Ever thought of PPC as a double-edged sword?

Think about it.

If used correctly, it can skyrocket your online sales and if not, it could dig a hole in your budget.

This is why it is important to have detailed knowledge of PPC advertising before using it for your business.

For those who are unfamiliar with PPC, here is a bit of a refresher:

WHAT IS PPC?

PPC stands for Pay Per Click. Simply put, it refers to digital advertisements where you pay for every click on your advertisement.

It is a type of search engine marketing in which you purchase advertisements and target them rather than generating organic traffic.

You can run PPC campaigns on:

In search results, these advertisements appear at the top of search engine result pages (SERPs) of search engines.

Take a look at this example:

The one with “Ad” box is a PPC ad, rest are organic results.

These search results have shown to have 46% Click-through rate on average.

Sounds amazing, but how much will it cost you? Price for PPC campaigns varies on multiple factors. Some of the most important factors being:

For instance, if you’re planning to rank for the keyword “Christmas gifts” among thousands of competitors during year end, PPC campaigns will get far more expensive.

WHY GO FOR PPC?

PPC campaigns, if used effectively, can be one of the most cost-effective digital marketing tactics to promote your product.

For instance, if you spend $20 on a strategic keyword for PPC and it sells a product worth $2000, it is a huge return on investment.

There’s more.

PPC is extremely target-oriented as well. You can target the exact customers you want for your business based on location, interest, age, gender, etc.

You can even choose a device on which your ad will be posted. This makes it ideal for segmented marketing.

Here’s an interesting insight:

PPC is especially ideal for companies with niche products and services like pet food, diet recipes, photography tools, etc. as you can precisely target your potential customer for relatively less competitive keywords.

Guess what, PPC also does wonders on social media, making it ideal for viral marketing.

A well-planned PPC campaign on social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram can spread the word about your company like wildfire.

An example of sponsored ads on Amazon.

PPC campaigns on eCommerce websites like Amazon are ideal to showcase your products to people looking for a similar product. You can also customize your PPC campaign for a particular geographical area.

Now that we are familiar with PPC and its advantages, let’s take a look at how companies approach PPC campaigns.

For starters, there are three ways companies look at PPC campaigns. We’re sure you must’ve gone through at least one of these phases:

1. Struggling to run a successful PPC campaign due to lack of in-depth knowledge and lackluster execution.
2. Avoiding PPC campaigns altogether without realizing their true potential.
3. Outsourcing PPC campaigns to freelancers.

Although freelancers provide PPC expertise like targeting, posting, and scheduling there is much more to PPC than meets the eye.

Digital marketing companies, on the other hand, generate comprehensive and actionable PPC campaigns which make actual sales.

Here’s how:

The biggest strength of a digital marketing agency lies in the number of creative minds they have, their expertise as well as the range of services they offer.

You need a sharp sales copy with eye-catching graphics targeting the right keywords at the right time to run a successful PPC campaign which will bring a high ROI.

And all this becomes possible when you partner with a digital marketing agency that specializes in PPC marketing.

WHAT MAKES PPC DIFFICULT?

Despite all the benefits of PPC mentioned above, it is one of the trickiest digital marketing techniques to master.

Why is that?

The biggest challenge in a successful PPC campaign is to reduce cost and maximize profit.

Companies usually commit the following mistakes when it comes to PPC:

To avoid such mistakes the company has to study the digital environment of their business, give more emphasis on high performing keywords, keywords used by their competitors, market trends, and consumer preferences.

All this research takes lots of time and expertise which most companies aren’t able to do on their own.

Additionally, just targeting for right keywords won’t automatically bring huge sales for your business.

It requires something more.

An excellent PPC campaign should be backed with a persuasive and attractive sales copy, design with eye-catching graphics and a highly actionable CTA.

All these factors play a very crucial role in the success of a PPC campaign.

CHOOSING A FREELANCER VS CHOOSING AN AGENCY

You might be wondering what’s right for you, hiring a freelancer or a digital marketing agency?

Let’s have a look.

To put it simply, a freelancer is a person who has expertise in a certain skill and charges money for an exchange of their services.

A PPC freelancer provides valuable insights on keywords, targeting, and scheduling. Also, freelancers are relatively affordable for companies.

Even though a freelancer might provide cost-effective services, there are issues with relying solely on freelancers for your PPC management.

Here’s why:

A freelancer’s expertise only lies in conducting a PPC campaign. They don’t provide content for sales copy and images to be posted with it.

Also, a freelancer cannot run your PPC campaigns for a longer duration since they work on multiple PPC campaigns at a time.

It is quite impossible for a single person to provide all these services for multiple clients.

And that’s where a digital marketing agency shines.

Digital marketing companies have a dedicated team of experts assigned to particular digital marketing activities like content writing, PPC, graphic designing, SEO, and more.

This means when you hire a digital marketing agency you have multiple experts working on your PPC campaign which significantly increases its quality.

Also, it eliminates the risk of letting your campaign stop abruptly when there’s an unavailability of a single person.

Even though digital marketing agencies charge more compared to freelancers, you are rest assured of getting good value for the money you are spending.

But perhaps the most important factor is, agencies are dedicated to running more successful PPC campaigns for their clients to enhance their credibility in the market. This practically makes it a win-win situation for both you and the agency.

CONCLUSION

To sum it all up, PPC is a really effective marketing tool if you know what you are doing, or you have someone in your company who understands it better.

It may look tempting to hire a freelancer for your PPC campaigns for a short term but that’s about it. In order to make them successful, you’ll also need content writers, graphic designers, and SEO experts.

On top of that, relying only on a freelancer might not bring actual results you were expecting. This makes it ideal to team up with a digital marketing agency for your PPC campaigns.

And you don’t even need to look for one.

We are a digital marketing agency that provides an all-in-one solution for your PPC requirements.

From creating PPC campaigns from scratch to executing them on multiple digital platforms, we take care of it all.

We go the extra mile to understand your PPC requirements in-depth. Our team of digital marketing experts fine-tunes your PPC campaigns so that you get some real returns on your investment.

Excited? Check out our PPC services and let us help you boost your sales.