In a time of economic downturn, a business owner’s natural reaction is to cut costs on all fronts. Considering the challenges you face it’s natural for you to begin to dismiss all spending as unnecessary. However, investing in activities that boost conversions and bring in sales must be given a second thought. Taking a sales-focused approach to saving your business will put you on the fast track to recovery — and pay per click (PPC) marketing is the cost-effective solution you need.
Money is still changing hands and consumers are still relying on Google to find people to do business with,” said Jacob Wulff, PPC manager at Thrive Internet Marketing Agency. Despite the pullback, the economy doesn’t stop and your customers will continue to need your products and services. Your task is to be present in order to generate revenue quickly and recover fully.
The PPC marketing model is ideal at a time like this. Your spending is entirely limited to the amount you specify and you are assured an extremely high chance of returns through audience targeting.
As an advertiser, your priority is to minimize ad spend and maximize returns and the need is heightened in the context of a recession. Our PPC agency experts have identified pay per click advertising opportunities specific to these realities such as reduced competition resulting in lowered cost per click (CPC), as in the case of the recent COVID-19 pandemic.
What you don’t want to do now is come to a grinding halt with your digital marketing efforts,” said Matt Bowman, president and founder at Thrive Internet Marketing Agency in an in-depth piece on digital marketing during the coronavirus. The same holds true in ensuring your ad campaigns don’t go to waste in an economic slowdown. The PPC marketing mechanisms are in place and ready to deliver profitable results — the ball is in your court.
In this blog, we teach you why PPC marketing is a good move for businesses right now and offer up simple steps to stay on track to a full recovery. We discuss:
• What Is Pay Per Click Marketing?
• How Does PPC Advertising Boost Sales?
• 5 Reasons You Need PPC Marketing Right Now
• 3 Steps To Get Started With PPC Advertising
• Craft A Winning Pay Per Click Advertising Strategy
What Is Pay Per Click Marketing?
To understand the model, let’s dive into a brief history of PPC services. The platform that pioneered the pay-per-click model in 1996 is a web directory called Planet Oasis. They charged companies to display their brand name and website link on a virtual city — with center-page “buildings” costing more and additional fees charged for every click.
This simple advertising model developed into the powerful PPC platforms we know today. Advertisers bid for the most valuable keywords and ad placements on platforms like Google, Bing and Facebook. Today, businesses create ads to create a direct line to their target audience online.
PPC ad campaigns, when optimized and designed with a clear goal, can improve brand awareness, generate leads and boost sales.
How Does PPC Advertising Boost Sales?
If you ask any leading PPC advertising agency why online advertising is effective, they will likely use billboard ads as a point of comparison. Many will see your billboard ad but you don’t know how many of them belong to your target market or how effective it was in growing your customer base. This is highly relevant because people are not going out as frequently and are less likely to see your billboard ad.
With PPC services being online, you have much control over your campaign performance because of data collection. You can deliver your ad to a specific audience and confirm if it successfully reached them. Through views and clicks, you can find out how enticing your ad is and make changes to improve campaign performance. Most importantly, you will find out who clicked through to make a purchase, using advanced analytics and tracking tools.
In a nutshell, PPC services enable you to:
✓ Collect data that allows you to generate measurable results
✓ Save more on advertising costs when you optimize your ad campaign
✓ Spend more wisely when you focus on what is working best
✓ Improve sales when you reach your customers who are most likely to convert
Every company faces uncertainty and tightens up on expenses during a downturn, but an expert PPC company can work with any media budget to drive the sales you need to weather the storm.
5 Reasons You Need PPC Marketing Right Now
A slowing economy causes everyone to meticulously assess spending priorities. But your business’s need for brand visibility is ever-present. A Forbes article on advertising during a recession shares, “When times are good you should advertise, when times are bad you must advertise.” Amazon’s 28 percent sales growth during the 2009 recession is a testament to this.
A notable Harvard Business Review study tells us that in history, a progressive strategy of refocused spending (versus drastic cuts) during a recession benefits businesses post-downturn, and the right formula enabled 9 percent of companies to come out stronger.
Taking these insights into account through the lens of digital marketing today, pay per click marketing is the most cost-effective way available to promote your business while sticking to your allotted media budget.
Here are the top reasons why investing in PPC marketing is ideal right now:
1. See Results Quickly
The need is now and you need a quick shot in the arm to recover from the extended downtime. Realistically, a simple ad can be created and approved within 24 to 48 hours. And if done correctly, your ad can bring profitable results from day one.
