How Does PPC Work? A Guide To Pay Per Click Advertising In 2018

Having your site rank on Google organically can take a lot of work and involves an in-depth knowledge of how websites are put together. If you are not an expert, and are looking to have your site ranked on Google to bring new traffic to your site, then Google Adwords or a Pay Per Click advertising (PPC) campaign may be for you.

How does Pay Per Click Advertising (PPC) work?

In a Pay Per Click campaign, you pay Google however much you with to have them list ads for your site at the top of the organic search listing. When someone clicks on your ad, you pay the current Cost-Per-Click from your budget. Once your entire budget has been depleted, Google ceases to run your ads until you replenish your fund.

While Pay Per Click is easier to implement, running into the process could cause major problems if you don’t know the basics. These tips below should be helpful in order for you to launch an effective PPC campaign that will bring new visitors to your website.

Create Goals for your PPC Campaign

• Who is targeted by this Campaign? Always remind yourself of who you are aiming to reach through a paid campaign. When choosing keywords and creating ad text, select terms your audience would search for and create ad text that speaks to their needs. Always be sure the content on your landing page logically aligns with these keywords or advert text to ensure a quality user experience and maximize your Return On Investment (ROI.)

• What outcome are you looking for? Identify what you would like your user to do once they click on your paid search ad. Include this goal as a call to action in your advert text. Drive visitors to a landing page that easily leads them toward this goal.

• How will you know the Pay Per Click Campaign is a success? Ensure you have set up a way to measure success before launching your campaign. Ensure tracking URLs are set up to analyse Paid Search traffic. On-going analysis of your campaign metrics will reveal keywords you may want to consider dropping and opportunities to grow.

Establish an Easy to Use Campaign Structure

Relevant – Create tightly themed ad groups with small groups of keywords. Go through each keyword and ensure your ad text is relevant to each keyword contained within each ad group.

Simple – You will be managing your campaign on a daily basis. Ensuring your campaign structure is intuitive and manageable will make monitoring your campaign more effective and will allow you to better identify efficiencies and inefficiencies.

Check your PPC Settings in Google Adwords

By default, Google Adwords opts all of the campaign into the full Google Network. This network of sites includes Google.com, partner sites such as AOL.com, Ask.com, and Display Network sites.

Opting out of the Google Display Network is the best practice if you are just getting started. The Display Network will incur thousands of impressions by displaying your ads across thousands of sites. If you are working with a constrained budget, the Google Display network can deplete your budget quickly and compromise your visibility on Google. However the Display Network can be effective with carefully selected keywords and ad text designed specifically for this type of ad placement. It is always best to revisit this tactic once you have garnered initial learning from Google Search campaigning.

Use local searches to your advantage. By default, Google Adwords will set your campaign live nationally. If you are a local merchant, if you ship to a specific area, or provide service to a specific geographic location, it is best to customize your Location Targeting in Google Adwords. Google Adwords provides options specific to language targeting, ad scheduling, and devices. The best practice would be to always click into the Settings of each campaign to verify your campaign is set up properly.