The notion of paying for traffic for some is a pretty normal thing, but for others, they have either stayed away from this due to financial concerns or lack of knowledge, but when it comes to delivering targeted and relevant traffic, if done correctly, a Pay Per Click campaign can be and should be an ongoing part of any online marketing campaign.
As we mention, you may have turned away from PPC due to time constraints or just not having enough experience or knowledge to start a campaign and if this is the case then it can be well worth speaking to a local PPC Management Company to discuss your needs, as getting an Google Ads expert to create a campaign for you could really start to deliver results that you may never thought possible from this avenue.
So, let’s take a look at 9 reasons why we think ANY online business should be taking advantage of a PPC campaign, through Google Ads, Bing Ads or preferably both!
Increase Sales
Let’s start with the obvious – you should be using Pay Per Click to increase your traffic, enquiries and in the end game result, your sales. For most business owners, we want people on our site to do business with us, whether that is to buy a product or to enquire about a service, which is why more targeted people to your website should increase your success levels. Of course, I use the word targeted here, because any old traffic just won’t do, which is why when you set your PPC campaign up you need to make sure you are attracting the right people, otherwise you are just going to end up with a high bounce rate and a lot of wasted money.
Instant Results
For me, the fact this is the one true form of advertising where, if you get it right, you can start delivering instant results, is a massive reason why Cost Per Click is a must for businesses. Whilst there are lots of other marketing methods that will deliver you traffic, there are few that you can change focus so quickly and start promoting another product or service within an hour, which is why if you need instant traffic and results, Google Ads or Bing Ads really should be part of your overall marketing plan. Like I have often said, you should not be relying on just one form of marketing, but PPC offers so much and so quickly that it can be a quick win for many firms looking to increase their sales quickly.
Complete Control
Following on from a point I made above, you are in complete control of where you advertise, what you advertise and how you advertise, which means that not only do you have a tight grip on what you are doing but that you can change focus at any time should you want to promote something else or change tact a little. Although many people will tell you that you have no control and that Google will spend your money and will bankrupt you, these are pretty much mega skeptics that will probably tell you to invest £20K into a newspaper advert, but whilst they are right in the sense you need to work your PPC to get results, you are in control and you can decide where your money goes and how much you decide to put into it.
Attract A New Audience
Although Display Advertising can be costly if you do not control it, it does however get you in front of a new audience that might never find you otherwise. With the display advertising, your advert can be displayed on millions of websites that use Adsense from Google, which means that if you want to get in front of people looking on websites in a particular niche or area, then this form of advertising really could be right up your street. As I mention, you need to spend a lot of time getting this right and REALLY need to make sure you have the correct conversion tracking in place to stop you haemorrhaging spend, but with some TLC and experience, you can turn a new audience into your new customers.
Test Website Usability
Although you can do all the UX and user testing in the world, you are never really going to know how your website performs in terms of usability and performance until you have enough people using it, which is why PPC can be an excellent way of working out how people interact with your website and how successful it is, or what needs to change to make it so. Pay Per Click traffic will be a mixture of every sort of person, so there is nothing better than connecting your Adwords and Analytics and then looking at the funnels and statistics to work out just how well the site is going to perform. Although some may see this as wasted money, you are not going to be able to get this kind of feedback from any other form of testing, especially if your site is new and still struggling for long term rankings naturally.
Cost Effective Marketing
Despite what the doom and gloom PPC haters might tell you, Google Ads and Bing Ads are cost effective ways of getting new customers and sales, but you need to make sure you are using the system correctly or employing someone with the experience to make sure you squeeze the most impact out of your budget. Yes, you can lose money on PPC, in fact, you can lose a lot of money, but this is often not because it is poor form of advertising, but generally because you are using it incorrectly. And, if you tried Google Ads years ago and dismissed it, times change and so does technology, so it is well worth a look and getting a small campaign going, because you can do far more in terms of audience control now than you ever could before.
Different Types Of Advertising
Both Adwords and Bing Ads are not just search based, they offer other platforms of PPC marketing as well, including Display, Remarketing, Shopping and Video, so not only can you get the most impact from search campaigns, you also have a wealth of other types of advertising that you can have a play with to see if it is right for you. Trying new things always comes back to tracking what works, so as long as you make sure you have conversion tracking in place and you know where your sales are coming from, you can easily try some of these platforms that you might have steered clear from previously and actually make your decision based on what works, rather than what you think doesn’t necessarily work.
Retarget Your Visitors
One of the most important reasons why I would always advise using Google Ads is for the retargeting (or remarketing) aspect, which is where you can display your adverts in front of the people that have already seen your website, but may not have converted or turned into a customer for whatever reason. Although this form of display advertising has been around for a while, it has taken many businesses a long time to grasp the concept, but if you get this right, it is a really cheap way of getting in front of people that already have an association with you and know your website, which as the average sales cycle seems to be centered around being seen 7 times, you can really start to hit the people that are closer to being a customer than you may realise!
Easy Access To New Areas
Never has targeting new products to a totally different audience been so easy in such a short time frame, because you could quite literally launch a new product or service today and have people looking at it by tomorrow, and this really is the power of PPC. As we talked about, it gives you access to search results, other websites, shopping results and YouTube videos, and when you consider that Google and YouTube are the two largest search engines currently on the WWW, the power to get into these new areas really should never be underestimated. New audiences and new target markets are accessible through cost per click, which with a realistic budget and some hard work, could really push you and your business to another level.