A widely circulated article from the New York Times published last fall highlighted the rising costs of pay-per-click (PPC) advertising, like Google Ads. The article implied that PPC advertising has become too competitive (read: expensive) for most small businesses. While this is true for a lot of small businesses in a lot of industries, we’ve found that there is still plenty of opportunity for small-medium locally focused businesses to use PPC advertising to expand their reach online.

When compared to the traditional forms of advertising which local businesses have come to rely upon (e.g. phone books, radio, newspaper, TV. etc.), PPC advertising can actually be an extremely affordable and highly effective alternative. A properly managed PPC campaign will, by design, only send qualified visitors to your website. On top of that, you will only pay for those visitors if, and only if, they actually visit your website.

Most of the major search engines and social networks offer some sort of paid advertising platform. We generally recommend local businesses start with Google Ads, and then consider expanding to other platforms if necessary. For a short and simple introduction on who to build your first campaign, take a look at this video from Google.

In addition to affordability and effectiveness, a few more specific advantages of Google AdWords include:

  • Data: Google AdWords provides a wealth of data on those searching for your brand or services. This information includes search terms and user location data and when combined with Google Analytics, that data becomes extremely insightful and valuable.
  • Flexibility: Google AdWords gives advertisers the ability to quickly and easily add, edit or delete advertising campaigns based on seasonality, current promotions and market changes.
  • Control: The ability to control critical aspects of your advertising including budget, placement, location, day/time ads are displayed, device, etc.
  • Customization: Customize messaging based on product, service, location, searcher intent, etc.

If you’re looking for a quick and simple way to jump into the world of digital marketing, don’t overlook Google Ads and other PPC platforms, like Microsoft Ads. They may be exactly what you’re looking for. If you have spent time and energy optimizing your site for organic search, PPC can be an excellent way to supplement your organic traffic and further improve your search engine presence.

If you need help navigating the waters of paid search advertising, Zee Creative offers very affordable introductory PPC advertising services.