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I am often asked whether you can do pay-per-click advertising or “Google Ads,” The answer is yes. This is usually followed by does that work. Therefore, in this post, I will discuss what is paid search marketing (as it is referred to in our industry) as clearly as possible so that you can understand the basics of this powerful marketing tool. I will also talk about the benefits you can get from paid search marketing if you do it right. In addition, I will share tips for using paid search effectively and the things that you should avoid doing when using paid search marketing.

What Is Paid Search?

Paid search is a digital marketing tool that allows marketers to get their ads shown on search engine results pages (SERPs). It is “paid” because the marketer pays money to the search engine’s owner (Google, Bing, etc.) for the service.

Specifically, you pay the search engine for every engagement your ads receive. With paid search ads, you bid for ad placement on SERPs.

Understanding Bidding Basics

For people who ask “what is Google paid search” and how do businesses bid on Google Ads, this is how to do it. 

Google Ads allows businesses to bid for their ads in many ways. So, you select the best option, depending on what matters most for your business. Your options are: 

• Impressions
• Conversions
• Clicks 
• Views (for YouTube video ads)

What’s your goal for paid advertising? If you offer veterinary services, maybe you want to show how your treatment procedures for pets with parvovirus or distemper.

In this case, your business may benefit from showing your procedures through YouTube ads. For this, your best option is to bid for “views.”

If you are an entrepreneur running a hiking club, perhaps you aim to entice people to sign up for your monthly newsletters. In this case, you should bid for “clicks.”

What do you want your advertisements to do? That will help you decide which among these four options is best for your business. 

Bids on Impressions

A Google Ads impression is counted every time your ad appears on a Google search result page. Each time Google displays your ad, the system counts it as one impression. 

First, you bid on a particular share percentage, which is your Impression Share goal. Say you bid for the target of 65%. This particular choice will guarantee that Google will show your ad on the topmost part of the search result page 65% of the times that your ad is set to be shown. 

With a focus on impressions only, you will pay the Google Network for every one thousand times your ad is shown and viewable to searchers. 

If you are trying to enhance your brand awareness, this type is one very good option. It also works best for businesses trying to get their logo or name in front of their target audience. 

Bids on Clicks

If your target for paid search is to attract people to engage with you on your website, then bid for “clicks.” With cost-per-click or CPC bidding, you only pay Google when a searcher visits your site after clicking on your advertisement.

When doing paid search, it is your keywords that you bid on. If your business is about HVAC services, you can bid on related local keywords, such as “North Carolina HVAC maintenance” or “NC cooling and heating service.”

According to the statistics site Statista, when choosing the best keyword phrases for any business using Google Ads, 95.88% of Google searches are at least four words. PowerTraffick says that nearly 7 out 10 have buyer intent keywords, such as purchase, buy, and shop, of all Google Ads that get clicked.

Bids on Conversions

With a bid for conversions, your first step is determining the amount you can pay for every conversion. That is the cost per action (CPA), which is the action that you want your potential clients to take on your website. 

Usually, the desired action is for sales, but depending on your goal, the desired action can be a submission of a person’s email details or signing up for monthly newsletters.

So, you specify on Google Ads your desired action, and Google will take note of that and try to come up with many conversions at the price you chose.

Bids on Views

For this type, you will do cost-per-view bidding or CPV. First, enter the maximum amount you are willing to pay for every view. For example, you set$ 0.25 as your highest bid. 

That means you will pay $0.25 or less for each time a user watches your video ad for 30 seconds. The viewing duration requirement can be less than 30 seconds, depending on the length of your video advertisement. 

You can also put interactive elements on your video ads. When the user engages with one of your interactive elements, you also pay Google for that. 

Interactive elements that you can put in your videos include: 

• Call-to-action (CTA) overlays
• Companion banners
• Cards
• Link to your website
• Link to your mobile app

Tip: Google Ads conducts an auction each time there is available ad space on a news site, a blog, or a search result page. When you place a bid on Google Ads, the amount you bid automatically joins an ongoing auction.

Take note that the bidding is all about keywords, not your ads. Make sure that you research the best keywords to use in your ads.

What Is PPC Advertising?

Here, I cover more details about search engine PPC or pay-per-click advertising, so you see how it goes hand in hand with paid search marketing. 

PPC advertising is a type of search engine marketing where advertisers pay a small amount for every click an ad receives. As a PPC advertiser, you pay for visits to your website instead of only ranking your ads organically.

Similar Meaning

The term PPC is synonymous with paid search marketing. The minute difference between these two terms tends to make people use them interchangeably. 

