How does PPC work?

Pay-per-click (PPC) marketing is a kind of online advertising in which advertisers get paid when users click on their ads. Advertisers bid on clicks based on keywords, platforms, and audience types. PPC is used for increasing sales, generating leads, and promoting brand awareness in a company. Find more info about Pay-Per-Click

PPC comes into play with relevance. People today have a habit of searching online for their needs. If a user searches for a product, advertisers can show the related product to the users. For example, Advertisers can show ads about “black umbrella” when users search for “black umbrella.”

When relevance is paramount, advertisers can run successful PPC campaigns through targeting settings and account structure.

PPC PLATFORMS

Google ads

As the largest pay-per-click platform, Google Ads offers advertising on Google, Search Partner-sites, and Display Network sites. Over 17 years, Google Ads has evolved through several iterations. Whether a small business or a Fortune 500 corporation, Google Ads caters to all.

Microsoft ads

Microsoft ads also come under PPC platforms. You can find Microsoft ads shown on Microsoft and Yahoo networks. Microsoft ads are mainly keyword-based. On the Bing Network, Microsoft Advertising has 137 million unique desktop searchers as of 2017.

ACCOUNT STRUCTURE

CAMPAIGNS AND AD GROUPS

Advertisers first select keyword topics and create separate campaigns. For example, pay-per-click professionals can create a “coffee table” campaign. Within this campaign, there are thematic subcategories called ad groups. These ad groups can include:

Oval Coffee Tables

Long Coffee Tables

Round Coffee Tables

There are then themed keyword variations within each ad group.

DIFFERENT TYPES OF KEYWORDS

Keywords play a crucial role in targeting products and ads. Assignment of proper keywords would lead users to the ads. The seven types of keyword matches are:

Exact: Information provided must be typed in exactly.

Exact(close variant): Information should be typed in exactly but there can be some errors or other variants.

Phrase: Information be typed precisely even if there are other variants or additional terms before or after the information.

Phrase (close variant): Even if there are additional terms before or after the Query, the Query must be typed correctly. The Query could have any misspellings or errors.

Broad: information can be typed in any order. Ads will show for related searches.

Modified broad: The Query typed can be in any order but must include a plus sign.

Broad (session-based): A broad match includes other queries from that user’s search session.

NEGATIVE KEYWORDS

Unqualified traffic can be removed by using negative keywords along with positive keywords. For example, a person searching for “free products” isn’t trying to buy the product but to receive it for “free”. Hence, a high-end company selling products to customers could use keywords like “discount” or “cheap” as negative keywords.

AUDIENCE

Users can be segmented into audiences in a variety of ways. Audiences are used in remarketing. Advertisers may bid higher when remarketing to cart abandoners than to landing page visitors.