For many digital marketers, pay-per-click (PPC) is a concept they understand the basics of, but often aren’t sure how to properly utilize. The potential for quickly and inexpensively bringing more eyeballs to a brand has made PPC a tool all digital marketers should consider using to their advantage.
With nearly half of all small businesses relying on PPC as part of their digital marketing strategy, it’s important to explore this option for your own business. Failure to embrace PPC may mean your local franchise business is losing out on the opportunity to make a solid impact at the top of search engine results pages (SERPs).
What Is PPC?
PPC is a type of paid advertising in the search engine marketing category. When consumers search for certain words on Google or Bing, some of the first results they see are PPC ads with products and services relevant to the search term. With this model, advertisers only pay when consumers actually click on the ads they are shown.
Wondering how you can ensure your PPC ads appear instead of your competitors’ when a consumer searches for a specific keyword? That’s where cost-per-click (CPC) comes in.
CPC allows you to bid in an auction for where your ads will be displayed on SERPs. A higher bid will land you a better placement. Of course, this bidding process is done automatically in fractions of a second. The only role you’ll play here is to choose your keywords in advance and set your maximum bid, the highest price you are willing to pay per click on your ads.
What are the Benefits of PPC for Local Franchise Businesses?
Why should you consider PPC as a part of your marketing strategy? Let’s look at four key benefits:
- Targeting Consumers by Geography and Interest
One of the biggest advantages of PPC is that you can target your ads to specific market segments based not only on the keywords of your choosing, but also on the target customer’s geographical location and interests. With this capability, local businesses can more easily reach consumers in their area who may not yet be familiar with their brand.
Obviously, Google and other PPC platforms have a huge user base. Tapping into a relevant, geographically specific segment of this widespread audience is made possible through the use of PPC ads.
- Spreading Brand Awareness in a Cost-Effective Manner
PPC is also cost-effective, as advertisers are only charged per click–not per impression. This means, in many cases, you’ll get eyeballs on your ads, improving awareness of your brand, without paying a cent. Additionally, as you can maintain control over how much you spend on these ads, you can easily ensure they fit into your overall marketing budget while still experiencing great results.
- Opportunity to Bid Against Competitors
Unlike with SEO, PPC offers a level ground for small businesses who may have a tough time outranking their well-established competitors on SERPs. Utilizing SEO to earn your way to the top could take months if not years. With PPC, you can truncate this time by bidding against your competitors in a relatively small-stakes battle.
- Potential for Retargeting Leads
Another benefit of PPC is that you can use retargeting to continue marketing to consumers who click on your ads. This technique offers tons of potential for re-engaging with consumers who have already shown concrete interest in your business. Through retargeting, you can display ads for these customers well after they’ve clicked away from your site to keep your brand top of mind and encourage an eventual conversion.
Watch Out for These PPC Challenges
While most platforms make it easy to take advantage of all PPC ads have to offer, there are certainly some common challenges to watch out for. Below are some of the obstacles digital marketers new to the world of PPC often encounter.
Tendency to “Set It and Forget It”
Running ads can be time consuming, and you’ve got an entire company to look after. When it comes down to the decision between manually managing a PPC campaign and automating it, busy brands will almost always choose automation.
Automation can be great, but it also promotes a “set it and forget it” mindset. When you forget to check analytics, quality scores, and performance metrics regularly, you may find you’re not seeing the results you’d initially hoped for.
Knowing What Copy & Creative to Use
You may have a general idea of what keywords suit your products and services, but not enough time or bandwidth to really hone in on doing keyword research. Without the knowledge to know what keywords are worth bidding on or what maximum price is going to give you the best results, getting your PPC strategy just right can be difficult.
Additionally, you need to consider how you will write copy for this format that is both succinct and compelling? All too often, brands leave these important considerations as an afterthought, which can be detrimental to the ultimate conversion rates of their ads.
Frequently Running Tests & Understanding What Works
Finally, you may find that once you do have success, it’s hard to repeat. Maintaining the right strategy for your PPC campaign requires frequent tweaking through running ongoing tests, following trends, and having the experience to know what works. While it is all worth it in the end, jumping right into this more technical side of the process can be a bit overwhelming for most.
How to Use PPC in Your Marketing Strategy
Qiigo’s team of professional account managers works hard to get to know your company before creating a customized campaign that meets your specific needs.
We get started by developing and setting up a locally focused campaign that’s based on a full competitive analysis. Each location participating in the PPC program receives a tracking phone number and a complete dashboard to view individual results. It’s everything you need for PPC success.
