Small businesses need to get their advertising strategy right in order to survive in the competitive business landscape. Online advertising has been great for small businesses because it often provides a cost-effective solution to increasing business visibility. One of the key online advertising strategies to keep in mind is pay-per-click or PPC advertising.

What is it exactly and why your small business use pay-per-click adverts in 2017?

What are PPC adverts?

Pay-per-click is sometimes also referred to as the cost-per-click advertising. It’s a marketing strategy that directs people to your website through adverts on other sites. By clicking the advertisement, the person is taken to your business website to make a purchase and so on. Generally speaking, the advertiser (your small business) will provide a fee for the website owner or the PPC platform that pushes your ads for each time the advert is clicked.

PPC adverts are most often linked with Google AdWords and Microsoft Bing Ads. However, any website can essentially sell PPC advertisement.

The five reasons your small business should use PPC adverts in 2017

According to research done by Nitin Y, Marketing Analyst at Frugaa, PPC is extremely popular option for small businesses. But why are small businesses so keen to use PPC? There are five compelling reasons this year should be the year you start utilizing PPC adverts.

 

You get more focused adverts

Targeting ads to the right audience is imperative. If you don’t speak directly to your potential customers, you will end up wasting both time and money. With PPC adverts, you have a much better focus on only being visible for those that actually want to hear your message. This is because PPC ads allow you to narrow your ads by geography, time and you can even create personalized messages to visitors in a specific type of website. The more personalized your ads, the higher your conversion rates will be.

 

You’ll start seeing results fast

Since your ads are more targeted, you will see results quicker as well. With many other marketing campaigns, even some of the other online campaigns like blogging, the results can take days if not months. With PPC marketing, you can create ads today and start seeing results in minutes. You don’t need a lot of fancy things to get started. All it takes is a website, a few ad ideas with keywords and a budget to fit your business needs.

 

You don’t need to pay if you don’t get results

The fantastic thing about PPC adverts is how you don’t need to waste money on advertising that doesn’t even work. Consider you put a traditional ad on the local radio station. You would have to pay for the advertising with no guarantee you will get any new customers as a result.

On the other hand, when you use PPC ads, you generally don’t have to spend anything unless you actually have someone clicking on the ad. Therefore, it’s also much easier to monitor the interest your ads generate and how you are able to turn your ads into actual sales. This, in turn, will make it easier to create better ads and therefore, increase your sales even further.

 

You can track results in an instant

Indeed, PCC adverts make tracking results a lot easier. When you select a PPC marketing platform, you generally get an easy-to-use interface that will instantly show you detailed information about your campaign. You can view information on things such as the number of clicks, how many impressions you have and what have the click-through rates been like. This again makes testing different ads easier and cost effective. You will be able to generate ads that speak closer to your audience and create ads potential customers can’t avoid clicking.

 

You’ll have more control over your advertising spending

As mentioned, money is a luxury for small businesses. You don’t have a lot of money to waste on advertising, no matter how much you need it for growth. Luckily, PCC ads are cost effective – as mentioned, you only pay for the clicks.

But you have even more control than this.You can set a specific budget for your advertising campaigns. For example, it’s a good idea to start relatively small and test the waters. If you start seeing results, you can increase your daily budget as much as you can. It’s not always easy to set the right budget and to find the right keywords, so it’s a good idea to use an online marketing agency or spend some time reading guides to PPC advertising.

Now, if you are thinking about how to advertise in 2017, your small business should consider using pay-per-click adverts. This advertising strategy is one of the most cost effective solutions online and it can yield some fantastic results for your business.

By Kar

Dr. Kar works in the interface of digital transformation and data science. Professionally a professor in one of the top B-Schools of Asia and an alumni of XLRI, he has extensive experience in teaching, training, consultancy and research in reputed institutes. He is a regular contributor of Business Fundas and a frequent author in research platforms. He is widely cited as a researcher. Note: The articles authored in this blog are his personal views and does not reflect that of his affiliations.