Contemporary society offers consumers a kingdom of e-commerce with unprecedented access to every product available worldwide. Competition between online businesses, however, is vigorous and pay-per-click advertising presents an opportunity to surpass the competition.

What is Pay-Per-Click Advertising?

Pay-Per-Click (PPC) advertising is an advertising channel whereby advertisements are paid for when they are clicked by an online user; rather than conventional methods of paying purely for ad placements.

PPC advertising comes in different formats depending upon the product or service being sold, the platform or website the advertisement is displayed on, and the intended effect of the ad.

The simplest form of PPC advertising is a ‘text ad’, which typically imitates a Google or Bing search result. ‘Display ads’ and ‘shopping ads’ account for the remaining portion of PPC advertising formats. Display and shopping ads both present images of their product, accompanied by some basic text. Shopping ads, however, are focused on a single product, whereas display ads seek to provoke interest. For example, a display ad for shoes may feature an array of shoe styles, whereas a shopping ad will focus on a single pair of shoes.

The Prominent PPC Platforms

Google Ads is the PPC platform for Google and accompanying websites, such as YouTube. To gain a place in Google’s advertising space, an advertiser’s Ad Rank is calculated. Two factors affect an Ad Rank, the quality of the ad, and the amount an advertiser is bidding per click. Google emphasises user experience, and the qualitative Ad Rank factors include:

  • relevance,
  • landing-page quality,
  • and the click-through rate.

Ads with the highest Ad Rank for the chosen keywords attain advertising space.

Microsoft Advertising is Bing’s PPC platform, along with Microsoft owned websites, such as MSN. Similar to Google Ads, Microsoft Advertising is based upon the price an advertiser is bidding per click, multiplied by an ad’s quality score, which assesses the same factors as Google’s Ad Rank.

Amazon Advertising is an increasingly popular PPC platform, which focuses on shopping ads for products sold via Amazon. Whole brands, stores, or a single seller can bid for a priority position. Unlike Google or Microsoft, Amazon only assesses relevance and bid price due to the focused nature of the Amazon platform as an online shopping centre.

How PPC Advertising Can Help

PPC advertising offers a fast-tracked way to the top of a Google, Bing, or Amazon search results page; advertisers are effectively purchasing a prime position. This is one of the fastest ways to drive a significant amount of traffic to a website and grow conversion rates. Conventional methods of attaining a high-ranking search engine result can take years of competing with pre-existing and established online businesses.

Paying for leads can be profitable as the end sale generates more than what was spent, and attaining ad space proffers brand awareness. Different industries have different costs for PPC ads. For example, a PPC ad for a lawyer shall cost more than an ad for sandals. PPC platforms offer control features over daily and monthly budgets, hence, accidentally overspending on PPC advertising is impossible.

PPC ads are targeted which brings the ad directly to users who are likely to make purchases. PPC ads can be refined to target users based on:

  • location,
  • device,
  • time of day,
  • keywords,
  • or a combination of the aforementioned, amongst other factors depending upon the PPC platform.

Data is crucial to determining the success or failure of advertising, and PPC offers data instantly. Any necessary adjustments to the target audience can be realised and made quickly to proffer a successful campaign.

Get in touch if you would like to hear how Ampology can help your business to maximise income through PPC advertising.