The world of digital marketing is vast, and there are numerous terms in it to understand. Both PPC and CPC come under digital marketing. Let’s shed light on both terms and also how agencies that provide PPC management services are using your money on PPC ad campaigns.
What is PPC?
PPC (pay-per-click) is an online advertising strategy to increase the visibility of a website’s product or services. In PPC, when you run an online ad, you pay only for the clicks on your ad. For instance, if your ad campaign got 100 clicks and the rate for every click was $1, then you only have to pay $100 for the campaign. There are no extra charges for it.
PPC, or pay-per-click, is an ad campaign that many online platforms, like Google Ads, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Twitter, TikTok, YouTube, and others, use. In PPC, you pay for an ad when someone clicks on your displayed ad. You don’t have to pay anything if you get no clicks.
Apart from that, you can set your daily budget for a campaign. When the budget limit is reached for the day, your ad campaign will be paused automatically.
There are mainly eight types of PPC ads, namely, display ads, search ads, remarketing ads, Amazon ads, Gmail sponsored ads, social media ads, shopping, and video ads.
What is a CPC?
CPC is an abbreviated form of cost-per-click. It is a part of the PPC ad campaigns. For example, you have decided on a budget of $100 for your ad campaign, and your ad campaign pauses after 200 clicks on your ad. In that case, your cost per click for the ad was $0.50 after the calculations.
There can be different CPCs for every ad and keyword you use for your ad. Some keywords have high competition, and because of that, you might have to pay a high CPC rate. This way, you end up spending more on ads than you’d planned.
According to your budget
You can decide the maximum and minimum CPC rate for ad campaigns. When you bid the highest rate, your ad wins against your competitors and gains the first spot on the search pages, resulting in higher traffic.
You can hire a digital marketing agency to create and manage ad campaigns to have a meaningful outcome from the ads instead of doing it on your own. CPC is important in analyzing your profit through ad campaigns. If you’re paying more for ads than making money through them, then you need to reconsider your keyword research and ad strategies.
As a result
At some point, a new CPC marketing model was introduced. This business model is very open, just, and advantageous to both publishers and advertising.
Publishers only make money when they direct relevant users to the websites of their advertisers, as advertisers no longer pay for visits to their websites. Webmasters are encouraged to direct traffic to their clients’ websites by the CPC advertising model because it gives advertisers a sense of security.
The CPM strategy
It will work well for you if you want to raise brand awareness or spread a message to as many consumers as you can without trying to drive them to your website. In this instance, we could even argue that quantity over quality of consumers is more crucial. However, a CPC model might be used to accomplish this goal if you need to draw in as many potential clients as you can in order to make quick purchases.
If you monitor and compute an appropriate cost per conversion level and ROI, cost-per-click advertising is very simple to implement.
Do PPC Campaigns Boost SEO Rankings?
If you are confused about PPC marketing and ask your digital marketing or PPC agency whether your SEO ranking is getting help from pay-per-click ad campaigns or not, then you are in the right place.
Whether PPC directs traffic to your webpage or not, it does not help with the SEO rankings of your website. However, off-page SEO can include PPC since off-page SEO includes marketing, networking, and so on. So, PPC falls under the category of marketing.
Advantages of pay-per-click advertising
- It can be reasonably priced because you only pay when a user actually accesses your website. You are free to determine how much money you want to spend.
- Targeted: You have the option to select your target based on factors like geography, language, and device.
- PPC campaigns can be set up to precisely assess effectiveness, making them measurably. You can calculate your return on investment precisely.
- Customizable – you can make numerous minor changes to improve as you run your campaigns based on what works best.
- Training resources: To aid in the development of your abilities, there are numerous (and frequently free) online training courses and tools.
Disadvantages of pay-per-click advertising
- You must invest time in your PPC campaigns; you cannot simply set them up and walk away. To achieve the best results, you must put time into optimising and upgrading.
- Skills needed: Setting up successful campaigns can take some practise. Many companies decide to work with a specialised agency.
- Costs can build up rapidly, and money could be lost if you aren’t tracking and optimising your campaigns to ensure a return on investment. PPC campaigns require a budget, as opposed to SEO strategies that only require a time and expertise investment.
- Visits and clicks do not always result in sales; once a person reaches your website, you must persuade them to “convert.”
What Does SEO Include?
Search engine optimization includes everything that establishes your website and brand through content improvement and development through keyword research, link building, and website improvements such as making it mobile-friendly, faster page speed, and so on.
SEO helps your website gain position on the front page of any search engine result platform. The first page means when you search for any product, service, or query on platforms like Google, Bing, etc., they show many pages and search results on the topic searched. When a website hits the front spot on those SERPs, it is because of good SEO.
What Are the Indirect Benefits of Pay-Per-Click on SEO?
When you show ads on search engines, your brand gets visible. Although we cannot call it organic traffic, however, it can still help you gain viewers and visitors.
People who have seen your brand name somewhere in ad campaigns will be familiar with your name, which helps your brand’s establishment, and eventually, they will become your customers or regular visitors if they like what you have to offer.
Moreover, Pay per click marketing gives your website exposure, which leads to higher traffic and higher sales. However, SEO is all about organic traffic without advertisements, and PPC is paid.
Why the PPC Method?
PPC is good when you want to build an audience base faster. If you have a budget for marketing, then PPC is the first thing that should come to your mind.
You can monitor the performance of your ad campaigns and the number of leads converted. People use magazines, billboards, and TV ads to showcase their brands. However, in PPC, you don’t have to invest too much and you are always in control of who you want to show those ads to and how much you want to spend every day.
Final Thoughts
PPC and CPC are interlinked with each other, yet they have different meanings. PPC is a great strategy to boost your brand’s performance in the market. We hope you’ve got your questions answered in this small but detailed guide.
Consider checking out our PPC and SEO services at OMR Digital, if you are looking for professional help in succeeding in your online business.