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What is PPC and why use it?

03/02/202102/17/2021 by scmarketing

You’ve likely heard of the phrase PPC in relation to marketing but perhaps not really thought much more about it and how it could help your business. So, here’s some insight into PPC or shall we say, Pay Per Click advertising.

What is PPC?

Pay Per Click is online paid advertising which offers a targeted way to reach your audience. It gets its name from the fact that advertisers pay when someone clicks on an advert that they have running.

The most common form of PPC that advertisers use is paid search such as Google Adwords. This means that the ads will appear in relation to a relevant search that someone has conducted to find products or services.

There’s also banner advertising and remarketing where ads will appear on a partner website or follow you around when you’ve visited a company that’s running remarketing ads. These are also referred to as display advertising.

While Google Adwords is the most popular, you can of course also run PPC campaigns on other search engines such as Bing as well as social channels like Facebook or Instagram.

Why use PPC?

There’s a few reasons to consider PPC for your business.

If you need a boost in search engine results pages (serps) to help your search engine optimisation (SEO) or want to specifically target an audience segment then Pay Per Click advertising (PPC) can help your firm be found. It can help your business stand out in local search results against your competitors.

PPC can be very targeted to your specific audience. Just think of all the information you may have shared online about your age, gender, interests and location, all this and more can be used to market to specific people.

Unlike a traditional advertising campaign you can continually change online ads to reflect analysis. For instance, with Google Ads you can review regular recommendations for tailoring your ads even further. This means you can add and remove keywords or negative keywords, change the content of ads or snippets to help optimise performance.

Google Ads tips

For your Google ad search campaigns, create more than one expanded text ad so that the best ad can be found.
Create responsive search ads as well as text ads. This enables Google technology to create the best combination of title and text into the ad based on which is performing well.
Structured snippets allow prospects to see a preview of your services. This helps with standout on the search page.
Google display ads also offer a way to reach a wide number of people. These ads show across over 2 million sites, videos or apps – part of a Google Display Network. Ads will appear based on online activity.

Google AdWords certified

Each year at Smart Cow Marketing we ensure that we are Google AdWords certified and this year we are now a Google Certified Partner and the only Google AdWords Partner in Croydon.

While gaining the AdWords certification qualification year on year highlights our indepth knowledge and expertise on the fundamentals of setting up and managing successful AdWords campaigns. Being a Partner shows that Google trusts us even more with the support we offer clients.

This is probably one of the most important certifications there is with regards to Search Engine Marketing (SEM) and in particular Pay Per Click advertising. It is an important credential for marketers and one that is not lightly awarded. Receiving a Google AdWords certification means that Smart Cow Marketing continues to be recognised as being experts in digital marketing and PPC.

PPC agency Croydon

With many marketing tactics whether organic or PPC advertising, we can help guide you. We can provide a tailored digital marketing proposal for your business needs. Book a free consultation.

PPC resources

Understanding how remarketing can grow your business

11/18/201910/01/2019 by scmarketing

Have you ever seen those ads that follow you around the internet? A few days ago you searched for something online and then an ad for it shows up on a completely different website a few days later. This is remarketing and a very useful tool it is too.

Sales very rarely result from a smooth journey from ‘A’ to ‘B’. It normally takes a few side roads to get to the end goal and remarketing helps you guide people along the journey.

We’ve talked before about ease of navigation on your own website and in a similar way remarketing is another way of helping to reconnect visitors back to your website. As people scroll through Google the remarketing ads appear in a strategic position on the page.

It’s helping to increase brand awareness and trust for your product and services.

Benefits of remarketing

Here’s some of the benefits of remarketing to help drive sales and awareness of your brand:

You can really target your audience. When someone has added items to a shopping cart on your website but then disappears without completing a transaction, you can create a remarketing list specifically focussing on these people.
Be found. Remarketing is another way of getting you found online. Ads can show when clients are searching for your business on Google which really reinforces your brand message.
Be creative. It’s easy to create ads via the Google Ad gallery layouts which helps you to create an eye-catching campaign.
Increase sales. Conversion rates are more likely to increase overtime. The more users see an ad, the more brand awareness and trust is built. Although you’ll find that the CTR (click through rate) declines over time, the people who do click are more likely to convert to a sale

While cost for a remarketing ad can be a lot lower than a standard Pay Per Click ad campaign, both can work in tandem with each other to really reinforce the message of who you are.

