Your Ultimate Guide to Pay Per Click Advertising

At this point, pay per click advertising certainly needs no introduction to marketers. Still, it is certainly a vital part of mobile marketing and no campaign can likely be successful without it.

Google Ads is an effective way to drive traffic to your website because consumers are actively searching for your product or service. Often, depending on the type of keyword you are targeting, consumers may be at the bottom of the sales funnel.

Keywords are Key

Keyword selection is the single most important aspect of a pay per click campaign. Try to avoid choosing to pay for broad keywords where the consumer is simply trying to get more information and is not yet in buying mode. Or, if you want to introduce your brand at the top of the sales funnel, understand that these broad keywords are simply not as valuable as one where the consumer is ready to buy. A person searching for “blue Honda civic, less than 30,000 miles” is one that already knows what they want to buy, as opposed to the other prospect who has just searched for “Honda cars.”

With pay per click, advertisers bid on keyword search terms and are then ranked accordingly. But, it isn’t just about the rate you are willing to pay. In addition to the amount you are willing to pay, your PPC position is also determined by AdRank and quality score. Quality score is based on Google’s desire to deliver a positive result to the user. Relevance of your ad is important and Google bases that on how many people click on your ad when it is served. The relevance of your keywords, the ad copy, and the landing page all contribute to quality score and ultimately your AdRank. 

Other Pay Per Click Providers

Google isn’t the only place to buy PPC. The Microsoft advertising platform provides a viable alternative with Bing, which is often up to 33% cheaper than Google. Moreover, the Bing user is most likely to be in the 55-64 age group and have a higher income than a Google user. Therefore, it is a very important addition to a campaign with an older target audience, such as one targeting 55+ housing.

Bing provides search ads that are dynamic and allow you to add two descriptions and three headlines until you find the winning combination. You can also do responsive search ads where you can add up to 15 different headlines and four descriptions. From the various combinations, Microsoft will serve the best options.

If you choose to set it and forget it, Bing gives you a lot of options. You can set bids to maximize clicks or impressions. In addition, you can set a 30 day plan to hit a Target Cost per Acquisition (CPA) and Bing will automate your ads to hit it. You can do the same with a Target Return on Ad Spend (ROAS).

How to Measure Your Pay Per Click Performance

Common KPIs (key performance indicators) used in PPC advertising are:

• Average cost per click (CPC)
• Average position
• Conversions
• Conversion rate
• Cost per action (CPA)
• Impression share – the percentage of the available keyword impressions that your brand is getting
• Impressions
• Quality score – Google’s analysis of how well the landing page correlates to the chosen keyword
• Return on Ad Spend (ROAS)
• Revenue
• Tap through rate
• Total investment

Want to get more information to judge your PPC performance versus national averages? Meet with us today to discuss your digital marketing strategy.

Bob Bentz is the President and Founder of Purplegator. He’s also the author of Relevance Raises Response, a comprehensive guide to mobile marketing.