6 Great Reasons to Add PPC Advertising to your Marketing Mix Today

Photo Credit: svilen001

A common question I get asked by business owners –
“Should I add PPC advertising to my online marketing mix?”

Whether you are a business owner or a digital marketing company managing your client’s online marketing, there are a number of sound reasons to add Pay Per Click (PPC) advertising to your online marketing mix.

The landscape of SEO continues to experience turbulent times as Google continues to roll out more changes to its search engine algorithm. It has become increasingly difficult to use SEO tricks to “game Google” as Google has become more sophisticated at catching and penalising such attempts. Furthermore, Google continues to keep most of its search ranking algorithms secret, making it even harder to guarantee SEO success.

In contrast, Google makes every attempt to keep its PPC marketing transparent and easy to understand and adjust to get the results you want. There are a torrent of reasonably priced leads out there for companies who are willing to do a little work and run a properly managed AdWords campaign.

Here are 6 great reasons to add PPC to your marketing mix:

1 Find out what your customers are searching for

PPC provides an opportunity to find out quickly what your customers are searching for before launching a mid to long term marketing campaign. You can quickly identify profitable keywords with a minimal AdWords budget spend, and then use these keywords to launch your SEO marketing.

If you are testing a new business idea or a start up, this is a perfect way to get some customers quickly and check your processes, before you kick off your multi-channel marketing launch.

2 Measure your ROI easily

Your Return on Investment (ROI) is easier to measure with PPC marketing than through SEO. With Google AdWords and Google Analytics you can set up goal tracking, and see how well keywords are converting. How much you pay per click, how many clicks turn into conversions, how much you pay per conversion – all the data you need is right there at your fingertips. Once started, managing and improving your AdWords campaign is an iterative process, where you can test different ads, different bid prices, and even different landing pages to find which perform the best.

3 PPC is immune from Google Algorithm Changes

PPC is immune from the impact of Google algorithm changes. Your focus is on using well written ads to bring targeted visitors to the correct page on your website. There’s no need to worry about the latest Penguin or Panda Google update.

4 Waste Less Time Choosing Unprofitable Keywords

It minimises the chance of wasting time rolling out an SEO campaign only to find out that the keywords that were targeted weren’t the most profitable ones to use.

Instead of picking some keywords for your business and trying to rank in Google search results via SEO, why not use AdWords to discover what keywords your clients actually use to find your business, and then build your SEO campaign around those keywords?

5 Use Both PPC and SEO to increase your  Online Business Visibility

Your business can get greater exposure if you use both PPC and SEO. You can dominate the search engines by having your ads show up at the top of the search results page, as well as having your organic listings show up underneath the ad block. The more of the screen that your ads and listings take up, the better your chances of dominating your competition.

6 It’s Down to the Bottom Line

It’s down to the bottom line.

A well managed PPC campaign can bring in a predicable amount of targeted traffic at prices that allow for optimal returns on your investment. Unlike SEO, with PPC you know exactly what you are paying per click, how many people you are reaching, and how many leads you are turning into visitors.

There’s no hidden secrets – just the simple logic that good ads at the correct bid prices will give you targeted leads, and well written landing pages will convert these leads into customers at a rate that is profitable for your company.

Once you have that simple structure in place, then you know that it is profitable to continue to ramp things up with your PPC campaign up to the point where you are getting more customers than your business can handle.

Summary

PPC advertising is a powerful marketing tool that should be considered by all businesses that conduct business online. Just like any other tool, it is best used to achieve the purpose it was designed for, which is to attract targeted leads at predictable prices, which can then be converted by optimised landing pages on your website. Used properly, it is a great method for achieving reliable, profitable leads. But when implemented without proper research or ongoing management, you risk wasting your money, just as you would with any other marketing technique that is mismanaged.