These days, we live in an ever-competitive world, where millions of companies out there are pouring in billions of dollars to catch their audience’s attention and get them to purchase their products and services.
And while the competition is quite fierce, if you genuinely want to hit your KPIs, the trick is to use the right means and apply the right set of strategies in a systematic manner.
Whether you run a well-established brand with a strong digital presence or an SMB looking forward to kickstarting your online venture, you need a potent strategy like PPC advertising on your side to achieve your goals.
For every dollar you invest in PPC advertising, you can expect an average return of $2.
Every brand out there has the capability to reach millions of people in a matter of minutes. And if you want to instantly put your brand and its product/services in front of your audience, we’d advise you to tap into Pay-Per-Click advertising.
Not only does PPC advertising help you instantly put your brand in front of your audience, but it’ll also help you build brand awareness if you do it right.
However, it is also important to keep in mind that it is also a very volatile strategy, which can drain your money easily.
The trick here is to channel your investment to the right pathways and gain maximum profit and higher reach.
What Will You Learn Here?
To help you dive deep into the realm of PPC advertising, we’ve prepared this guide, which will be covering:
- What is PPC Advertising?
- The Two Types of PPC Advertising You Should Know About
- Traditional PPC
- Social PPC
- Traditional PPC – Strengths & Weaknesses
- Social PPC – Strengths & Weaknesses
We’re really excited to share this information with you.
Without further ado, let’s dive into it.
What is PPC Advertising?
In simple terms, Pay-Per-Click is an online paid advertising strategy that enables advertisers and brands to advertise their products/services on search engines.
Examples include Google and social media platforms like Facebook as well as third-party publisher websites.
Every time someone clicks through your ad, the ad platform will charge a certain amount from you. This amount depends on different factors – so there’s no fixed number. Most brands and advertisers use it as a way to redirect their target audience towards their website or landing pages.
The problem with organic marketing strategies like SEO is that it takes time before you see the results. Maybe three months or six. Sometimes, it may take even a year. And if you are not applying the right set of strategies, then you may not achieve the results at all.
And that’s where PPC advertising comes to save the day. Running paid ad campaigns is a fool-proof way to attract traffic towards your website or landing pages instantly. PPC advertising helps in bringing in more than 50% more traffic than conventional (organic) advertising.
Even though there is, a certain fee involved every time your ad is clicked on, it is a comparatively very small investment if your ROI is high.
An Example
For example, if you’re charged $5 every time someone clicks through your ad and get 10 clicks a day. Then your investment per day will stand at $50. Of the 10 people that land on your website, if two people purchase your high-ticket product worth $1,000 each – then that’s $2,000 in revenue. And let’s assume that your profit is $200 on every product sold – so that’s a $400 profit each day.
But obviously, that’s a really high conversion rate. So – it’s really important to build a conversion-focused marketing funnel and have the right elements in place to achieve the desired results.
As with any marketing campaign, PPC requires a lot of background work. Thorough research has to be carried out which includes analyzing the target audience, selecting and fixating on the right keywords for your brand, and creating an organized ad group for each campaign type.
It also includes setting a strong PPC landing page for each advertisement that is optimized for conversions to save you time and money.
If your pay-per-click campaign has relevant information and is tailored and optimized for the right set of people, you will be charged a less fee.
Hence the more is the background work, the lower will be your investment and the higher will be your conversion rate.
That being said, you can run PPC ad campaigns both on search engines and social media.
And if you are wondering which platform is the right fit for you, we’ve covered that in the next section.
The Two Types of PPC Advertising You Should Know About
Before we get into the nitty-gritty deets of PPC advertising, let us get down to the basics.
PPC advertising can be divided into two broad categories:
- Traditional PPC – Search Engines
- Social PPC – Social Media Platforms
Traditional PPC
Traditional PPC, also known as “Paid Search” advertising is the PPC advertising model in which your brand places ads on search engine ranking pages just like this:
It’s the most commonly used model in PPC advertising and has been around for quite some time now.
Whenever someone looks up a keyword on Google, let’s say – “digital marketing agency,” then Google will display the organic results. But if brands are running PPC ads for that particular keyword, then these ads will be displayed at the top.
We looked up the keyword “digital marketing agency” and found the following PPC ads:
Why PPC is So Popular?
Wondering why traditional PPC is the most commonly used PPC advertising model?
The answer lies in the underlying principle of how it works.
Let’s admit it – Google is at the center of the internet. If there’s anything anyone out there is facing a problem with or wants to gain insights into, they will hop onto Google and type in their query.
As soon as they, Google will instantly process and present countless results right in front of them.
Google processes more than 99,000 queries in a single second.
And with everyone using Google or other search engines to consume information, it’s a no-brainer for brands to advertise their products or services on search engines.
And with Google holding 86.19% of the search engine market share, we’re witnessing an ever-increasing number of brands increasing their Google Ads budget.
Usually, advertisements take up two, three or maybe four placements of the search results in the SERPs; the rest is occupied by websites organically ranking at the top. And with an ever-increasing number of brands running PPC ad campaigns, if you want your ads to rank at the top, then you’ll need to build a highly-strategic PPC advertising campaign.
Targeting the right keywords is the most important aspect of any pay-per-click advertising campaign.
