Is Paid Search Worth The Cost?

Paid search is definitely worth the cost, but in order to reap the awesome benefits of PPC advertising, you need to do it right.

Keep reading to learn all about pay-per-click advertising, including what it is, how it works, how it differs from organic search, how keywords factor in, and how EmoryDay can help you get your money’s worth with paid search.

What Is PPC?

PPC advertising, otherwise known as pay-per-click or paid search, is a type of marketing in which a company places an ad online that appears when someone searches for the ad’s keywords. The company that places the ad pays each time a user clicks on it. The purpose of a pay-per-click ad is to drive traffic to a company’s site or specific landing page, and ultimately, convert those site visitors into paying customers.

Pay-per-click ads typically appear at the very top of a search engine’s results page, right before the organic search results.

How PPC Works

PPC ads show up when a person searching the web types in the keywords or key phrases you bid on for your ad. Because pay-per-click ads are dependent on keywords, the process essentially works like an auction. Each keyword has a price, and your company bids on your desired “keywords to compete for the ad position on the search page.”

You pay the search engine you placed your ad with, which in most cases is Google, the amount you bid on your keywords each time a web user clicks on your ad.

How PPC Differs From Organic Search

The difference between paid search and organic search is simply the cost factor. You are essentially paying for the top spot on a search engine’s results page and using your placed ad to get more visitors to your site.

Organic search is unpaid. Users find your site or landing page by searching keywords and perusing the search engine results until they stumble upon your company.

How PPC Advertising Can Help Grow Your Business

There are so many benefits to using PPC advertising for your marketing efforts.

Pay-per-click advertising gets your company to the top of the search engine results for your desired keywords instantly. While there’s nothing wrong with using SEO to organically improve your search engine rankings, the process can be both difficult and time consuming. In fact, it can take a good 4 to 6 months to start seeing your SEO efforts pay off. Plus, there are a lot of other factors that contribute to whether or not your SEO efforts will even help improve your search engine ranking, including:
- How long your website has been around
- How good your website is
- The quality of your site’s content
People actually click on paid ads. According to paid search gurus, Wordstream, “research indicates that searchers click on paid search ads more often than any other form of digital advertising.”
You’ll get more “quality” traffic to your site. If you use pay-per-click advertising, you will get more traffic to your site for sure. But, as you know, not all traffic is created equal. You want your site visitors to become potential customers. Using PPC advertising is a great way to get more qualified leads to your site because your ads will only show up for people searching for your chosen keywords. This means your ads will be showing up for people who are actively and specifically seeking out the products and services you offer.
Using paid search can expose you to people who have never heard of your company. In fact, PPC advertising can help you “target a broader set of Internet searchers who may not know anything about your business.” That’s a win-win!
PPC advertising is a great way to track your marketing efforts. According to Wordstream, “because searchers reveal their intent through their search query, advertisers are able to measure the quality of traffic that results from search engine clicks.”

At the end of the day, pay-per-click advertising is a fast way to drive high-quality traffic to your site.

Google Ads

Google Ads, formally known as Google Adwords, is probably the most popular pay-per-click advertising platform. They also “reward the highest-quality ads.” This means that if your PPC ad does well, and your click-through rates are high, you don’t always have to have the highest bid for your keywords to earn the top advertising spot. Google wants to run ads that garner good performances. And, if yours does, it could end up lowering your advertising costs.

How EmoryDay Can Help Your Business Use PPC Advertising

The EmoryDay team can help you with all aspects of paid search advertising. Not only can our team of experts determine the best keywords for your PPC ad campaigns, but we can also help create top-notch landing pages and make sure your website is in tip-top shape. Let EmoryDay get your money’s worth with paid search!

Resources:

https://www.wordstream.com/ppc

https://www.wordstream.com/pay-per-click

https://www.wordstream.com/organic-search

https://www.yola.com/blog/is-paid-search-really-worth-it-for-small-businesses/

https://www.forbes.com/sites/joshsteimle/2015/02/07/how-long-does-seo-take-to-start-working/#27b3c6f7464c