Today’s customers are smarter and savvier than ever about their purchases decisions. Every second, millions of potential customers are flocking to the internet to gather information, read reviews, and check out social media- all before they decide to buy. This means that it’s more important than ever to make sure your business has an online presence. And paid search is a huge aspect of establishing that online presence. Keep reading to learn what paid search is and how it can benefit your company.
What Is Paid Search?
Paid search- also known as Pay Per Click (PPC), Cost Per Click, or Sponsored Advertising- is one of the best ways to drive traffic to your site from search results.
Let’s take a look at how this works:
1. Someone types something into Google search. “Best Fruit Juicers under $100”, for example.
2. Google will then produce two main types of search: organic searches and paid searches. The paid searches will appear on the top, usually in a yellow-shaded box. The rest of the organic searches will be right below.
3. The consumer will then click on the most relevant link, paid or organic.
4. If the consumer clicks on the paid link, they will be taken to either the company’s landing page or their home page.
Note: You definitely want the link to match the advertisement. Therefore, linking to landing pages is a much better idea.
5. When the consumer clicks on that advertisement, the company will pay for that click. Hence the name, Pay Per Click. Click price varies depending on the keywords used to trigger the advertisement.
6. If the company wants to stop paying for the paid clicks, then the ads will be removed. If the company decides they want their ads to show up higher or more frequently, then they can increase their bids on selected key phrases or increase their daily budgets to allow more clicks.
Does It Work?
Now, we aren’t going to lie to you- people click on organic searches way more than they click on paid ads. Working to improve your organic search ranking should most definitely still be a huge part of your marketing strategy.
So wait then- if organic clicks are free, and more people are clicking on them, why even bother with the paid ads?
Because paid advertising is still a huge part of boosting more traffic to your site and generating more revenue. Let’s take a look now at the in-depth benefits of paid clicks.
1. Top Page Exposure on the 3 Main Search Engines: Google, Yahoo, and Bing
We can’t stress enough how important it is to get your business on that first page of results.
75 percent of users never scroll past the first page of search results. PPC is the quickest way to get your ads in the top 5 results (of the paid sections) on all the major search engines.
2. Compete Early and Often
If you only go the organic route, it will typically take you at least 4 to 6 months to achieve any significant placements.
However, with PPC, you can realistically get an ad up in as little as 30 minutes if you’re working with someone who knows their way around the platform. This means you can be on the first page of the search engines and driving traffic to your website almost immediately.
This is a huge benefit for new businesses that don’t have a lot of online presence yet and who need more time to work on their organic search rankings.
3. Consistent Traffic
There are about a million different ways you can suddenly drop in the rankings on organic searches.
Google is constantly reworking their search algorithm to ensure the highest quality websites make it to the top of the page. Sometimes this means slapping huge penalties out of nowhere on sites that aren’t meeting the algorithm’s requirements.
A bump in your organic ranking can be a huge blow to your business. But, if you have PPC ads going, you won’t take as big of a hit. This is because PPC ads don’t rely on a search engine’s algorithm. Instead, they rely on how much you are willing to pay per click, per day, and per month.
4. Precise Targeting
With PPC, you can evaluate, change, edit, test, and optimize your ads all you want to reach a certain audience, all without it affecting your ranking.
You can target a specific type of person, at a specific time of day, in a specific location with a specific ad. PPC allows you to send very specific messages to your target audience during prime time when they are nearby.
5. Straightforward Pricing
Another huge benefit of paid search is that you always know exactly where your dollars are going.
It’s a straightforward process in which you only pay when your ads are clicked. This is much different than traditional forms of advertising in which you spend X amount of dollars in hope that your target market finds your ad engaging.
6. Set the Budget
Speaking of knowing where your dollars are going, another benefit to paid search is that you get to set your exact budget according to your needs.
You can put a limit on your daily spending and this limit is flexible and can be changed at any time.
7. Relevance
When someone conducts a search, they should only get the most relevant results.
Google, with their advanced algorithms that are always improving, does a fantastic job producing the most relevant results for users.
Just like organic searches, paid ads are heavily weighted on relevance.
This creates a very user-friendly experience for the consumer. They don’t have to sort through pages and pages of information to find what they’re looking for. Rather, they find it in a matter of seconds.
This is also extremely beneficial to you as an advertiser. You know that when someone clicks on your ad, they are not doing so by mistake. Because of this targeted traffic, you are much more likely to receive conversions from people who click on your PPC ads than from people who view your other forms of advertising.
You can check out this study to see how your conversion rate stacks up against your industry’s average.
Paid Search Benefits: Wrap Up
Even though PPC is very effective, it’s not easy. Don’t be fooled into thinking you can just hire some college student to plug in the data and monitor your account.
You need a professional, experienced marketing company who will strategize with you to reach your goals. Contact us today if you’re ready to start launching your PPC ads and drive more traffic to your site.