Why Are PPC Campaigns So Important to Small Businesses?

PPC campaigns are a powerful part of any digital marketing and online growth strategy.

But they’re expensive, right? Only something that the big brands can afford to invest in?

Actually, no, they don’t have to be expensive if properly targeted and executed. 

And, actually, there’s a strong argument that no business – large or small – can afford to do without PPC campaigns if they want to achieve maximum online visibility.

Read this blog to find out why PPC campaigns are so important to small businesses.

What Are PPC Campaigns?

PPC stands for ‘pay per click’, which basically means that advertisers pay a small fee every time someone clicks on their ad.

In essence, it’s a way of paying for users to visit your website, as opposed to enticing them organically.

As something of a disclaimer at this point, for maximum impact, we would highly recommend that you run PPC campaigns alongside organic SEO-driven content activities like blogs and social media.

How Do PPC Campaigns Work?

When a brand or small business chooses to create a PPC campaign, they will be able to:

1. Identify and target key audiences
2. Set a budget and stick to it
3. Create the advertisement copy, selecting appropriate keywords
4. Choose how long the campaign should last for
5. Choose the landing pages the user ends up on when they click the ad

Every time someone clicks on the ad, the agreed upon amount is subtracted from the budget until it runs out (at which point the campaign stops, unless the brand adds more budget to it).

Where Will You Most Often See PPC Campaigns?

You’ll most commonly see PPC campaigns in the context of search engine advertising.

For instance, if you type a search like ‘sports shop’ into Google, the first results you see will be brands that have bid for ad placement in the sponsored links section.

In the pictured example, you’ll see that physical and eCommerce sports shops have paid to be seen in this space (note how sportsshoes.com have highlighted their timely Black Friday deals), but so have Nike.

Why?

Because ‘sports shop’ is obviously an important strategic keyword for them that helps them get their brand in people’s eyelines when they’re considering visiting an online or physical sports shop.

In short, Nike are very cleverly creating brand engagements at an important stage in a customer’s buying journey. Going shopping for trainers or gym gear? Then Nike will be one of the very first brands on your mind, making it more likely that you’ll buy their products (unless you have another brand specifically in mind).

But How Can Small Businesses Compete on PPC Bids?

Well, we know your small business can’t be expected to compete with the world’s biggest sports brands when it comes to terms like ‘sports shop’. The above is just a simple example of how PPC works.

But, say that someone does a search on Google using a keyword related to your business offering: wouldn’t you want to appear in a prominent position? Ahead of (or even just alongside) your competitors when Google returns the results? Of course you would!

For instance, it would be well worth investing in PPC campaigns if you are a local printing company.

In the below example, we see ‘Platinum Print’ competing alongside some much bigger national printing companies for the keyword phrase ‘printing company harrogate’. If a company only wants to work with a printing company in the Harrogate area, it’s highly likely that they will click on the Platinum Print link because:

1. It’s in a very prominent position on Google
2. It’s clearly local – the listing has Harrogate in the title and the phone number has a Harrogate local area code
3. The ad copy is very well-written, highlighting advanced technology and a commitment to environmentally-friendly practices
4. The other brands that appear in the sponsored links results are based in completely different parts of the UK, so are just trying to spread their net far-and-wide in the hope of attracting enquiries – but the person searching for our example only wants to use a local printing company, so will be unlikely to click on their links

Our educated guess is that Platinum Print is outperforming its Harrogate printing company competitors in terms of quality leads, enquiries and new business because of its targeted PPC campaign.

Why Does PPC Work for Small Businesses?

PPC campaigns are a fast and efficient way for small businesses to attract and engage target audiences and take advantage of sales opportunities, such as forthcoming Christmas or new year sales. And you only need to spend what you can afford to spend. You may only have a$100-a-month PPC budget, but that could be$100 very well-spent if you attract thousands of pounds in sales through a well-crafted campaign.

As we see with the Platinum Print example, a company can corner their local market and compete alongside major brands without spending a great deal of money just by being savvy and strategic in their use of keywords and placement.

PPC results are also easily measurable, meaning that small businesses can make important tweaks if there are aspects of a campaign that aren’t going so well. These campaign results also give small businesses vital insights into the way their customers behave online and, therefore, how best to attract them.

At Chetaru, we’re very much about the long game and championing the importance of sustainable digital strategies that create sustainable long-term growth. But, hey, PPC is a brilliant way to give your business a short-term visibility boost if it’s languishing down the search engine rankings and you don’t have time to build your brand organically through SEO-content driven activities.

The ability to target your audience means your budget won’t go to waste at all, because your campaign will only be seen by people with an interest in your product or service.

The Benefits of PPC Campaigns to Small Businesses – in Brief

PPC campaigns are great for small and local businesses and should form an integral part of any digital marketing strategy because:

• They’re fast
• They’re measurable
• You can give low-ranking websites a real traffic boost
• You can reach targeted audiences
• They’re flexible and work for any budget
• They generate brand awareness
• It can be used at the beginning, in the middle or at the end of a comprehensive digital marketing strategy

Please visit our dedicated Pay Per Click page if you’d like to learn more about PPC and how we use it to powerful effect