Make sure to check out our previous blog Pay-per-click advertising and your business to learn more about what pay-per-click (PPC) advertising is and how it can help your business.
Different types of PPC ads
PPC advertising has various ad types, each with unique features and benefits. It's important to select the most suitable type of ad that aligns with your budget and advertising goals.
Here are some of the most common PPC ad types:
Search ads
When users complete a search, these ads appear at the top or bottom of the search engine results page (SERP). These ads are usually text-based, comprising a headline, description and URL.
With Search ads, you can target specific keywords (typically the queries users search when they want information about your products or services) as well as locations and devices to ensure that your ads reach the right people.
Display ads
These ads appear on display networks like the Microsoft Audience Network and the Google Display Network. Display ads are available as video, image or text based.
Display advertising can help you reach a wide audience, increase brand awareness and drive conversions through eye-catching visuals and specific targeting. These ads are ideal if you're looking to raise brand awareness or target customers who have shown an interest in your products or services.
Video ads
Video ads are typically displayed on platforms like YouTube. These PPC ad types are often engaging and visually compelling.
Video advertising lets you showcase your brand, reach new customers and drive conversions. You can also communicate lots of information about your products or services and your brand's voice. These ad types are great if you want to promote your products or services.
Amazon advertising
Amazon advertising allows you to reach a large audience with a high purchase intent on a trusted ecommerce platform.
Amazon uses an auction system to determine which advertisements to serve to customers. You’ll compete with other advertisers to bid on specific keywords where you want your ads to appear. Amazon then considers a variety of factors, including ad relevance and the bid amount.
Social media ads
You can run social media PPC ads on several platforms, like Facebook, LinkedIn and Pinterest. These ads often appear in users' feeds comprising ad copy, images or videos.
Visually appealing social ads encourage users to interact with your advertising. You can target users based on their interests and demographics, allowing you to create highly relevant ads that achieve great results.
How to set up your PPC ads
Let's explore the process of setting up a PPC campaign.
1. Establish your PPC campaign objective
A clear goal—whether it's to boost brand awareness, traffic or sales—will help you measure the success of your pay-per-click ads and make adjustments where necessary.
For example, if your goal is to drive traffic, but your ad isn't receiving many clicks, you can adjust the campaign by pausing underperforming keywords or adding more relevant queries.
2. Define your target audience
Audience targeting can heavily impact performance and is essential for your PPC campaigns.
Targeting a particular group of people can help you focus your advertising to make those impressions count.
3. Pick a PPC platform
Choose a platform to help you achieve your campaign goal while aligning with your audience targeting.
4. Select the right keywords
Search advertising, in particular, is driven by the keywords you bid on.
By selecting specific keywords for your campaign, you can reach target users more likely to engage with your brand and take action.
5. Optimise your landing page
One of the key goals of PPC advertising is to achieve clicks to your website. That's why optimising the landing page users will arrive on is crucial.
An optimised destination relevant to the user and your PPC campaign can help to improve the effectiveness of your advertising.
Find out more about landing pages in our two blogs: Landing pages and why your business needs one and Creating a landing page for your business.
6. Create your ad copy & assets
The next step when setting up your PPC advertising is creating ad copy and assets based on your chosen ad type.
A call-to-action is also valuable, encouraging users to take action.
7. Measure performance
It's critical to measure the performance of your PPC campaigns to assess whether you've achieved your goals.
Here are some metrics to consider:
- Impressions – the number of views your ad receives.
- Clicks – how many clicks your ad receives.
- Click-through rate – the percentage of people who clicked on your ad after seeing it.
- Cost-per-click (CPC) – the cost of each click on your ad.
- Return on ad spend (ROAS) – the total revenue you generate through your PPC ads compared to your total advertising cost.
How to write compelling PPC ad copy
One of the most crucial elements of PPC advertising is the effectiveness of your ad copy.
Here are a few tricks to writing compelling PPC ad copy:
- Write directly to the user – first person is more engaging and makes it easier to connect, which may lead to them taking action.
- Use your tone of voice – match your brand's voice and the language used on your landing page to improve user experience.
- Give them a good offer – have you enticed the user? Is the offer too good to miss?
- Include a CTA – motivate the user to take that action.
Let us know if you found this useful in the comments!
