PPC, or pay-per-click marketing, is a form of web advertising that allows companies to place advertisements in search results or elsewhere on the web, paying only when somebody clicks on an ad, rather than paying for impressions.

There are two main types of PPC:

Search engine advertising: Advertisers bid on keywords in order to have their ads appear in the search engine results when somebody performs a search that is relevant to their business. It’s a brilliant system because the search query provides a strong indication of what the searcher is looking for, so advertisers can focus their marketing dollars on the audience that is mostly likely to buy from them, rather than broadcasting a message to a very general, unspecified audience (as in traditional TV, radio, or magazine advertising).

Advertising on partner networks: You can also place ads (both text ads and display ads, or banner ads) on a large network of partner sites. These tend to be less targeted than ads tied to particular keywords, but they are also cheaper (i.e., have a lower cost per click). (Remarketing campaigns, however, are highly targeted, because they show display ads to a specific audience that has already visited your website.)

PPC marketing is a “pay to play” way to get exposure in search engine results. Organic search engine optimization (SEO), on the other hand, consists of efforts to “earn” a free spot on the SERP. 

Both SEO and PPC have advantages and disadvantages, and most businesses will find that a mix of both marketing channels (along with other methods of lead generation) works best.

There are many good reasons to use PPC. Here are our top 10 reasons:

1. It’s scalable
2. It’s measureable
3. It’s flexible
4. It’s faster than SEO
5. It’s (usually) easier than SEO
6. It’s taking over the SERPs
7. It’s engaging
8. It converts
9. It’s complementary to other marketing channels
10. Your competitors are doing it

Like any marketing channel, PPC has a learning curve, but once you get the hang of it, it can be a highly cost-effective and dependable source of leads.

Yes! Ads that appear in search results earn more than 45% of page clicks.

Even better, people who click on ads are twice as likely to buy a product or service than an organic visitor, or someone who visits your site without clicking on an ad. With PPC ads, you can reach people looking to buy, which can make an immediate impact on your sales numbers.

Not to mention, PPC ads also deliver an average return on investment (ROI) of £2 for every £1 invested. If you’re advertising with Google Ads, that amount increases to £8. People not only click on online ads but also act on them, like by making a purchase.

Almost every type of business should be using some form of internet advertising, because that’s where the people are! Some of the business types that can benefit especially from PPC include:

• Business with high customer lifetime values like dentists and doctors, online degree programs, and phone providers.
• Businesses with high margins like solicitors, trades people, and sellers of big-ticket items like appliances and cars.
• Businesses that sell hard-to-find products, which people often order rather than looking for in brick-and-mortar stores.
• Businesses with a wide, diverse array of products like Amazon, eBay, Target, and department stores. 
• Seasonal businesses like florists and gift baskets.

But, again, the internet is for everybody, and whatever your business, there’s probably a form of internet advertising that you should be taking advantage of.

Google Ads is basically an auction system, where advertisers bid on keywords in order to place their ad in the search results when people search on terms related to those keywords. However, it’s an auction where the highest bidder doesn’t always win – Google awards higher ad placements to advertisers with high-quality, relevant, well-organized ads and campaigns, not just those that spend the most money.

Google Ads is bigger for the simple reason that Google has a greater share of the search engine market than both Bing and Yahoo. Currently Google has 83.85% of the global market share. In the US, it’s close to 70%. For this reason, many PPC advertisers focus all their efforts on Google Ads. Its also worth noting the average CPC on Google is also higher then on Bing.

As much as you want it to, essentially. You can set your own Ads budget, depending on your overall marketing budget. You can spend as little as a few hundred pounds a month; the minimum to get started with Google Ads is a rather absurdly low £50.

There are a few things to keep in mind when determining how much to spend on Google Ads:

• There may be a tipping point that you have to cross in order to turn a profit. Sometimes you have to spend more to get more.
• If you want to hire someone to manage your PPC like Kangaroo, you’ll have to spend enough to justify that cost. It doesn’t make sense to hire a PPC service at £10K a year if you’re only spending a hundred pounds a month on PPC, obviously.
• There’s no reason to arbitrarily cap spend on profitable campaigns. If you create some test campaigns and find that you’re getting ROI from PPC, you might as well spend more to make more.

Some companies spend literally millions of pounds per month on Google Ads, but there’s plenty of room in the middle for smaller businesses to play too.

You can advertise across the Internet with PPC ads. The most popular locations include:

• Search results
• Third-party websites
• Social media

When advertising online, most businesses will focus on specific platforms, like:

• Google
• Bing
• Facebook
• Twitter
• LinkedIn
• Instagram
• YouTube

If you’re creating a PPC campaign, you want to focus your efforts on the most valuable channels for your business.

For example, if your audience uses Facebook more than Twitter, you probably want to dedicate more of your advertising budget to Facebook. Researching your audience, as well as polling current customers, can help focus your PPC campaign on the platforms with the most potential. Our PPC experts will help you choose the platform thats right for you.