PAY-PER-CLICK (PPC)

Pay-Per-Click (PPC) – an advertising strategy that allows you to place ads on websites, apps, and online marketplaces and only pay a small fee each time someone new clicks on your ad(s).

Important Note: Pay-Per-Click (PPC) campaigns are also referred to as Social Media Marketing (SMM) campaigns when these ads are done on social media platforms.

How does it work?

Step 1. You first need to choose the online platform(s) that you want to set up your pay-per-click (PPC) campaign on. Here are a few of the more popular online platforms that you might want to consider:

Google Ads

The most popular and the most powerful, but the cost per click is usually higher than some of the other options. You do get what you pay for though, so keep this in mind.

Facebook Ads

The most popular and most configurable social media pay-per-click campaign option out there. The cost per click is usually higher than the other social media platforms, but again, you get what you pay for.

Microsoft Advertising

(Formerly Bing Ads)

Microsoft Advertising’s market share might be around 6% (Google dominates the search engine market obviously) but the 6% of millions of people who use Microsoft Advertising (Bing.com & MSN.com) is still worth marketing to. Microsoft Advertising usually has a cheaper cost-per-click compared to Google too.

Instagram Ads

Instagram Ads can be very effective for the right type of business, especially product-based businesses. All you need to do is show off your products with pictures, carefully choose several targeted hashtags/keywords, set your demographics, set your budget, and you’re ready to go!

Amazon Advertising

If you sell products online, you should seriously consider adding your products onto Amazon. Once your products are on Amazon, you can use Amazon’s campaign manager to set up your Amazon PPC ad campaign and start generating sales almost immediately.

Twitter Ads

If your business has a Twitter profile, then advertising on this platform via PPC ads might be a good advertising option. With Twitter Ads, you can advertise a specific tweet, you can attract new followers, or you can send more traffic to your online store(s).

Pinterest Ads

If your business has a Pinterest profile, then advertising on Pinterest via PPC ads might be a good advertising option as well. How? You can promote specific Pinterest Pins and then link them back to your online store(s).

LinkedIn Marketing Solutions

If you’re in the business-to-business (B2B) business, professional business, if you are looking to hire employees, then a LinkedIn PPC campaign might be a good advertising option for you.

YouTube Advertising

If you want to advertise via video, then YouTube video ads are a great way to do this. These types of ads are actually created via Google Ads since Google owns YouTube. You only pay when someone clicks on your ad in your video or watches your ad for at least 30 seconds.

There are dozens more pay-per-click (PPC) campaigns platforms out there, so if none of these fit your product’s niche, let’s talk, so we can find you a platform that works for your business.

Step 2. Next, you will need to figure out which sets of keywords you want to target for your ad campaign(s). This is the toughest part of any pay-per-click ad campaign because there are several variables to consider. Here are a few basic fundamentals to wrap your mind around before you start researching your own list of keywords that you want to target:

The more specific your keyword phrase is, the cheaper your cost-per-click is going to be. For example, if you run an auto-mechanic shop in Chicago then your cost-per-click for “The Best Mechanic In Chicago” is most likely going to be cheaper than “Chicago Mechanics”.
Do thorough research on your niche to make sure you use targeted keywords for your targeted customer. For example, if you have a seafood restaurant in Miami then you will want to make sure that you use a keyword phrase like “best seafood restaurants in Miami” or “seafood restaurants near me” (if you’re in the Miami area of course). If you pick a keyword phrase like “Miami seafood” then you will be wasting money because that phrase is too general and you will be competing with anyone and everyone who sells seafood in Miami (grocery stores, catering companies, fishing charters, etc).
Use different keywords for different platforms. For example, if you are selling products in your store and on Amazon, you might want to run a PPC campaign on Instagram and on Amazon. The Instagram PPC ad should use keywords that involve both your product and your brick and mortar location. Your Amazon PPC campaign should use keywords that explain only your product(s). Make sense?

The more specific your keyword phrase is, the cheaper your cost-per-click is going to be. For example, if you run an auto-mechanic shop in Chicago then your cost-per-click for “The Best Mechanic In Chicago” is most likely going to be cheaper than “Chicago Mechanics”.
Do thorough research on your niche to make sure you use targeted keywords for your targeted customer. For example, if you have a seafood restaurant in Miami then you will want to make sure that you use a keyword phrase like “best seafood restaurants in Miami” or “seafood restaurants near me” (if you’re in the Miami area of course). If you pick a keyword phrase like “Miami seafood” then you will be wasting money because that phrase is too general and you will be competing with anyone and everyone who sells seafood in Miami (grocery stores, catering companies, fishing charters, etc).
Use different keywords for different platforms. For example, if you are selling products in your store and on Amazon, you might want to run a PPC campaign on Instagram and on Amazon. The Instagram PPC ad should use keywords that involve both your product and your brick and mortar location. Your Amazon PPC campaign should use keywords that explain only your product(s). Make sense?

