4 Reasons PPC Ads Are Still a Relevant Marketing Strategy

Editor's Note: Take a look at our featured best practice, Digital Marketing Plan Template for 2024 (17-page Word document). Business owners dedicate a significant amount of time and effort to attracting new customers. A well-executed digital marketing plan is the key to achieving this goal. To ensure success, one successful company developed a comprehensive quarterly and yearly marketing plan to track its progress [read more]

Also, if you are interested in becoming an expert on Digital Transformation, take a look at Flevy's Digital Transformation Frameworks offering here. This is a curated collection of best practice frameworks based on the thought leadership of leading consulting firms, academics, and recognized subject matter experts. By learning and applying these concepts, you can you stay ahead of the curve. Full details here.

* * * *

Have you been experimenting with PPC ads on platforms like Instagram, Facebook, Amazon, and Google? Are you disappointed with your results or confused about how to make it work?

If you’re running into issues with your PPC ad campaigns and you’re starting to wonder if PPC ads are still relevant, the answer is yes – PPC ads are still an important marketing strategy. However, when you hire a professional PPC ad agency, you don’t have to struggle with your campaigns.

Whether you work with an ad agency or want to continue running your own ads, here are several reasons to keep including PPC ads in your overall marketing strategy.

1. Targeted PPC ads reach real people in your target market

It’s easy to get discouraged when your PPC ads aren’t working. You might be wondering if your ads are even being seen by real people. Yes, your ads are being seen by real people, and if your settings are correct, you’re reaching your target market.

Running PPC ads will reach real people in your target market, but you have to be strategic with where you run your ads. Running ads on Instagram, for example, requires a different strategy than running ads on Amazon.

You’ll reach your market on both platforms, but people won’t be in the same frame of mind while browsing both websites. For example, on Amazon, you’ll reach more people who are ready to buy.

2. An optimized PPC ad campaign will generate conversions

Most people – and even some ad agencies – struggle to generate conversions from PPC ads. The problem that prevents conversions isn’t always obvious. There are several reasons most PPC ads don’t convert:

• The ads aren’t being tracked and analyzed for optimization. Your first PPC ad won’t be a huge success right off the bat. You have to continually optimize your ads to make them a success. In order to optimize your ads, you need to be tracking the right data.
• The ads and landing pages aren’t being split-tested. Split-testing is the best way to find out which elements contribute to conversions. Both ads and landing page elements need to be split-tested, including headlines, ad copy, images, colors, and more.
• Optimizing PPC ads requires more than just focusing on keywords. Keywords are important, but they aren’t persuasive on their own. An effective PPC ad requires persuasive ad copy that gets people to click. However, there’s one more layer that makes designing effective PPC ads even more challenging.

Your PPC ad will shape how people see your landing page. You’ve heard of persuasion, but this is pre-suasion – a term coined by expert marketer Robert Cialdini. In a nutshell, people will be influenced by whatever they are exposed to before visiting your landing page. Your ads and landing pages are not separate experiences. With enough marketing expertise, you can use this to your advantage to generate more conversions.

• Ad landing pages are not properly constructed to support conversions. You could run the best PPC ads in the world, but if your landing pages aren’t optimized for conversions, your campaigns won’t convert.

As you can see, running a PPC ad campaign is more complex than just tossing up an ad that goes to your website. The ideal solution is to hire a professional marketing agency to create, run, test, and optimize your entire marketing campaign, including PPC ads and landing pages.

3. PPC ads on Google are extremely easy to track

Every successful PPC ad begins with extensive tracking. Google’s PPC ad platform has an exceptional tracking system for ads. According to Search Engine Journal, Google provides high-level performance details like impressions, clicks, and conversions. You can also access your Google Analytics site stats to see what kind of traffic you’re generating with your ads.

Being able to track your site stats with Google Analytics makes Google the top choice for running PPC ads. When using GA, it’s easier to collect all the data you need to see the big picture surrounding your ads. For example, you can see exactly what you spent on your ads and how that ad traffic impacted your business goals.

4. You can choose your budget

When you’re on a tight marketing budget, PPC ads are great. You can choose how much money you want to spend on your ads. Other marketing channels are more expensive and you need a large budget just to get started.

PPC ads are here to stay

PPC ads won’t disappear anytime soon. They will remain relevant as long as people are using the internet to conduct business. If you haven’t already launched a PPC campaign, don’t wait – your target market is out there.

Want to Achieve Excellence in Digital Transformation?

Gain the knowledge and develop the expertise to become an expert in Digital Transformation. Our frameworks are based on the thought leadership of leading consulting firms, academics, and recognized subject matter experts. Click here for full details.

Digital Transformation is being embraced by organizations of all sizes across most industries. In the Digital Age today, technology creates new opportunities and fundamentally transforms businesses in all aspects—operations, business models, strategies. It not only enables the business, but also drives its growth and can be a source of Competitive Advantage.

For many industries, COVID-19 has accelerated the timeline for Digital Transformation Programs by multiple years. Digital Transformation has become a necessity. Now, to survive in the Low Touch Economy—characterized by social distancing and a minimization of in-person activities—organizations must go digital. This includes offering digital solutions for both employees (e.g. Remote Work, Virtual Teams, Enterprise Cloud, etc.) and customers (e.g. E-commerce, Social Media, Mobile Apps, etc.).

Learn about our Digital Transformation Best Practice Frameworks here.