Should Small Businesses Invest in a PPC Campaign?

If done right, a PPC campaign is a good investment for many small businesses

Pay-Per-Click or PPC is a version of internet marketing in which advertisers pay a fee each time one of their ads is clicked. A PPC campaign can increase brand awareness, generate leads, and improve conversions. Research has shown that three out of four people admit that paid search ads make it easier for them  to find the information they are seeking. One third of people searching for a product or service click on paid search ads because they directly answer their search queries.

Traffic generated through PPC ads yields 50% more conversions than organic ads.  Still, only about 45%  of small businesses invest in PPC. It is important to understand that if done right, PPC can bring immense benefits to small businesses. Let’s have a look at some of the benefits PPC may offer to small businesses and challenges they may face along the way.

A PPC campaign can help start-ups swing into action instantly

PPC can help both start-ups and established businesses alike. Generally, it is believed that PPC works well for the companies that already have some amount of market influence. However, the reality is that with the right bids, PPC campaigns can help small start-ups hit the ground running. They can instantly get to the top of search results. This boosts their online presence, increases website traffic and conversions.

Pay-Per-Click ads help reach the target audience effectively

Most other types of advertising are like casting a wide net over a large area. However, PPC advertising helps reach out to your target audience, people who are most likely to buy from you. They are your potential customers, who search for relevant keywords. So, whenever someone clicks on your ad, it is likely that they are interested in your product.

PPC gives you greater control over your ad. You can control when and where your ad appears. You are in a better position to optimize your exposure and boost the conversion rates. Geo-targeting can ensure that your ads are only shown to visitors in a specific location. You can alter the keyword match types to control what searches your ad appears in. You can use ad scheduling to adjust the amount you bid when your ad appears at specific times.

The ability to target an audience is extremely beneficial for local small businesses. When a potential customer does a Google search with relevant keywords, they are highly likely to come across your business.

PPC enables close interaction with customers

When you are targeting an audience in a certain area, you need to make your business accessible to them and build close relationships with them. PPC ads make the initial contact easy. There are ad extensions you can use to add your phone number and address under the ad. This allows potential customers to contact the business easily. This also establishes the credibility of the business and improves conversion rates.

Quick results

PPC gives you quick results, one thing that every small business owner would want. Once you employ a PPC campaign, you can begin to see the results almost instantly. PPC ads let you spread information about any forthcoming events, sales, and new products quickly. It must however be noted that to see sustainable long term results of your PPC campaign, you may need to wait longer, up to a few months.

PPC Campaign pitfalls small businesses must avoid

Wrong keyword selection

Selecting the right keywords is vital for the success of a PPC campaign. If you sell leather boots, you may find it obvious to bid for leather boots. However, the keyword “buy leather boots” is more likely to generate better conversion rates. You also need to select keywords that have low competition and high search volume. Also, long tail keywords are often less costly and more likely to bring in conversions. Many small businesses fail at choosing the right keywords for their campaign and this proves to be a costly mistake.

Bad ad copy

Your ability to drive conversions with your PPC ads depends a lot on the quality of your ad copy. Even with the right keywords, potential customers may not click on your ads if the ad copy is not right. Quite often, small businesses use ad copies that are too generic and uninviting. It is important that your ad copy offers something of value to the searcher so that they are enticed to click on the ad.

Bad or no landing pages

Many small businesses fail to create landing pages that are high converting. Your landing page must encourage the visitor to stay, interact and purchase. It should be designed in a way that it focuses on conversion and encourages visitors to perform the action you want them to perform.

If you are a small business looking to grow your online presence, running a PPC campaign is one of the great ways to do it. Display ads could be a good starting point. Display ads differ from paid search ads in that your ads won’t just be appearing in one place.  The ads are displayed across different websites that users browse. Display ads enable you to put your ads directly in front of potential customers without waiting for them to find you. These ads help grow your brand awareness online. You may also use display ads and PPC ads together to get the most from your online presence.

In case you are struggling with managing your online advertising efforts, you should seek help from professionals. If the campaign is not managed well, the advertising costs can quickly spiral out of control, while you don’t get any concrete results. So, paid advertising is almost always better left to the professionals with in-depth knowledge of how it all works.