Do I need pay-per-click management?
The short answer for most businesses: Yes. Pay-per-click campaigns yield fast, cost-effective results. Paid search results from Google AdWords, for example, are the first links people see for most searches performed in Google. These are the links at the very top and along the right side of the results page—valuable real-estate for obvious reasons. Even if you have the top listed site in the “organic” listings, a paid ad can also bring traffic and conversions. Having multiple links on a search results page is a good thing. It increases the likelihood that you’ll get the click.
And yes, people do click on paid ads. I’ve managed enough PPC campaigns over the years to know that they do make sense to run. When you understand the value of each transaction, it’s easy to see how a paid search campaign makes sense for your business.
What about the cost?
What is a lead worth to you? A new patient at a fertility clinic (for example) is going to be worth more than a new customer at a local auto repair shop. So if you figure out what an “average” customer is worth to your business and you figure out how many leads convert to paying customers, it should be fairly straightforward to figure out what amount makes sense to spend on your campaign.
Competition is another factor that affects the cost of a click. The more competitors, the higher the price, but again, it is important to determine what a lead is worth to your business.
In most cases, it’s a good idea to start off with as high of a budget as you possibly can for the keywords you are targeting. Even for small businesses, I recommend allocating at least $1000/month to run an AdWords campaign to start. That gives you enough of a budget to keep your ad visible throughout the day, which is important. If you only allocate, let’s say $200 per month initially, your campaign won’t get enough impressions to generate any significant action. You also won’t rank as well for various results simply because your campaign will run out of budget.
Mobile and display advertising
When you run a PPC campaign such as Google AdWords, not only do your ads show in the search results of Google, but they also show on other sites that enable Google AdSense. That means if a site has a page that relates to something in your ad, there is a good chance your ad will show on that site. It invites a lot of impressions which can help generate a lot of new targeted traffic to your website.
Sometimes you’ll also notice ads for things you were looking at on other websites. These are a slightly more advanced version of display advertising, but one that can be quite effective.
To further broaden the reach of your pay-per-click campaigns, most ad platforms offer mobile or device-specific advertising. Depending on your type of business, this offers you a way to optimize your advertising for people who are searching for you from their smartphones or other devices. You can also target your landing pages for these devices to ensure maximum conversions.
If you are considering a pay-per-click campaign for your business, contact Johnny Website today for a free consultation!
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