PPC advertising is a popular strategy, but is it really worth the money?
Pay-per-click (PPC) advertising is increasing in popularity as a strategy to drive traffic to your site, but is it really all it’s cracked up to be? As with any online marketing strategy, there are advantages and disadvantages to consider—but first, you have to know how PPC ads work.
How PPC Works
Pay-per-click ads are so named because you only pay for the traffic you get to your site. You’ll write copy for an ad with a channel like Google or Facebook, then pay a fixed price for each click you get (based on a ton of independent variables). You can set your budget to as little or as much as you’d like.
The Advantages
There are a few advantages to this approach:
- Traffic certainty. No matter what, you’re guaranteed to get traffic through PPC advertising. You can’t say the same about every online marketing strategy.
- Data and refinement. If you collect enough data from your circulating ads, you can quickly learn which techniques work and which ones don’t. From there, you can optimize your strategy to become even more effective.
- Applications. You can use PPC to target a variety of different audiences, for a variety of different goals. There’s no one “right” way to use it.
The Disadvantages
However, there are some weaknesses:
- Cost per lead. Compared to an inbound strategy like content marketing or social media marketing, the cost per lead is higher for PPC advertising.
- Scalability. Inbound marketing strategies are powerful because they become more effective and more powerful over time. PPC ads simply aren’t as scalable, since your costs will never go down.
- Audience warmth. PPC ads also tend to target fresh, unfamiliar customers. For the most part, warm, brand-acquainted leads tend to yield better results.
If you’re interested in getting started with a PPC campaign, it pays to work with an expert. Contact Quez Media today to learn more about our PPC advertising services.
