When Should I Use PPC Ads for my Business?

 

PPC (Pay Per Click), or Search Engine Marketing (SEM), uses search engines like Google and Bing to make your product or service appear as the top search results when someone searches for a keyword related to your business.

Use PPC campaigns to drive traffic to your website with the hopes of generating a lead or possibly adding that user to a nurture campaign where you can develop them into a new customer.

 

When Should I Use Pay Per Click Ads?

People are searching for your products or services right now. Pay per click can be used to capture an audience that is already trying to solve their problem.

This is a great option for when you need quick results and want to generate leads fast. Other lead generation options available, like SEO, take more time to develop.

If you have more budget than time, use PPC to pay for website traffic from interested parties. The quality of the website visitors may not be as strong as organic traffic, but developing a foundation where you generate a lot of organic traffic can take a lot of time and effort.

Keep in mind, PPC ads can only drive traffic to your website. Once a user is on your website, your content that will keep them there. Make sure each promoted keyword is linking to a related landing page.

 

Should I combine PPC with LinkedIn Retargeting ads?

Yes. In the B2B world, LinkedIn retargeting can be a great addition to a multichannel campaign. You can retarget your website visitors that fit your ideal customer profile so that you’re not wasting budget on people that would never buy from you.

You can even exclude or suppress ads from being delivered to individual users, companies, job functions, or titles. This is a great way to help optimize your retargeting ad budget.

As always, keep your audience in mind. Are the people who buy from you spending any of their time on LinkedIn.

 

Should I combine PPC with SEO?

Absolutely! Combining PPC and SEO is a great idea if you have the time or the budget. You can also slowly reallocate budget between the two different tactics over time.

For example, if you’re just getting started you may want to use 80% of your budget towards PPC and then slowly move budget into SEO over time. Here’s a potential scenario:

  • Month 1: PPC = 80%, SEO = 20%
  • Month 2: PPC = 70%, SEO = 30%
  • Month 3: PPC = 40%, SEO = 60%
  • Month 6: PPC = 20%, SEO = 80%
  • Month 12: PPC = 50%, SEO = 50%

In the long run it’s more cost-effective to generate organic (unpaid) traffic because you don’t have to pay for each click. SEO-led organic traffic is always on, but it does require maintenance.

Remember that SEO is a long-term investment that will continue to provide results, and PPC only works when you have budget available for the ad channel to consume.

 

In Summary

We recommend using PPC ads all the time to help promote your business to the people and companies that are already in market and searching for a solution to their problem.

Combining PPC with other tactics like SEO and Retargeting is a great idea and they complement each other well to help drive relevant traffic and leads to your website.

To learn more about why Bay MarketForce could be the growth engine you’re looking for, please feel free to Contact Us or Book an Introduction Meeting.