Social PPC
As the name entails, social PPC refers to the PPC advertising model where advertisements are placed on social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn. It’s also called “Paid Social”
These ads appear on the users’ social media feeds or timelines. Unlike traditional PPC which used keywords and search intent, in social PPC, there are mixed bags of targeting options to be used to get your ad to reach the target audience.
Some of these options require extensive research based on user demographics, relevant data gathered by the platform relating to your product, customer impressions etc.
There are two main bid strategies that are followed in social PPC- CPC(Cost Per Click) and CPM (Cost per thousand impressions). Both these payment strategies are based on user engagement demographics and other such metrics such as CTR (Click-through Rate. This is also a measure of how well the PPC advertising campaign is doing.
Paid social (Social PPC) is categorized more as intrusive advertisement because of the nature of user engagement involved. The more the customer is interested in your product the more likely they are to look into your products on social media.
Strengths & Weaknesses of Traditional & Social PPC
To dwell deeper into the concept of PPC let us now try to understand the strengths and weaknesses of the two pillars of PPC.
Let’s start with Traditional PPC.
Traditional PPC
Strengths
- High speed: PPC search campaigns are known for their super-fast delivery time and higher sales rate. That is if you have figured out the right keyword(s) to use.
- Higher reach: When the advertisement of a brand is well researched and has strong relevant information and keywords, it is usually prioritized above competitors. Therefore, it will help you generate a higher reach.
- Target audience: Traditional PPC ensures that with relevant keywords and information, your product will reach the right set of people who’re looking forward to purchasing products or services similar to your offering. The process of incorporating relevant keywords in the ad ensures that all other irrelevant information is eliminated as well.
- Google Ads has the highest search engine market share: Google has the most market share (about 86.19%). This indirectly means Google ads is the most used platform for PPC advertising. More than any other method or platform. The Google Ads network also has tailored guides and tutorials. They have on-call specialists on board to help new users navigate through the platform.
Weaknesses
- Restricted advertisement options: The major drawback of paid search is that it contains only text as the primary form of advertisement. Images can also be attached here and there, but they may not be as appealing.
- Stiff competition: SEM encourages customers to compare different products in the same category and figure out which suits thembest. This entitles customers to view your competitors’ products side-by-side, hence giving them the freedom to choose. Paid search has tough competition because of this reason, and this cannot be avoided.
Social PPC
Strengths
- Different ways of displaying ads: In contrast to paid search, paid social has a plethora of social media ad options unique to each social media platform. These range from lucrative image posters, carousels, and videos.
- Higher customer range reach: Usually social media helps people discover products they did not know they wanted or needed. With each new product or service, people browsing are more inquisitive or “curious” to know more about the product. Hence, the reach of products is very widespread.
- Ad targeting with relevant tools: Tools used in paid social such as user interest and demographics help immensely in targeting the right audience. This also enables a higher reach within the target pool.
- Cost factor: In stark comparison to traditional PPC, social PPC has a cost much lower for each click on average. Since there is also a cost per thousand impressions available, you can choose which scheme is the best for your brand.
Weaknesses
- Too many options: Social media becoming the mainstream platform for all things digital. That’s why many platforms are offering the same paid social services. This makes the market very dense.
- Cost factor: As mentioned in strengths, the average cost of paid social advertising is comparatively low. That said, it can get expensively really quick depending on factors such as the popularity of your product, number of followers,
- Low click-through rate: Paid social has a nominally low CTR. This means that the algorithm plays a major part in how much priority your product is going to get. Your display of products has to be an exemplar in comparison to your competitors to stand out and beat the algorithm.
- Ever-changing trends: Social media is not the same as today as it was yesterday. Every second there is a new trend taking social media by storm. To keep up with the trends, you have to stay up to date.
Paid Search vs Paid social: Which One is Right For Your Business?
As it is evident from the points above, paid search and paid social are two concepts in PPC advertising that have aspects that make them an efficient digital advertising model.
To summarize, paid search is more about making the customer come to you. It is more reactive. Whereas paid social is where you go to the customer’s personal space and display your products. Many people call paid social “intrusive”, but experts argue that it is as intrusive as you allow it. Posting relevant information that blends seamlessly on the social media platform makes it less intrusive.
Here are a few more points to outline the contrast:
- Paid social works on the foundation of user interaction and building relationships directly with the customer. Whereas, paid search is about gathering a customer base who know what they want already and are ready to purchase.
- Paid social comes with a huge gallery of options for advertising making it more appealing. In stark comparison, paid search ads primarily comprise
Final Thoughts
So, the question is –
“Which PPC model is best for your business?”
Now that we have a good idea of what PPC advertising is and what are the main branching, you need to figure out which is the most ideal for your business.
In an ideal scenario, a solid combination of both search engine and social media PPC would be the most efficient. This is how you will be able to reap the benefits of both worlds. But if you are just starting and don’t have sufficient resources you will need to figure out which is the best for your long-term and short-term goals.
The answer is pretty simple. If you are looking to achieve short-term sales goals right away, paid search is the way to go. However, if you want to establish a long-term connection with your customer base and establish a larger reach, social PPC is the ideal choice.
If you are still doubtful, have a look into what your competitors are doing. Then, try to do it better.
Also, make sure to test one model, see how it checks out for you, and proceed with the ideal PPC advertising model.
Now that we are at the end, we are hopeful this guide gave you some important insights into PPC advertising.
You should also have a good idea about the main differences between the traditional and social PPC. As per popular belief, it has a lot more depth than just “google vs Facebook”. Let’s get clicking away!