Common PPC Questions
Through the years of managing pay per click campaigns, I get asked many questions on the subject of PPC. To help, I have put together a list of the most frequent questions – I hope you find it useful!
What is PPC?
PPC is short for Pay Per Click. It is a method of online advertising offered by the likes of Google, Microsoft and Social Media platforms such as Facebook and LinkedIn.
Basically, you can place an advert on the desired search results page or news feed and say how much you're willing to pay every time someone clicks on your ad which takes them to your website or a landing page.
You can also pay for what is called impressions (which is when someone sees your ad but does not click on it) a tactic mainly for brand awareness which I will cover in another article.
How much budget should I allocate to pay per click?
This is a common question I get asked a lot. The answer is how much are you prepared to invest in your online marketing? I tend to advise clients that may be a bit worried about wasting funds to start small say £500 ad spend per month and build up from there once the results start coming in. Profitability is key.
How do I know if PPC is working for me?
You will need to work out what is important to your business in terms of business goals. Do you collect lead forms and your sales team follow up? Do you sell products online?
If so, it would be fair to say that if PPC is generating sales for you at a profit (key point), then it is working for you.
Which is Best – Google Ads (formally AdWords), Bing or Facebook?
This again is down to your customer segments. If your main segments are heavy Bing users, then it would make sense to focus on Microsoft Bing.
However, I am a massive advocates of testing and measuring. If you do not try and test, then you may never know that you have an untapped market segment actively using Google search.
What’s the difference between PPC and SEO?
PPC as mentioned above is when you pay a company like Google to appear in the ad section of the search results page. Every time someone clicks on your ad to go to your website, you pay for that click.
SEO is short for Search Engine Optimisation. This is when you optimise your website and offsite profile to appear in the organic (non-paid) section of search engines results page (SERPS).
Although organic listings are a free option (yes you don’t pay anyone to appear). It’s important to know many people underestimate the time and money required for SEO – its essential not to see it as the quick and free option.
Check out our article What’s the difference between PPC and SEO? for a more in-depth explanation.
What is goal conversion, and why is it important?
A goal (also called conversions) is something you set up in your PPC account which represents an action someone took on your website that signifies meeting the business objective – making money, brand awareness etc...
What goals should I measure my online advertising efforts?
Here at Pledge Consultancy, I tend to focus on macro and micro goals to measure performance.
A macro goal is the overarching main goal of the advertising activity, which could be phone calls which represent leads. This goal provides the most value to the business and is an exact measurement of progress.
A micro goal is still seen as essential but of lesser value to the business. For example, if someone signed up to the monthly newsletter that is valued but not as high as someone picking up the phone and calling for a quote.
How can Google Analytics help me?
Google Analytics is a fantastic tool that is getting better and better, and it is free! You can connect your other Google products, including Google Ads and Google Search Console, to give you rich data insights. These insights can help you decide what keywords to bid on or if a specific demographics is converting better than another and much more!
Got a PPC question that’s not featured above? No problem, let me know, and I'll be happy to answer and add to the list!
