Search advertising is also known as pay-per-click (PPC) advertising. It is a way to advertise your blog, organization, or product through search engine results pages. You only pay for each click on each advert. This type of advertisement is prevalent online, and it can be mighty when you use it correctly. This tactic is constantly evolving. At the very beginning you could only find text adverts; today, it has grown to include images, rich media banners, video, and a wide array of extras that make search advertising a dynamic and interactive way to make your offers known.
Keyword Based
On search engines, search advertising is keyword-based. Keywords are topics and ideas that your content deals with. For example, your content could be a landing page, a blog post, a home page, etc. Keywords are the user inputs into search engines. They are also known as search queries. The intent is crucial to understand keywords because some users are seeking to understand a topic, others are deciding between options, and others are looking to buy right now. When you align your campaigns with your visitor’s intent, you can immediately capture lots of value.
Google is the leading player.
In 2020 Google’s revenue was 181.69 billion dollars. Much of this revenue came from advertising (146.9 billion dollars). One reason is that advertising on search engines today means advertising on Google. With a virtual monopoly on search advertising, the search engine giant doesn’t seem to slow down, and I predict no serious competitor or disruption will change the status quo in the foreseeable time. You can also try other sources of paid traffic and make it work for yourself. For example, you can advertise con Yahoo!, Bing, or Baidu. You’ll find that prices can be more suitable for your project.
What is the conversion rate?
You can measure almost everything at a granular level on the internet, and search advertising is no exception. The conversion rate boils down to a simple formula. You take the number of conversions, then divide that number by the number of total advertisement interactions. As an example, if you had 100 conversions from 2,000 interactions, your conversion rate would be 5% since 100 / 2,000 = 5%. You can continuously improve your conversion rate and have many ways to do so. The vital element to consider is that you can always measure how your campaigns are performing.
What is Cost Per Click?
Cost Per Click, abbreviated as CPC, is a revenue model used in online advertising. A business bills advertisers how many times visitors click on an ad adhered to their websites. It’s the main alternative to CPM, or cost per thousand, where a company charges by the number of advert impressions. Cost Per Click is usually used by publicists who dispose of a daily budget to run their campaigns. So, how much do you pay for a click? There are standard formulas, and you’ll also find some other companies use a bidding process.
Search Engine Results Page (SERP)
So, you visit a search engine, and you write your keywords. Maybe you conduct a voice search through your smartphone. The result will be the Search Engine Results Page. This list of websites is ranked from top to bottom. The web pages at the top are more likely to fulfill your quest to find information. When you post your ads on a search engine, your adverts will usually appear on top. This makes it very likely for the user to click them. You have direct and almost instant communication with your target audience.
Google AdWords
Would your ads be shown at the top of the SERP (Search Engine Result Page) in Google? Then you can advertise in the Google search engine through Google AdWords. It is a Pay Per Click platform where you can promote. You choose the keywords you want to target and then pay to get them ranked. Your adverts can also appear on partner sites. As your audience browses the web, they will receive targeted ads in text or images.
Since most ads are relevant, your user will be more likely to click on the advert.
What is an organic result?
When you publish an ad, an indicator shows it’s an ad. Organic results appear on a Search Engine Results Page, not because of search engine marketing but because they are relevant to the search term. Sometimes, they carry Search Engine Optimization (SEO) efforts with them. These “natural” search results closely match the user’s query and are positioned where they appear due to the search engine’s algorithm. When this result ranks high organically, it can be attributed to good Search Engine Optimization efforts. These organic results are not influenced by paid advertising.
Return on Investment
Return on Investment (ROI) is a measure based on performance that qualifies how profitable an investment is. It’s easy to calculate. You take the benefit of the investment and divide it by how much the investment costs. There are many ways to measure a search advertising campaign’s ROI, and you should use the one most aligned with your goals. For example, you’ll find that ROAS (Return on Ad Spend) measures how much revenue your blog or business earns per dollar invested in advertising.
You’ll be glad to know that the average ROAS for Google Ads is 200%. That means you earn $2 for each $1 invested. This also means you can make much more than this average if you know what you’re doing.
A possible approach for using Pay Per Click Ads
Maybe you’re doing content marketing and want to understand that you can benefit from search advertising. You can use it at the beginning of your efforts to get traction. Content marketing usually takes time to see results, but you can jumpstart this process by investing in ads when you begin to work on your blog or business. Your results will be almost immediate. When you create a new sales funnel, you may want to test if it’s working seamlessly. This means you can tackle problems before they arise and plan and choose your best course of action.
