Back to Basics: What is PPC?

Even in the fast-paced world of digital marketing, the core fundamentals of marketing channels such as PPC often remain the unchanged and can be applicable across most online retailers or service providers.

PPC is a fantastic lever businesses can pull in order to kick start measurable growth online. It can be useful for everyone from small, local retailers all the way to huge, multinational businesses.

This article aims to define the basics of PPC, demystify the Google Ads auction system and give pointers on some of the key strategies needed to see success in PPC.

What does PPC stand for?

PPC stands for Pay-Per-Click. It’s an online advertising type where advertisers pay each time one of their ads is clicked. In the simplest terms, you are purchasing visits to your website, rather than attempting to “earn” those visits organically. The most common provider of PPC ads is Google Ads, followed by Microsoft Ads.

What is PPC?

PPC allows businesses to bid for ad placements in a search engine’s sponsored links when a user searches for a keyword related to their products or services.

Unlike traditional advertising (like billboards or TV spots), PPC is highly targetable and measurable. Whether you’re selling coffee beans online or driving appointments for financial services, PPC allows you to reach users at very intent moments of their purchase journey.

How does PPC work?

PPC generally works on a real-time, auction-based system. Here’s what usually happens:

A user types a query into Google such as “buy running shoes online”.

Google’s system identifies relevant ads for that keyword and runs an auction instantaneously among eligible advertisers.

Google then determines which ads to show and in what order using Ad Rank. It takes into account things such as bids, ad relevance and quality score.

The winning ads are then displayed and if the user clicks, the advertiser pay for the click.

What is a PPC campaign?

A PPC campaign is a collection of ad groups, keywords, and ads that share a common objective and budget. For a retail client, you might have separate campaigns for different product categories. For example, winter coats would be in a different campaign to summer dresses. For a lead-gen client, you might separate them by service. For example a Mortgage Advisor campaign vs. a Retirement Planning campaign. This structure allows you to manage budgets and measure specific performance against your goals.

What are negative keywords in PPC?

Negative keywords allow advertisers to block certain search terms that they don’t want ads to appear for. For example, if you sell premium products, you might add negative keywords like “cheap”, “free”, or “used”. Adding negative keywords helps to reduce wasted spend on irrelevant search terms and generally improves ROI.

What are the benefits of PPC?

Fast results: Unlike SEO which can take months to deliver results, PPC campaigns can be launched and usually start to perform fairly quickly.

Measurability: PPC can be tracked and measured allowing businesses to track return on investment, unlike traditional media which is much harder to attribute results to.

Automation: The rise of automated bidding and AI means PPC is more efficient and accessible than ever, resulting in better returns.

How effective is PPC?

PPC can be incredibly effective when executed well as its effectiveness is driven by its ability to capture high purchase intent. Users are usually actively searching for your products or services which places them at a very high chance of conversion. When managed correctly, it can drive a strong ROI that can be scaled.

How can PPC help your business?

PPC aligns directly with many business objectives. For retailers, you can use PPC to drive online sales, promote seasonal offers and even increase local footfall to stores. PPC can also be used for driving leads such as form fills or phone calls.

Does PPC work for small businesses?

Yes! A common myth is that you need to have a large budget to be successful on Google, but this is not the case. Small businesses can find success with Google Ads by creating highly targeted campaigns. Unlike expensive brand building campaigns such as TV advertisements, you will only pay for the specific traffic you receive making it very cost effective.

How to create a PPC strategy

A successful PPC strategy requires careful planning, testing and continuous optimisation. You should always first consider your overall business goals when planning out a PPC strategy. Try taking into consideration the following things:

• Set your goals by defining what success looks like. For example a ROAS of 400% or CPA under £50.
• Research your audience to understand who you are targeting and the keywords they are searching for.
• Organise your campaign structure based on categories, keeping tightly themed ad groups.
• Create compelling ads and build high quality landing pages.
• Choose the right budgets and bidding that align with your goals.

How to improve your PPC performance

PPC is not a set and forget channel. It requires continuous management and testing to maintain performance, especially with frequent changes to Google’s AI. Some good starting points to improve PPC performance include:

Data quality: Google’s AI relies heavily on the quality of data being fed into their systems. You should use accurate conversion tracking and leverage signals such as lifetime value and new vs returning customer data to find your most valuable customers

Creatives: You should be continuously testing copy, image and video assets to find what resonates best with your customers. Performance Max performs best when it has a diverse range of creatives to work from.

Landing page quality: You could drive the best quality traffic from your PPC campaigns, but if your landing page and website is not set up for success, you’ll struggle to convert. If you’ve optimised your campaigns but still aren’t seeing the performance, it’s time to start looking at optimising your website.

Does PPC help SEO?

PPC doesn’t directly help boost SEO rankings but there are benefits of the two channels working together. Treating the two synergistically can have many long-term benefits.

For example, if you rank highly for certain keywords and there is low PPC competition in the auctions, you may wish to reduce your PPC spend to save on budget.

On the contrary, by occupying the top paid spot and the top organic spot, you dominate the search result page, increasing your brand visibility and click-through rate.

You can also quickly test keywords via PPC to see which terms drive traffic and conversions before investing heavily in longer term SEO content creation.

Learn more about SEO by checking out our Back to Basics: SEO article.

How to learn PPC

There are many free and paid for online courses to learn PPC. These courses paired with hands on experience is a great way to increase your knowledge of the channel.

Google Skillshop offers free certification courses created by Google Ads and can provide a good baseline knowledge.

It is also recommended to follow leading agencies (like ours!) and industry thought leaders for updates and guidance on platforms such as LinkedIn.

You can also set up a small, low budget test account. Getting hands on and actually building campaigns, writing ads, and monitoring live performance is the best way to learn.

Alternatively, if a business does not have the knowledge or resource internally to manage their own PPC, choosing to use a PPC agency is a good option.

What is a PPC agency?

A PPC agency is a specialised digital marketing firm that manages and optimises Pay-Per-Click campaigns for clients.

A good PPC agency offers more than just campaign management. They provide:

• Strategic direction: Defining high-level goals and the best channel mix to achieve them.
• Optimisation expertise: Deep tactical knowledge of bidding, targeting, and the latest Google Ads features.
• Efficiency: Saving you time and preventing costly mistakes by leveraging their experience across accounts.

Hiring an agency is often the most cost-effective and scalable way to harness the power of PPC for business growth.

If you’re in need of a PPC agency, get in touch with our team!