How Are PPC Campaigns Priced?
Are you looking for a way to quickly boost high-quality traffic to your website but having difficulty building momentum? Sometimes Search Engine Optimization (SEO) alone is not enough to get your site off the ground—after all, part of SEO is based on existing traffic.
Without existing traffic, the Google algorithm is less likely to rank your site highly enough to generate a significant amount of viewers (a percentage of which will then theoretically convert to leads). Pay-per-click (PPC) advertising is an effective way to make that first jump onto the top-ranking positions on Google. However, it’s important to understand how PPC campaigns are priced before you jump in.
What is PPC?
PPC, or pay-per-click, functions exactly the way it sounds like it does: Google will include your site at the top of their rankings in the “ads” section, ensuring visibility that would otherwise be out of reach. In return, you pay a fee each time someone clicks on your ad.
Getting the Most Out of PPC
To get the most out of your money, you’ll want to carefully plan the keywords you’re targeting for your PPC ads campaign. They must be relevant to your intended audience so that the people seeing the advertisement will open your site and stay on it. If they do not click on your ad—or immediately leave after they do—the algorithm will penalize your site by lowering your ad’s ranking. However, more popular keywords cost more. PPC is priced based on competition.
If many companies are targeting the same keyword, they will increase the price of that keyword by trying to outbid each other. A fine line exists between choosing cheaper, less popular keywords and ensuring those words are still highly trafficked and relevant to your business.
Budgeting for a PPC Campaign
So how much can you expect to pay? The good news is that PPC can fit into any budget, because the pricing is highly variable. However, that makes the cost harder to estimate. The price depends on how much competition exists for your keywords, your budget, and how often people click into your site from the ad. Additionally, the more relevant your ad is to people’s searches, the higher Google will rank your PPC Quality Score (QS).
Google decides this based on the traffic of your ad and how long those viewers stay on your site. A high QS can push your ad higher in PPC rankings even against a competitor with a higher bid. Google will never charge you more than your maximum bid, but if you strategize your PPC carefully, you could pay less for the same results.
Optimize Your PPC Campaign
For an accurate cost estimation for your business and goals, a digital marketing agency is your best bet. They will know how to use your budget efficiently to get the highest number of relevant viewers.
A good digital marketing agency will analyze your competition, develop a strategic advertising campaign, research keywords, write compelling ad copy, and continuously test performance to improve the campaign in a rapidly changing digital landscape. To learn more about how PPC could benefit your business within your budget, call BluShark Digital today.