Fundamentally, “paid search” refers to all paid ads that can be placed on SERPs of Google, Bing, and other search engines. However, paid search uses the PPC model, which means that advertisers only pay when someone clicks on their ads. 

PPC has grown so popular to the point that “paid search” and PPC have become synonymous in meaning. If you check PPC guides, you will see that they usually refer to PPC as sponsored search. 

That is where it becomes ambiguous. It is because PPC ads can also appear on other platforms, such as Facebook and display advertising platforms. An example of display advertising is an ad banner found on a news website. 

Low-cost Advertising

One of the advantages of PPC advertising is the small fee that you will pay for each click. If your PPC campaign is effective and generates results, you will find that the 25 cents you pay per click pales in comparison to the revenue you will get in return.

Moreover, Google compensates advertisers who post relevant ads strategically targeted to the right audience. If you are consistent in creating relevant ad posts, Google will reward you by charging your ad campaign much lower than when you started using the platform.

You should carefully plan how you use the platform to spend less while raking in significant revenues from your ad campaign. PPC expense is one of the most critical points to understand and consider for those who ask, “How does paid search work?”

Why Do Paid Search: More Benefits

The marketing paid search strategy comes with more benefits, including: 

Local PPC for Small Businesses

If you run a small business that targets local consumers, you need a digital marketing agency specializing in local PPC marketing services. 

Local PPC is geared towards the acquisition of local consumers fast. With this digital marketing approach, you can see quick results in the form of your business name appearing on the first page of local SERPs. 

Ability to Optimize Your Ads

Another benefit of PPC marketing is the flexibility to make optimizations. You can control every aspect of your ads, including: 

• Keywords
• Ad extension
• Ad copy
• The landing page you will use for your ads. 

Based on the data that will be coming to your Google Ads PPC account, you can access which approach works, and which does not. 

Ability to Shift From Traditional Marketing to Digital That Promises Highly Targeted Campaigns

Compared to the old way of marketing, the modern PPC marketing technique allows you to target only the market audience with high intent to buy your products or services.

With the ability to leverage a highly-targeted campaign, you can be sure that every dollar you spend on PPC advertising has a high possibility of generating revenues for your business.

Here are some tips to make sure you increase your potential to earn revenue with a highly-targeted PPC campaign:

Begin Your Campaign With Research

Keyword research is key to your PPC success, but you must also understand the expectations of your target consumers.

• Who are your target consumers? (Location, demographics, interests, preferences, etc.)
• What do your target consumers buy from businesses like yours, and what are their expectations from your products?
• What pain points do they expect you to remedy?

Do Re-Marketing Advertising

Not all those who have visited your website will buy from you at the first instance. However, you can goad them to complete the purchase by placing remarketing ads that can stir their interest to reengage with you. 

Make sure that you emphasize the value of your business to your audience every time you create new or remarketing ads for them.

Financial Planning

There is also the benefit of PPC on financial planning. You can set up a daily or weekly budget plan for your paid search marketing. 

When you already have been raking in huge revenue from your campaigns, it is easy to increase the budget any time you think you are ready. There is no limit on the budget you want to allocate for your campaigns.

Flexibility to Adjust Your Campaigns

At any time in your PPC campaign, you can choose to emphasize any aspect of your business – product, brand, message, etc. 

Also, you can introduce new components to your campaigns any time you think it is necessary. This approach can help you ensure your ranking improves as your campaign progresses.

Another advantage of PPC is you get what you pay for. That means that for every click you pay for, there is really an engaged customer that has visited your website, which is not what you can always get from other online marketing tools nowadays. With PPC, you only pay for only genuine people that have visited your site.

What is exciting is that these people who have visited your site are seriously looking for the product or service that you feature in your ads. It is a way of ensuring that you get financial compensation via your marketing efforts.

Ability to Test a New Product

If you launch a new product and want to determine how it fares compared with your general product, PPC marketing allows you to evaluate that. If the product featured in your ad received a lot of clicks, you know that it is the best product that you should promote and allocate a higher budget for.

See Quick Results

PPC campaigns allow advertisers to get instant results that can help them steer their advertising in a better direction or approach. 

PPC is one of the best marketing techniques for all businesses, no matter the size. If you need to generate website traffic and sales for your business, PPC is one of your best advertising options.

Know how to make the most out of paid search marketing for your business. Click here.

How Effective Is PPC Paid Search Advertising?

How effective your PPC advertising will be will depend on how you run your campaign, your business type, and the product you offer.

If you have a new or a small business and want a large group of consumers to know about your business, you can do PPC. In this case, PPC advertising will produce quick results because the effect is immediate responses from your target consumers.

PPC advertising is also perfect for businesses with many different products to sell. You can simultaneously introduce several of your products with only a single ad.

