Pay Per Click Marketing 101

Intro To PPC

Pay Per Click sounds simple right? You get a click, and then you pay for it. Well, fortunately, it's not significantly more complicated than that. That's all you're doing at the end of the day. It's how Google makes most of its money, charging companies for the clicks they get. There are variations in how it's broken down or billed, but most of the metrics still revolve around the holy click. Let's dive into what you should look for when deciding if PPC is right for you.

An example of a typical pay per click search ad

Which Marketing Company?

The setup of your PPC advertising campaign can make the difference between success and failure. Some businesses consider PPC essential, and some business owners are left feeling like it's a scam. When I run into the latter of those two groups, it's usually due to someone not setting up their campaign correctly. A way to protect yourself from this is to make sure your digital marketing company is a qualified Google Partner.

Another reason a PPC campaign can be ineffective is if it's not maintained correctly. There're a lot of adjustments that should happen with a digital marketing campaign. New keywords become relevant, and the wrong keywords should be blocked. Some keywords may need bid adjustments, and ineffective ads should be changed. That's what a digital marketing company should be doing. It's usually not a good idea to take on Google Adwords by yourself.

In smaller towns like Winterville, Greenville, New Bern, Washington, or Wilson, NC Many digital marketing companies don't have enough clients using pay per click to meet the requirements set by Google. It's more likely in larger cities like Raleigh, Durham, Charlotte, Greensboro, Cary, or Wilmington, NC, that a digital marketing company would have a PPC specialist on staff. When in doubt, get a second opinion, Google Advertising accounts allow multiple companies to have access and work on them.

How Much Does Pay Per Click Cost?

"How much does it cost?" is the most common question I get when discussing pay per click marketing with a potential client. The answer is as much or as little as you want to spend. Typically though, I don't recommend budgets under $300 a month. Google AdWords says you can do $1 a day. In some cases, like display ads, that could make sense. With search engine advertising, anything under $300 in ad budget isn't enough in most cases. The upside is with pay per click you're only paying for the results, clicks or calls.

Our $300 budget example breaks down to around $10 a day plus or minus a little. If clicks for your industry are about $1, you could expect about ten clicks a day on a $10 a day budget. The cost per click is what will determine that. Some industries, like insurance, have a notoriously high cost per click average. They could be $8, $30, or even $80 in larger cities for competitive keywords. With prices this high, $300 wouldn't earn you many clicks, making it hard to know if it's working. Typically the businesses with these higher CPC's can justify the expense for larger budgets with their business margins.

Pay-per-click management firms charge 10% - 30% of the monthly budget depending on the budget or other factors. Most digital marketing companies also have minimums. If your budget was $300, it's unlikely they could adequately service your account for $45 a month. In the smaller budget cases, there's usually a $150-$200 minimum management fee. A good PPC consultant should be able to recommend a reasonable starting budget for your business.

Is Online Advertising Hard?

Building a pay per click campaign can be very simple or complex. It usually depends on the type of business you're in and the number of services or products to market. For example, an attorney that only does real estate law would have a limited amount of keywords available. The more limited the keywords, ad variety, and location, the simpler the campaign should be. An e-commerce company with thousands of products would have a significantly more complex ad campaign to manage. Fortunately we're here to help you navigate online advertising as a whole and decide what's best for you.

If you're looking for a digital marketing company to explain pay per click marketing, send us a message here. I would be happy to get on a call and talk about all of the internet advertising options for your business.

Thank you for visiting my site. My name is Warren, and I'm a marketing consultant located in Greenville, NC, specializing in Pay Per Click (PPC) advertising. We're a #GrowWithGoogle Partner and Google Partner in Digital Search Advertising.