Pay-Per-Click, or PPC for short, is a term thrown around a lot, but grasping the concept and understanding its relevance is more complicated than one may think. When it comes to online marketing, understanding the particulars of PPC can help your business tremendously. This blog post will help you get a better picture of the fundamentals and details of PPC development.

So how does PPC work? When using the PPC, you do not pay anything in advance, you pay when someone clicks on your ad. The problem is that the price for the click can vary, so it is necessary to optimize your campaigns on the regular basis to be sure that they are working efficiently. There are few things you should know to get started with the campaigns:

1. Budget
2. Timeline – expected results
3. Keywords
4. Group of ads

Let´s go now over few scenarios to demonstrate possibly your case and learn more about how PPC works.

Scene no. 1: I have just started my small business just round the corner, but no one knows about the place yet. How PPC can help me?

First of all, it is important to start with a brainstorming before going through any PPC campaign. So, the main goal is to create a list of keywords defining your product or service. That’s to say: “What it is, exactly?” “How it will be used?” “What problems this product / service will solve?”

Therefore, by answering to these questions, you will be able to describe your business more precisely.

Then, the ultimate question you have to ask yourself is: “What makes your business better than the others?” In other words, how you could outperform your competitors.

To answer to this question, you could list the benefits and features that your business offers.

Finally, by doing this first brainstorming, it will be more obvious for you to know how to classify and organize your list of keywords through the different Adgroups of your Campaigns.

Remember: you want people to be aware of your business. So you need to focus on how people formulate their query on search engines to find your products and services. And paid advertisements can help you to appear in the search results if you know how to manage efficiently your PPC campaigns. Imagine the boost it can give to your business if people enter the right words, find your Ad and end up on your website purchasing your products and services.

Scene no.2: I am selling the great products thru my e-shop. How PPC can boost my sales?

As mentioned previously, it is important to organise your different keywords in your PPC campaign. Indeed, let’s say you’re selling clothes in your e-business. You could organise these products through Adgroups such as:  “t-shirts – jackets – sweaters…”

Then, add the relevant keywords associated to each different Adgroup.

Finally, inside the right Adgroup, you will have the keywords you have just added. The only thing left is: creating your specific Ad.

If someone is looking for the type of t-shirts you’re selling, he might find your Ads. By clicking on these Ads, he will be redirected to your website, and if he finds what he is looking for, he will purchase your products. Therefore, it will enhance your sales, thanks to PPC.

Scene no. 3: Yes, I tried to set up some PPC campaigns in the past, but I just had the feeling of paying a lot without any results. What was wrong?

First, you have to keep in mind that there is no guarantee in PPC. You can gather elements to increase your chances to display your Ads, but obviously if the Ad is not catchy or not appealing enough, people might not click on it. And this is the tricky part: we have to find a way to create the best Ads possible (using relevant keywords) so users will definitely click on them.

It is also important to understand that: successful PPC campaigns require persistence. You have to spend money to have an overview on what’s happening with your Ads, and how people are behaving when they see them, etc.

But here are some tips to help you: You have to always review your data, re-adapt and adjust your campaigns accordingly. And then, look at your data again and repeat the process, until you see new positive results. PPC field is a never ending process, since you have competitors all around you, trying to get results just like you. That’s the reason why you have to be the smartest, and look for the new trends. Plus, doing some benchmark analysis will help you to understand why your competitors are doing better than you. Therefore, you will be able to do the necessary changes on your PPC campaigns.

Usually, if everything has been set correctly and updated frequently, you should have good results after 3 months of a PPC campaign. This period of time is very beneficial because you will collect data, understand how to do improvements regarding your current results, and also test new things. In the third month, a return of investment should be realized, if everything went well. Finally, to have good results you have to know how to interpret the data. This is the main key of a successful PPC campaign.

Hard to believe that the first PPC campaigns, or better to say predecessors, appeared for the first time by the end of the 90´s. Google Adwords were launched in 2000 and now PPC campaigns are considered to be almost the necessary part of any online marketing activities. We believe that the article helped to uncover a bit the mystery behind the PPC. If you have any more questions, drop your message at evolve@evocreative.com!