What is PPC (Pay Per Click) Advertising And Is It For You?

If you own a website, chances are you will have heard the phrase “pay per click” or “PPC”. You’ve probably been contacted by a company selling PPC also but due to simply not understanding what it is declined to tale the conversation further. Let us try simplifying matters and explain what PPC is and if it can be a useful marketing strategy for your website and your business.

So, what is PPC? Essentially it’s pay per click, a simple form of advertising where you choose what keywords you want your websites advert you set up to appear for.  The good news is you can select exactly what keywords you want to bid on and your advert only appears when someone types into Googles search box those words. You then pay a certain amount each time someone clicks on your advert and goes through to your website.

The beauty of this is that you have total control over how much you spend, when your adverts appear and for what keywords. You can have a maximum bid per keyword so for instance you could decide you want your website to appear when someone types in “green wellies Devon” and you will pay a maximum £1 per click.  This does not mean you will pay £1 a click, it depends how competitive that keyword is and if other companies are bidding on the same keyword also. The higher you big generally means the more clicks you will get subject to your daily budget.

You can also schedule your adverts to only appear when you want them too. So if your offices are closed you simple switch off your adverts with a click of a button.  Another important factor is you can choose to only show your adverts to people with a certain area. So if you are a high street store you can set it so only people within a certain mile radius of your premises will see the advert on Google.  You can choose exactly where in the UK your adverts appear. Even if you have multiple locations you can set up your adverts so they only appear in each of the areas you want.

You can also set restrictions also for ages, gender, income and more, so you have total control over who see’s your adverts and when and where.

You can include any information you want in your adverts, even telephone numbers that people can click and call you direct. You can include  bullet points about what you offer, any sales or promotions you have and you can link to any page of your website from the advert, reducing the amount of clicks the visitor has to perform.

So next question will be is this type of advertising suitable for your business? To be honest there’s not many industries PPC won’t be suitable for. How successful it is will be down to many factors such as your prices, website experience and how competitive your industry is. Budget can also play a factor too.

The main platform for PPC is Google Adwords, which as the name suggests is on Google. Meaning in a matter of minutes you could be advertising on Google with access to thousands of people looking online for the exact product or service you provide. Set up properly after research PPC and in particular Google Adwords can be a powerful tool in generating new business, brand awareness and sales.

One clever aspect of PPC is you can see which keywords have resulted in a sale or action on your website, so you know exactly where your budget is working and where it’s not so you can make changes accordingly.  Dorset Tech have many years’ experience in setting up targeted pay per click campaigns.  We always carry out thorough research beforehand to make sure we are bidding on the correct keywords for your business.

If you’re still unsure about PPC and if your business would benefit simply get in touch today for an informal chat.