Pay-per-click or PPC is, in essence, online advertising. One of the most popular platforms for search-based advertising is Google, but effective marketing and advertising campaigns can also be run on Yahoo, Bing and social networks such as Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn. Another platform that has grown in popularity among advertisers is Youtube. Youtube ads are set up and managed within Google Ads.

In this section we are going to focus on Google Ads (previously AdWords) or Pay Per Click.

In a nutshell, you bid a set amount that you are willing to pay if someone sees your ad and clicks through to your site. This can vary from a few cents to a few hundred Rands per click, depending on the niche and competitiveness for the keywords.

All things being equal, the more you are willing to spend per click in relation to your competition, the higher you will show up in the advertising section of the search results. This is an effective way to get leads almost instantly and with the right research and management, you could see a healthy return on your investment.

You can manage your Adwords spend to ensure that you do not go over budget. You can decide on a maximum amount of money that you are happy to spend per day and per visitor clicking through to your website.

In essence, your ad will show up until your daily budget is used up after which it will disappear until the next day.

You can customise your campaign to quite an extent. You can choose the demographics you want to target, what days you want your ad to display, and even the time of day. You can also select whether you want your ad to only show up in the search results or to also show up as a banner ad on relevant websites.

Like all digital marketing, Google Ads is about getting the best return on investment. There are factors beyond the bid that determine the amount that Google will charge you per click. It is often the case that a well managed ad campaign will allow a company to enjoy a lower cost per click while showing up above a competitor who is paying significantly more money per click.

These factors include things like relevancy of an ad in relation to the targeting of the ad and the experience of the landing page that the prospect is sent to. This helps to determine the quality score Google will allocate. The higher this score, the more Google is likely to reward you with a discounted cost per click (CPC). Conversely, a low quality will result in a high cost per click.

If two companies each spend R10,000 on Google Ads and company A pays R16 per click (visitor that comes to their website after clicking on an ad) while company B pays R24 per click, company A will get 625 visitors to their website, while company B will only get 416 visitors to their website. If we assume for this exercise that the websites of both companies convert visitors to customers equally well at 5%, company A will have secured 31 new customers at an acquisition cost of R323 per customer, while company B will only secure 24 new customers at an acquisition cost of R416 per customer. That is roughly 30% more per acquisition.

We do not only do in-depth keyword research upfront, but continue to monitor the performance of ads per keyword. We tweak the ones that produce good results while substituting those that hurt your overall score. Moreover, we understand how to write ads that grab the attention of prospects and our split-testing ensures that we can quickly discover what ads gain the most attention.

It’s not rocket science, but it takes a correct understanding of what works and the time and dedication to continuously monitor and tweak performance. We have the experience and team in place that can do this effectively while you get to focus on what really matters – your business.

Contact us for a obligation-free discussion to see how we can help you grow your sales through Google Ads.