To make sure that you enhance the effectiveness of your PPC campaigns, consistently perform the following:

Keyword Analysis

The cornerstone for successful PPC campaigns is keyword research. That is how you determine the keywords that will likely result in clicks and conversions for your business.

Keyword research is both art and science, where the best strategy is to understand your target audience and predict what word they actually type in the search box.

That is the best way to make sure your ads show in front of them at the right place at the right time when they are searching for the products your business offers.

Test Your Ad Messages

With the help of PPC marketing, you can do tests on your ad content and design. Effective ad content and design come with a strong quality of friendly audience reception, a high audience attention level, and strong credibility.

Effective ad design and content also encourage conversation, persuade your audience to take action, and highlight recall, efficiency, and acceptable frequency levels.

Test Different Markets

As your ads generate positive results from your target market, you also want to explore and test other markets. See how you can tweak your message for a new market audience to expand your reach and ensure a steady revenue stream. 

Use Different PPC Tools

Use many paid search marketing tools to ensure that you take advantage of many beneficial features available in every platform. 

Some of the best online and PPC advertising tools include Google Ads, Bing Ads, and Ahref’s Site Explorer. These platforms can help you determine the most valuable markets for your business. 

As a fast-growing PPC agency in North Carolina and the US, I totally understand that you need help to grow your small business fast, and I can help you achieve that goal in a few months. 

Learn the best PPC techniques from Cube Creative Design, and be able to manage your future digital marketing campaigns on your own. 

Mistakes to Avoid When Conducting a PPC Marketing Campaign

Here are mistakes that can wreak havoc on your PPC campaign:

Wrong Targeting

Make sure you target the right people with your ads. The wrong people are those people who do not care about your ads.

Improper Bidding

If your ads are not generating clicks, perhaps you need to raise your bids. Raise your bids. It will help you know if you have an ineffective PPC campaign or if it has landed in a very competitive space.

Be Careful With Ad Copies

Remember to consider what works from platform to platform. Your ad copy on Google Ads might not work well on the Bing platform. Before using another platform, study ads that do well on that platform and tweak your original ad to make it work well on the new platform you will be using it for.

Failing to Invest in Automation

PPC automation software is a great tool for maximizing and optimizing your budget. With PPC automation tools, you can easily find the best bids and target the right audience for your campaign. 

With PPC automation tools, you can also: 

• Set parameters to identify the best bidding strategy for your campaign: You can also upload data to help you take advantage of the bidding process to ensure it is always favorable to your campaigns.
• Use A/B tests that automation tools can perform for you:  Test multiple advertisements simultaneously to identify the best content and strategy for your PPC campaign.
• Failing to optimize for voice search: Today, more and more consumers use voice search when searching for products and services online. Voice search stats reveal that mobile searchers are three times more likely to use voice search to search for products and services online.

So, make sure you optimize your content and ads for voice search. For voice search optimization, follow the below tips: 

• Keep your ad copies short.
• Utilize short user-intent phrases. 
• Include natural fillers to match the words and keywords used by searchers. 

If you need help with your local PPC marketing or general digital marketing, Cube Creative Design can help. Grow your small business fast with the best digital marketing agency in North Carolina and in the US.

Let’s face it, utilizing social media to help bring in new clients and retain your current ones can be quite the balancing act. Your small business is missing out on a vast client base without any online presence. However, a company that overwhelms readers with too many posts may lose clients. What is the greatest way to engage your social media audience without having them unfriend you?

In many respects, you can cultivate a social media following by emulating the relationships that work in real life. Consider a networking event: would you prefer to meet with someone who engages you in a nice discussion about your field or someone who spends every breath attempting to sell you something? Your business can keep clients interested and engaged by cultivating a friendly rapport with your audience on social media. Instead of just “talking at” them, having a conversation with your audience can go a long way.  

Remember: you’re trying to reach your ideal clientele, many of whom live and breathe on social media. Posting compulsive, share-worthy content on the appropriate channels can only help grow your business. And when in doubt, pictures of puppies, kids, and cats are probably a good idea. It is the Internet, after all.

Here are the top seven social media marketing rules for local small businesses:

Isn’t it amazing how simple it was to promote your private school? Not too long ago, you could just mail out a brochure or postcard to interested families and then sit back and wait for the phone to ring and admissions appointments to be set. Unfortunately, that is no longer the case.

Private schools like yours need to have a marketing plan to market to a more savvy audience. Prospective families have an extensive list of criteria for a school for their children; they want their children to receive an excellent education at a price they can afford, and of course, like any parent would, they only want the best for their child. Private schools are in a competitive field, but marketing is a problem for many. 

