What is PPC advertising & how it works for small and b2b businesses?

In today’s “google it” world, digital advertising is at its peak. People are using their smartphones for every search and usually click on the top result (often a paid advertisement). With all the information and data present on the internet, every customer wants to check the digital presence of the product/service they want. So that they can get the best value-added product/service.

What does that mean for your traditional methods of advertising? To be honest, lots of the traditional methods of your marketing and advertising aren’t as effective as they used to be. Your marketing team needs to be ready with the latest advertising methods in the market. So irrespective of whether you are a startup looking forward to an online presence or an established business to advertise your products and services, you need to plan to advertise through digital marketing methods. And for that purpose, PPC can just be the right choice for you.

We know that when you are used to traditional media advertising, taking a step into the digital world is exciting as well as a lot challenging. So in this artic, we try to answer all basic questions about PPC advertising and whether it is right for your small or b2b business.

What is PPC in Digital Marketing? 

Pay-per-click (PPC) is a digital advertising method to drive traffic on your website/landing page in which you only pay when a visitor clicks on your ad. It is like purchasing a place on a google search. This also follows the basic process same as a print ad where you go through a system of carefully chosen keywords, well-written ad copy, images, and website links. With these basics of a print ad and digital marketing knowledge, you can create your ads to appear on the websites of targeted audiences.

So in more clear words, you pay each time your ad is clicked.

How does PPC Work?

Let’s start with the basics. When you search for any product/service in google or any other search engine, it provides two sets of results:

• Organic results: These results are not part of PPC. These results are shown depending on your overall website content, relevancy to the searched topic, and many other factors of your digital presence which is a part of Search Engine Optimization for small businesses.  All other page results are organic results except the one in the red block(in the above-shown image).
• Sponsored results: Now this is all about PPC. You can place your product on top rank by utilizing PPC in your advertising. The first result on the top is sponsored result (indicated by the red square ) or results that have been paid for. So the PPC ads come at the top and bottom of the organic search results.

The sponsored results made it to the first page by bidding the highest amount on the search terms i.e.  Kindle Fire HD. When a searcher clicks on one of the sponsored posts, the advertiser is charged for that click. Therefore this marketing method is called pay-per-click advertising. In PPC the searched phrase by a user is referred to as 'Keyword'. The price of a “click” revolves around the keyword– the popularity of the keyword, specificity of the keyword (long-tail vs. short-tail), and how many other advertisers are bidding on the same keyword as you. 

What are the benefits of PPC?

Now, as you have understood what is PPC, let’s get straight into its importance in the digital world and for SMBs and b2b businesses.

The major and clear advantages of pay-per-click ads (PPC) is clear:

1. Paying for results: You only get charged for your ad when somebody clicks on your ad. So you are paying for your potential lead. This lead is your potential customer.
2. Tracking every move: You can measure how many clicks you get, which means you can track ROI. This is really difficult in traditional advertising, you hardly get proper tracking of your yellow pages or radio ads. PPC gives you direct tracking & attribution for your product/service.
3. Generating instant results: You can get instant traffic to your website, which will help you to speed up the sales process. Other marketing methods like SEO take a bit more time to generate results so for quick wins PPC is the best way.
   
   

Why is PPC a Good Idea for Your small and b2b Company?

India has 51 Billion small and medium businesses. You will likely face more competition in the coming years. So this number clearly depicts the need for digital advertising for your business. Here are a few more facts about digital marketing and e-commerce that will spark your interest:

By doing digital marketing for your business, you will be adding value to your marketing strategy (and reaping its benefits) that your competitors might not have tapped into yet. Or, if they have, they might not know how to maximize PPC to get the biggest bang for their buck. So it is high time for your SMBs to explore all possible options in digital advertising.

Conclusion

I hope this blog helps you to get what PPC is and its advantage for advertising your small business. In my next blog, I will cover how to set up a PPC campaign to help you double your quality leads and exponentially increase your bottom line. Stay tuned.

If you already have a PPC ad campaign and need help to enhance it, our team of PPC experts will be happy to help you with that. Contact us today to speak with a strategist and learn more about how PPC can help your company grow!