Now that you’re well-versed in the art of Pay Per Click (PPC), it’s time to focus on elevating your Ad Campaign to the top of the Search Engines, namely, Google. To achieve this, you need to be highly strategic about selecting your Keywords during the PPC ‘bidding’ process.
Whether you’re a Small Business Owner using Google, Yahoo or Bing as your Search Engine of choice, PPC’s Ad-Sponsored Links are fast becoming a hugely popular form of Digital Marketing. Having your Ad rank in the higher echelon of Search Engines means your Small Business can consistently funnel traffic to your Website without having to pay excess amounts on Marketing. And that’s where PPC Bidding comes in.
But what exactly is PPC Bidding and how does it work? What can you, as a Small Business Owner, do to maximise your potential and elevate sales and profits? Not to worry, we’ve got you covered.
What is PPC Bidding?
Like traditional forms of bidding, PPC Bidding in the Digital Space is an auction where a number of advertisers bid against each other to show up in the top search results of a Search Engine, which in turn, will see more potential customers visiting your Website.
How PPC Bidding Works:
First and foremost, Small Businesses need to strategise and determine how much they are willing to spend over the course of their Ad Campaign before even beginning to entertain the idea of PPC Bidding.
Whether that Ad Campaign is seasonal or over an extended period, is dependent upon your budget. You may also need to do some background research on of the specific Keywords and Key Phrases that are relevant to your industry and target market, which could potentially yield higher Click-Through-Rates. In the case of Google, the most dominant Search Engine, you can use Google AdWords to gain valuable insight into how certain Keywords historically track.
Let’s take the example of a start-up Small Business that sells coloured sticky tapes in all sorts of colour variations. If that company is based in Richmond, Victoria, then its Keyword, or ‘phrase’, could potentially be “Coloured Sticky Tapes in Richmond”.
If the owner of the company is flexible with their initial budget for the Campaign – which could run over a month – then the Business may decide to aggressively bid high in the first half of that month putting $5 on “Coloured Sticky Tapes in Richmond”, in order receive higher Click-Through-Rates to their Website earlier on via your sponsored Ad. This high bid will give them the best chance of their Ad ranking more highly than their competitors in Google.
Again, depending on your budget allocation, that $5 bid could be reduced significantly over the second half of the month, anywhere to as little as $0.75. While the reduced bid may result in your Ad surrendering its top spot, it will still remain in the top few positions of Google’s search pages.
There are other intuitive and more complex examples of PPC Bidding strategies, but for the uninitiated, the above example is a solid starting point!
What PPC Bidding Achieves?
The key aspect of PPC Bidding to note is that you don’t necessarily have to pay for only one word. You can, in fact, place bids on Key Phrases that is aimed at your target market. You can simply create an account and bid against other Advertisers for a prime Search Engine position on specific keywords and phrases.
Using the “Coloured Sticky Tapes in Richmond” example, the Small Business may choose to use Google as the main search engine with Google AdWords as the advertising service. Unbeknown to that sticky tape company, there could be up to five other Small Businesses with similar products and services also based in or near Richmond, all vying for the top ranked Ad-Sponsored Link positions in the search engine platform.
Once a user types in “Coloured Sticky Tapes in Richmond” into Google, the Search Engine will review three major factors that corresponds with the keyword “Coloured Sticky Tapes in Richmond”. One of those includes how much money each Small Business has bid on that Keyword, with the highest bid the more likely advertisement to appear in the first position, or second, and so forth.
Google will also review the relevancy of the Keyword to the Ad that’s being shown; the logic here is that if the Ad includes the actual search query the visitor has typed in, then the more likely the product being advertised – “Coloured Sticky Tapes in Richmond” – will pop up first. For example, it doesn’t make sense for Google to list an advertisement on tape measures when the Keywords are typed in.
In addition, Google will also apply the same logic for reviewing the Website’s landing page to ensure that the content on that page corresponds with the search for Key terms. This helps Google decrease the chances of its users clicking on an Ad and being directed to a page that was completely irrelevant to the keywords they were searching for.
If we use the “Coloured Sticky Tapes in Richmond” as the prime example, the visitor will type in that keyword and, within milliseconds, Google will scan your competitors Ads based on the three determining factors mentioned above. Google will then rank yours and your competitors’ Ads according to the highest Keyword bid, relevancy and Ad content.
Overall, PPC can help to enhance growth potential by attracting a targeted audience to your Website, helping to increase sales for your Small Business. And if you can strategically place bids on optimum Keywords and phrases that target your target market, then you’ve won half the battle!
Setting up a great PPC Campaign can take time, knowledge and commitment, which is why we offer a completely professional service here at Sites n Stores. Our experts can set up a budget and bid on the best Keywords for your industry that will aid in attracting the most potential customers to your Website.
Contact us today on 1300 796 530, to get the best PPC Bidding advice on your Keywords and watch your Ad Campaign skyrocket!