As a Christian private school, how can you get the word out about your school? The simple answer is, and dare I say this, marketing your school like a business. Before you think I have gone crazy, think about it this way. A typical business markets its services. As a private school, you are just selling the business of education.

Therefore, marketing attracts prospects, prospects become students. However, marketing entails more than simply publicizing your school’s name. The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) says that marketing must establish a connection:

Local search engine optimization (Local SEO) is very beneficial for your small business. It is the channel that allows small businesses to gain online map visibility. With local SEO, your ultimate goal is to improve your ranking in the search results and bring in more visitors to your website. 

The highest benefit that you can get from doing local SEO and doing it right is the ability to find more clients from your local area. This ability is what you need to have as you learn the ropes and think about how to get local SEO traffic near me.

Without learning and utilizing local SEO, your business will miss a significant amount of traffic that it should be capturing. According to a 2017 Review Trackers study, 35% of all searches for local businesses worldwide are local searches.

Google Loves Local SEO

Google favors local SEO because it increases satisfaction among consumers looking for products and services near them. By connecting with the nearest business, clients can be served faster when they need a service or product. 

Local SEO for Different Types of Small Businesses

Many types of small businesses stand to benefit from using local SEO marketing, including:

• Contractors and developers
• Landscapers 
• Plumbers
• Electricians
• HVAC maintenance, repair, and installation services
• Cleaning and janitorial services
• Painters
• Autobody and automotive repair shops
• Veterinarians
• Chiropractors

As a business owner who is thinking about how to learn local SEO and successfully implement SEO marketing for your local business, know that there are strategies that can help you stand out from your competition. 

These types of businesses can cover wide geographic areas or hyper-local and are places where people are likely to search on Google. The trick is to make your business appear prominently in local search engine results. 

Below are the Top 10 local SEO Tips and Strategies to ensure you stay on top of your game.

 

1. Create Your Google Business Profile (GBP)

One of the best local SEO techniques for local search success is creating your Google Business Profile. Seasoned SEO professionals use this platform to leverage their local-based strategy. 

GBP is a free feature from Google that helps small businesses boost their online presence. Such a feature is part of Google’s growing portfolio of utilities for small businesses, including Google Maps. 

Set up Your Google Business Profile (GBP) Profile

Bright Local gives the following steps for setting up a GBP profile: 

• Create your Google account – Before you can set up a Google local business listing, you need to create a Google account. Visit google.account.com. Select “create an account” and follow the instructions to create your account. 
• Visit the GBP gateway – Type your business name in the box. This allows you to check if another business is already using it. If not, click “add your business to Google.”
• Add your business name and add its category. 
• If your business provides home deliveries or services, enter the location of your business and indicate the areas that your business serves.
• Add your contact details.

Google Business Profile (GBP) Listing Tips

Optimize your GBP listing because it ensures that your local business is in the best position to be easily found by potential clients. 

Here is how to optimize your GBP listing: 

Encourage Reviews 

Consumers trust businesses that have 4-star and 5-star reviews.

Avoid spammy tactics – Do not use automated content on your GBP page. Keyword stuffing is another big no-no for GBP. If Google detects spam activities on your GBP, it will flag your website and business as dishonest. 

Respond to Negative Reviews

Reach out to your disappointed clients and try to apologize for any bad experience they have with your business. 

In short, show them that you care about their situation and promise that you will deliver a better client experience the next time they engage with your business. 

Use GBP Tools

One such tool is Google Marketing Kit. This tool allows users to create: 

• Free stickers
• Free posters 
• Social media posts

GBP also allows people to follow your profile on the platform the same way they can on Instagram or Facebook. With such functionality, you can update your followers on your business: 

• New social posts
• Events
• Blog posts
• Product updates
• Offers

2. Get Reviews From Clients

According to a study conducted by Moz, one of the factors that Google considers for local search ranking is review signals. The ranking aspects considered here include review quantity, review velocity, review diversity, etc.

So, focus on encouraging clients, particularly positive client reviews. It can work wonders in boosting your visibility and enhancing the reputation of your business. 

The concept of review signals does not only apply to GBP. It also applies to directory sites and social media sites. That is because Google expects businesses to have reviews posted on these sites.

Getting your clients to write glowing reviews is one of the best ways to attract local audiences to engage with you. According to a 2017 local consumer review survey, at least 8 out of 10 customers consider online reviews as much as they consider personal recommendations. 

3. Optimize for Voice Search

Voice search started as a small concept. It has evolved to become an essential tool for local search optimization. The ease of using voice search is second to none, and online product searchers cannot get enough of it.