Step 3. After you have identified your list of keyword phrases that you want to run in your PPC campaign, it’s time to narrow down your targeted demographics. Do you want to advertise only to people who are over 18 years old? If so, you will need to specify this in your PPC ad campaign demographics or else you will be wasting money and clicks on children who might click your ad. What about only showing your ad to people who live within a 20-mile radius of your brick and mortar store? This too will need to be specified in your PPC campaigns so that you’re not wasting money on clicks outside of this targeted area. There are literally dozens of other metrics that you can specify in your PPC campaigns, but not all of them are as robust, flexible, and/or specific. For example, Google Adwords is very powerful and you can have a lot of metrics to specify in your campaign. However, PPC platforms like Instagram aren’t nearly as flexible in their backend settings, so make sure that you write down your required targeted demographic needs before you choose a PPC platform to advertise on.

Step 4. Come up with an advertising budget for each online platform that you plan on running PPC campaigns on. Your budget (on most platforms) can be set up as a daily budget, weekly budget, or even monthly budget. Here are a few pointers when setting up your pay-per-click campaign budget.

Stick to a conservative marketing budget in the beginning and then adjust as necessary as you grow. For example, let’s say you start a Google Adwords PPC campaign for your landscaping business and you plan on spending $500 on a campaign that lasts for 1 month. You have your list of targeted keywords and you know your target demographic. After you run your PPC campaign for the month, you crunch some numbers and you generated 255 clicks on your ad which resulted in 15 leads from your ad.
Every pay-per-click advertising platform has different costs-per-click and they change constantly. For example, the cost-per-click on one platform for the keyword phrase “organic protein powder” can be higher or lower on another platform for the same keyword phrase “organic protein powder” even though they target the same audience. So make sure you compare the costs per click on each platform that fits your advertising niche.
Your cost-per-acquisition is more important than your cost-per-click. For example, if the average cost-per-click on Google Adwords is $3.00 for the keyword phrase “handyman in Seattle” and you average 6 clicks before you get a phone call that turns into a customer, then your cost-of-acquisition is $18 for that customer. However, if the average cost-per-click on Facebook Ads is $1.50 for that same keyword phrase and you average 20 clicks before you get a phone call that turns into a customer, then your cost-of-acquisition is $30. Google Adwords in this case, even with the higher cost-per-click, is a better Return-On-Investment (ROI).

Step 5. After that, go ahead and double-check your settings, and then when you’re ready, run that PPC campaign! Just make sure that you check your campaign(s) often in the first 48 hours to make sure that it’s running as you had expected. After your first 48 hours of your campaign running, go ahead and give it some time to work for you. Once your campaign runs for at least a week, go ahead and make any adjustments as necessary to either your keywords, your demographics, and/or your budget. Continue to do this as needed to achieve your targeted results.

Pay-Per-Click campaigns are a great way to get traffic to your business and/or product almost immediately. Once you fully understand what PPC campaign platforms and settings work the best for your niche, then you will be able to figure out your cost of customer acquisition and your return-on-investment in order to make your PPC marketing campaign efforts pay off handsomely.

Drew Restivo
Founder at HiredMarketing.com

We would LOVE the opportunity to show you how we help businesses get more sales using Pay-Per-Click (PPC) marketing campaigns. This is one of the many reasons why we created HiredMarketing.com because we want to be your product marketing hired hand when you need help. We work on demand, so we can do as little or as much as you need us to. We work on a monthly retainer model so you get to determine how many hours we work on your product marketing projects each month, so you never have to worry about going over your marketing budget. The days of having to hire and train in-house employees for individual marketing tasks are gone. You hire us and we will use our own proven product marketing specialists to carry out your product marketing tasks efficiently, effectively, and within budget.

If you have questions or if you’re interested in learning more, let’s talk.

If you’re the type of person that needs more data before you want to talk to us, then let us conduct a FREE (for those that qualify) Product Marketing Game Plan (PMGP) on your business and products to show you which product marketing strategies you should be implementing to increase your product sales. For your free Product Market Game Plan (PMGP), click here.

If you want to know our transparent pricing options or if you are ready to hire a hand to help you market your products and increase your product sales, then go ahead and click here.