If you’re looking to get your new company off the ground, a PPC for small business campaign might be what you need. FSB estimated that in 2021, there were 5.5 million UK private sector businesses. Of these, 4.2 million had no employees. That’s a lot of company owners who have to worry about their marketing alongside running their business.
Pay-per-click (PPC) advertising can ease this burden. It can achieve quick results, and gives you control over where your advertising spend is going.
What is PPC?
PPC advertising allows companies to advertise on search engines and websites. Think of the ‘ads’ that appear above organic results on a Google search. Or an advert for something you’ve previously viewed showing up on your Facebook feed.
PPC can be useful and cost-effective for several reasons:
- You only pay for adverts that are clicked on
- You can control how much you are willing to ‘bid’ on certain keywords
- You can achieve fast results, by getting placed ahead of organic search results
- You can target prospects who are definitely interested in your product.
Making the most of PPC
Although it can achieve faster results than Search Engine Optimisation (SEO), PPC for small business still requires work to be successful. Here are four top tips to consider.
Analytics
When your business is just starting out, every potential lead counts. Retracking pixels allow you to keep yourself in your prospects’ minds. They allow your ads to appear to them on social media after they leave your site.
Similarly, Google Analytics is invaluable. It helps you understand who your customers are, how they get to your site, and what they do when they get there. In tandem with Google Tag Manager, you can build a comprehensive picture of your prospects, and how to bring them in.
When nearly 70% of online shopping carts are abandoned, understanding where people fall off the process is important. Through contact forms, email and livechat, you can show the human touch, and cultivate these leads.
Local targeting
Your business may benefit specifically from local prospects. By emphasising your location in your PPC keywords, you can ensure that people searching for services in your area will see your business.
You can see even better results by using Google My Business Profiles. This helps Google further identify your business as a local one. It also assists those searching for companies ‘near me’ see your bricks-and-mortar location.
Specific campaigns
PPC is a fantastic way of promoting one particular product or line in a concentrated way over a limited period. A good way to start a PPC for small business campaign is to have a narrow focus on a high-margin or high-volume area of your business.
Once you start seeing returns from this key area, you can expand your focus to include other, more niche products.
Alternatives to Google
Although Google sees the most traffic of any search engine, Microsoft Ads provides an alternative. Microsoft Ads can help your adverts appear on Bing, AOL, Yahoo, and their affiliated websites. Although these sites don’t see as much traffic as Google, they tend to have a higher click-through-rate. In part, this is because the Microsoft audience skews a little older, with the average searcher being 45 years old.
In short, PPC for small business is a good way of gaining quick traction in ecommerce, and targeting likely prospects. The trade-off is that it requires some serious attention to get results. If you’re looking for ways to get started, let WebHummel ‘bee’ there for you, and start your PPC journey – contact us today.
