPC account to achieve the desired outcome. Whether it be, sales or leads, we’ll continually work month after month on your account to achieve the maximum ROI from your budget.
Ready to get started – Get in touch with The SME Lab today
If you’d like to learn more and see how we can help your business move forwards with PPC Advertising. Whether you have an existing PPC account either setup by yourself, or by an Agency or Freelancer, or if you’re new to PPC and ready to explore how it can help drive your business forwards.Simply get in touch with us today with any questions you may have and any our initial questions to allow us to better understand how we can help you moving forwards.
