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If you’re not satisfied with the organic search results you’re getting, you may want to consider another option: pay per click (PPC), also called paid search advertising. If your line of work is particularly competitive, you may have found that your SEO efforts aren’t achieving the results you’re after. You may want to consider PPC advertising to supplement the organic (free) searches that are bringing people—hopefully customers—to your site.
Types of Search Results
There are two types of search results: organic and paid. Organic
refers to search results you don’t pay to acquire. If your SEO, blogging and
listings are enough to get your website premier search results, that’s
fantastic. If not, PPC can help get you more visibility in search engine page
results.
When you do a Google search, there are several results at the top
of the page with a small “Ad” designation. Those are “Google Ads” paid search
results, which is Google’s paid search advertising platform. (While other
search engines, like Yahoo and Bing, have similar paid search vehicles, here
we’ll focus on Google Ads (formerly called AdWords) because almost 80% of
searches are conducted via Google.
How Paid Search Works
PPC advertising involves an auction with you (and your
competitors) bidding on keywords (e.g. Dallas Digital Marketing Agency). If, when, and where your ads
appear in a Google search is determined by your Ad Rank, which is calculated by
your ad’s quality score and your maximum cost-per-click bid, which is the
highest price you are willing to pay for a click on your ad.
Obtaining coveted page one results from paid search advertising
takes more than simply outbidding your competitors, however. If your max bid is
$2 and your quality score is the highest of all bidders in the auction, your ad
may appear higher than an ad with a $6 max bid but a lower quality score. You
are only charged when a viewer clicks on your ad and is directed to your
website. Quality score plays a big role in determining ad position.
How is Quality Score Calculated?
Quality score is a measure of the quality of your ad and its
landing page, relative to the keyword. Ad quality is determined by factors such
as expected click-through-rate, the ad’s relevance, and the landing page
experience, which includes relevance, page load speed, and usability on mobile
devices. The bottom line is, you can’t buy your way into the top position on
Google Ads. You must optimize your ads and your website to be successful with
PPC. In short, the higher the quality of your ads and landing pages, the better
the return on your investment.
And, like everything regarding digital marketing, PPC advertising
isn’t a set-it-and-forget-it proposition. Each time someone performs a search,
a new auction is conducted. Advertisers adjust bids, ad spend, ads, and other
factors on a daily basis. In an effort to improve their product and stay on
top, Google updates, revises and changes Google Ads continuously. So, what
worked last week may produce different results today.
Questions about digital marketing?
Talk to the tenured,
highly experienced professionals at d2 Designs. d2 is the most innovative
digital marketing agency, creates, executes and manages multi-marketing
solutions for customers with a focus on brand engagement that optimizes the
digital experience through traditional media, social media, lead gen and key
analytics, e-commerce and experiential events. Check us out at d2.designs,
or email us at info@d2.design.
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