Running remarketing ads on Google and Facebook is a great combination.

Book a Practice Growth Session

If you feel you need some support in getting your website optimised with a paid for digital marketing campaign, then get in touch with us today.

We also run Practice Growth Sessions which are tailored for businesses keen to grow and ready to invest in a digital marketing campaign to achieve their goals. You can book a session with us for £95.

Where organic misses pay per click can hit

11/22/202109/25/2019 by scmarketing

Pay Per Click (PPC) campaigns create adverts online so when your business is not being viewed in the natural results you can give it a little nudge with a paid campaign. While it can be somewhat complicated, as Google certified, we at Smart Cow can help small businesses navigate the terminology with a tailored campaign.

In this blog, we’ll run through AdWords management and the types of PPC campaigns you can implement.

Google AdWords

With a whopping 1 billion+ using Google search every month, it makes sense that your website is seen in search. While appearing on the first of a search engine results page in organic search is the goal, if your website is new you need to give it a bit of time before your keywords and phrases start to take effect. So, this is where a paid campaign can give your website a boost in search as a paid for ad will pop up towards the top of the first page of search.

Essentially AdWords Accounts are structured starting with a Campaign level, you can set up a number of Campaigns within this. Each Campaign then has AdGroups, so you can focus on really targeting your messaging. For example, you may want to focus on promoting CRM software so that would form one AdGroup within the Campaign. But then, in time, you may decide to push another product so therefore you can create another AdGroup. Each AdGroup can then have a number of Ads so you can have a range of messaging per AdGroup. You can then ‘throttle up’ or ‘down’ individual ads depending on how they are preforming. Then be specific with your keywords and the geographic area you’re targeting.

Social Media
Marketing

For the purpose of this blog we’re looking at paid for campaigns and a PPC campaign also applies to social media too. Although it’s worth noting that with all the social channels available at your fingertips, one size does not fit all. You need to carefully consider which channel is best for your business. If you’ve not already set up your channels, take a look at how we help our customers with their social media.

If you’re underway
with your social channels and are looking for a boost in followers or click
through to a special offer, then a PPC campaign can help. Our blogs on how to
boost posts for Instagram, Facebook and Twitter will give you an
idea of what you can do and how to do it from selecting a budget, attracting
more profile visits, increasing website traffic and choosing your
audience.

Keep your
messages simple

Remember who your target audience is when you tailor your messaging. Most PPC campaigns have a limited number of words you can use, so be clear and concise, this will also improve your quality score (where Google ranks the relevancy and originality in your PPC ads) . Campaigns that are very specific to the service, product and price are much more successful than a generic advert.

PPC Expert Croydon

If you feel you need some support in setting up a PPC campaign and all things PPC Marketing then get in touch with us today.

Sources: Business Insider via Search Engine Journal

Feeling festive with the John Lewis ad

11/30/2018 by scmarketing

The much-anticipated annual John Lewis Christmas Ad has finally aired. The release of the much-loved advert is often used as an indicator to start getting into the festive spirit, and a reminder that Christmas is just around the corner with its release about six weeks prior to the big day.

This year, John Lewis follows the story of Sir Elton John, beginning with him nostalgically playing his big hit ‘Your Song’ on his piano. It traces back in time through his concerts, 80’s dressing rooms, hippy campervans, and school performances to the Christmas in which he received his first grand piano. With the message ‘some gifts are more than just a gift’.

Some reviews such as the Guardian and The Drum have raised concerns that the company’s use of a celebrity marks a shift from creative and heart felt Ad’s and towards the simplicity of ‘star-power’.

However, at Smart Cow, we admire the use of using a national treasurer singing his emotional song as it brings people together through engaging on social media platforms. It gets everyone in the festive mood. The John Lewis advert is always going to have people rushing to Twitter and other social media platforms to share their opinions. The #EltonJohnLewis hashtag has been trending, allowing people to be a part of the conversation whether that be their love for Christmas, music or for Elton John.

At Smart Cow we loved the advert and it has put us all in a very Christmassy mood! Thanks to the John Lewis Ad it’s got us all inspired to start unpacking the tinsel and getting the halls all decked ready for Christmas!