Today, the market is experiencing a voice search revolution, so much so that every consumer is expecting all businesses to optimize voice search for product searchers and clients. 

Optimize your voice search local SEO with the following strategies: 

Understand Your Clients’ Device Behavior

Real-time data on consumer insights allows businesses to understand how consumers use voice search and their devices to perform voice searches. 

Use Conventional Keywords

Focus on long-tail keywords because naturally-spoken phrases are usually longer than the shorter phrases used in creating content. 

Build FAQ Pages

Remember Voice searchers usually express their questions starting from these words: who, when, where, what, and how. Ensure that you also build your FAQ pages with questions starting with these words.

Provide Content With Schema Markup

Google deciphers language by taking note of schemas, and schemas are the tools that add information to your site. That makes you ready to answer queries from your potential clients.

4. Local News Stories and Events for Content Creation

Let’s say you run a pest control business. The trick is to create different pages for each of the local locations you operate and create hyper-local content that talks about the latest pests based on the season and what is active in your local service area. That is how you rank your pages for every locality your business serves.

Thus, you should create content based on local keyword searches and centered on local events and news. So, also use industry keywords that target local audiences.

In other words, any local event that resonates with your home or business audiences should be considered for building your local SEO content, which is one of the best ways to link and direct local users to your website.

5. Optimize Your Website for Mobile

Here are the stats for mobile optimization for local businesses:

• In 2018, a study compared desktop and mobile device utilization for visiting websites. The findings of the study showed that there was a fast shift to mobile from desktop. Mobile website visits were 57% in 2016 and 63% in 2017, while website visits from desktops were continuously shrinking.
• Research by Acquisio and LSA found that more and more mobile searches end with an in-store visit. Researchers found that 75% of mobile searches with local intent culminate with an in-store, offline visit within 24 hours.

 

Some of the ways you can improve the user experience for mobile targeting include:

• Improve the load time of your website pages.
• Implement an easy-to-use navigation system by integrating a responsive design.
• Do not use too many redirects – Make sure that users can access the website page they have requested rather than giving them a page other than the one they needed to access.

6. Leverage Local Keywords

Local keywords can help you capture local audiences that search your products online. To be able to know the best local keywords to use in your content and ads, always start with the root keyword. Based on this keyword, come up with long-tailed keywords for high-intent purchasers.  

You can use a keyword research tool like aHrefs, SEMRush, or Moz. Another local keyword finder you can use is Google Ads.

If your website is still under construction, you better study the keywords that your competition is using and see if you can use them on your site.

7. Use Location-Specific “About Us” Page

If you have multiple offices in different locations, create unique pages and content for each. These pages should include information depending on the following unique details:

 

• Google map
• NAP (name, address and phone number)
• Products and services
• Promotions
• Testimonials
• Parking availability
• Operating hours, etc.

8. Use Online Directories

Online business directories are websites that allow businesses to post their information. Some of these websites include YellowPages, MapQuest, Foursquare, and Yelp.

Ensure that the information you input in directories is consistent across all these platforms. Otherwise, Google will get confused about inconsistent entries and cause it to flag your business and website.  

Here are two tips: 

• Display your business information (NAP – name, address, phone number) prominently on your homepage so people can quickly locate it. 
• Your information on directories needs consistent management. Directory citation management, along with mobile-friendliness, is a ranking indicator that matters much for local SEO.

9. Leverage Link Signals 

Link signals for local SEO are backlinks leading to your website, and according to a study by Moz, these signals are essential elements in ranking in local packs.

Local packs or snack packs are the three websites suggested by Google for searchers that search for products offered by your business. 

A local pack is a map-based display that searchers can use to find business addresses, star ratings, and contact details. 

It is usually displayed in the upper left corner of the search results page. 

With this part of local SEO, the trick is to earn high-quality links from high-quality, authority sites. 

Here are three tips:

• Create unique, quality content that competes well.
• Let authority sites be aware of your existence. Link your content to them.
• Use guest posting. Connect with authority sites by sharing your content with them and, if possible, guest-post content on their sites.

10. Create a Dedicated Page for Products and Services 

It empowers your local SEO if you dedicate one page to each product or service your business offers. 

That is because Google does not see a brand as an authority in only one specific area. Thus, crowding everything on one page is counterproductive for your SEO ranking. 

If your business has many locations, you must dedicate a unique page for each branch and each of your products or services. Location-based SEO also needs to use different keywords (e.g., plumber Asheville, plumber Hendersonville, plumber Black Mountain, etc.).

Final Thoughts

All the staff here at Cube Creative Design and I are ready to help you and your business become more visible in local search results on Google. Contact us for a free consultation today!