PPC FAQs – Answers to your pay-per-click advertising questions

PPC is a cost-effective and fast way for your business to increase visibility in search results and drive traffic to your website. Whether your objective is brand awareness, lead generation, or increased website traffic, pay-per-click advertising gets your business in front of your target audience. So, we’ve answered the common PPC FAQs put to us by our clients.

This FAQ is your first step towards understanding PPC and how you can make it work for you.

What is PPC?

PPC stands for pay-per-click and is a form of internet marketing. Your online advertisement appears on the top and right of Google (or another search engine) results, and you pay the search engine a fee each time one of your online advertisements is clicked.

The fee is taken from your pre-set budget, and once the budget is gone, Google stops displaying your ads until you top it up. When PPC is working well, your fee should be insignificant, because the visit to your website is worth more than what you paid for it. For example, you might pay £2 for a click, but the click results in a new 6-month contract or a £200 sale – that’s a serious return on your investment. 

PPC FAQs – How does PPC work?

From researching and selecting the best keywords, to organising your keywords into campaigns and setting up PPC landing pages – much work goes into building a successful pay-per-click campaign.

Search engines favour you for creating relevant, well-targeted PPC campaigns by charging you less for clicks. So, if your ads and landing pages are truly useful and interesting for others, Google charges you less per click, generating a higher profit. 

The benefits are huge for a business that gets PPC right. So, if you want to start using it, it’s important to invest time in learning how to do it well.

Why is PPC important?

With PPC, you are targeting keywords that people are searching for. This makes your marketing campaigns extremely focussed and means the leads you generate are highly relevant and live. 

Is PPC the same as Google Ads?

Yes. Google Ads (formerly Google AdWords) is Google’s PPC. You ‘bid’ on keywords and pay a fee from your budget for each click on your advertisements. 

Each time a user searches, Google chooses ads to appear in the valuable space towards the top of a page. These are selected based on its Ad Rank. Google’s combination of quality and relevance of your keywords, and ad campaigns (Quality Score). Also the monetary size of your keyword bids (CPC Bid).

You can find more information on your quality score and how it is calculated on searchenginejournal.com