2. Everyone Is Online
The recent health crisis forced limitations on physical interaction and pushed brands to create an online presence or strengthen their pull. With everything becoming available online from basic needs to work and school, your target audience is spending more screen time than ever before — broadening your lead pool.
3. Cost Per Click Is Down
An economic slowdown creates a buyer’s market for advertisers. Costs per click (CPCs) are down and at one point decreased by six percent across all verticals. With CPC bidding becoming more affordable, you save more on your ad budget and get higher returns.
4. Your Competitors Are Less Visible
Cost-cutting across all industries has made big players less visible, leaving an opening for more brands to be seen. Thrive PPC manager John Powell shares that businesses can capture traffic and conversions because of this reduced competition. It’s an excellent opportunity to be noticed online, especially for businesses new to PPC.
5. Get Ahead Of The Holiday Rush
We’ve ushered in the fourth quarter of the year and the peak in consumer spending is near. Getting started on a PPC advertising strategy early will let your business beat the holiday rush and zoom past your competitors in the heat of online shopping.
3 Steps To Get Started With PPC Advertising
If a pay per click agency promises a certain return on investment (ROI), you should think twice. While there are tried-and-tested techniques that make PPC strategies effective, there is no magic formula that produces a guaranteed result. It takes strategic planning and continuous development to make it work.
Here are three actionable steps to get started on a PPC strategy today:
1. Redefine Your Target Audience
The main benefit of PPC is placing your products and services in front of your ideal customer online. The hyper-targeting capabilities of PPC platforms today are likely more in-depth than the customer personas you’ve identified in your market research. Revisit your target audience’s profile and take advantage of new ways to find them online.
2. Choose The Right Platform
While Google, Bing and Facebook are some of the top PPC platforms, the list will differ for every PPC advertising agency. Because every client is unique and caters to specific audiences, the PPC platform needs vary greatly. It’s crucial to choose the right avenue to get your message across and meet your target audience where they are.
3. Conceptualize Your Campaign
You must take time to ensure your core campaign is substantial and enticing. Even if your ad reaches your ideal customer, they won’t click through if the offer isn’t interesting enough or your brand value is not communicated clearly. Invest time in a winning campaign concept to be in the best position for a high return on ad spend (RoAS).
Craft A Winning Pay Per Click Advertising Strategy
As a PPC advertising agency with over 15 years of experience, we know that the way to win with pay per click advertising is through continuous audience analysis and optimization. Today’s technology allows for easy ways to adjust your digital strategies and quantify the impact.
An example from the gym closures amidst the early COVID-19 restrictions is how activewear brands had to alter their content to become more relevant to the realities their target audience faced. Image and video ads portraying a person being physically at the gym would not have been ideal to people who had to stay fit from home. Another example is how a gym equipment supplier would pivot their PPC campaigns specifically to target the keywords “for home use” or “home gym.”
Your target market’s experiences evolve and so should your strategies. It’s best to enlist the help of a PPC agency with extensive experience in multiple industries and expertise in creating PPC campaigns suited for the times.
An experienced pay per click agency like Thrive can guide your business to:
1. Set Realistic PPC Goals
It’s essential to set specific and data-backed goals to serve as the basis for your campaigns’ success. Our PPC company uses cross-network advertising to ensure our PPC services reach as many of your target markets as possible.
2. Refine Your Targeting Strategies
Our PPC advertising agency specializes in keyword research to bridge your potential customers’ exact search queries to your brand’s offerings. We encourage you to explore new ad formats and landing page layouts that resonate with your target audience.
3. Optimize Your Ad Campaigns
Your priority must be allocating more budget into what works and making improvements on what doesn’t. Our pay per click agency conducts A/B tests to determine the version of your ad that will perform better based on a segment of your target audience. We incorporate SEO and retargeting strategies to boost your online presence holistically.
Trust Thrive Internet Marketing Agency to be the PPC company that delivers the quick fix you need while building a robust foundation for long-term results. We help you recover from the adverse effects of a recession through small wins that positively impact your business on a large-scale.
Our pay per click agency crafts a custom PPC strategy entirely suited to your budget and needs. At Thrive, we create conversion-driven strategies and our PPC agency commits to your 100 percent satisfaction.
With our PPC agency, this Florida-based vision correction surgeon increased campaign conversions by 1,400 percent through a paid search campaign with targeted keywords, competitive keyword bidding, and accurate conversion tracking.
Contact us today to begin generating revenue and growing your customer base with the help of our PPC company experts.
