How to do PPC for Your Small Business

Marketing your business takes time. While no marketing channels are inherently bad, some just take more time to develop than others. 

While Social Media, PR, SEO, and Content are all great at providing traffic, most business owners can’t afford to wait for those channels to develop. So, for immediate traffic, most turn to pay-per-click (PPC). However, getting traffic is not synonymous with getting leads.

With all of the targeting options available with Google Ads, it’s easy to implement the wrong strategy and end up wasting your time and resources.

Using the tips that we’ll outline here, you can create a well-thought-out PPC campaign that will create the leads your business needs.

What does small business PPC mean?

Pay-per-click advertising is a way for business owners to bid on keywords that are related to their industry or audience interest(s). Businesses bid to show their ads as a result generated when a particular keyword is searched by a user.

For example, say I was to learn how to change a tire. The first thing I do is go online and search “how to change a tire” on Google. Within seconds, Google shows me a list filled with millions of pages having that keyword. All arranged by algorithms based on my location, relevance, my intent, etc. Above all these results are 2-3 paid placements that are ranked by the highest bidder for that keyword.

Small business PPC is all about taking advantage of this trajectory of search results when your potential customer searches for a related keyword. Brands bid more to rank higher in search results but Google only charges you when someone clicks on your ad and goes to your website. Hence the name pay-per-click (PPC).

Step 1: Identify the Right Keywords

After you’ve taken a look at your marketing budget, it’s time to do some research into keywords.  If your campaign budget is limited, you may want to set the maximum cost per click (CPC) that you are willing to pay. It is also a good idea to start with the “bottom of the funnel” keywords, targeting users who are most likely to convert.

Using an online tool like Keyword Magic can help you choose high-volume keywords with a reasonable CPC (cost-per-click). Start with broad match terms. Using our previous example, if you’re a tire repair shop, you might enter “flat tire” or “tire repair”. To increase the chances of reaching users likely to purchase, you might also use words like “near me” or “shop”.

Don’t overlook the “exclude keywords” option. It can be quite helpful to filter out keywords of perhaps the areas you don’t service, for example.

Next, you’ll want to narrow the potential list of queries. Look for keyword groupings that have decent search volume, reasonable CPC and low competitive density to determine if it is a good candidate for your keyword list.

Try experimenting with different search terms until you have gathered enough of them to make an educated decision.

Next, using the PPC Keyword Tool, you can organize those keywords into groups and campaigns and filter out any duplicates.

Step 2: Create ads that work

The copy you write for your ad will help make your add relevant and stand out from the (potentially) hundreds of other advertisers competing for those same keywords. 

The golden rule is to use keywords in your headlines. But here are a few other tips: 

1. Know how to talk to your audience - use language your audience uses
2. Answer questions - give buyers reasons to move from “consideration” to “purchase”
3. Know what you’re good at - and use that to differentiate yourself from your competitors.
4. Encourage and inspire - let your customers know that you can help them improve themselves or their lives. 
5. Sell a solution - make sure you’re helping customers fix their problems
6. Keep ‘em coming back - give visitors a reason to return to your site often
7. Use the four U’s: make your copy Urgent, Unique, Ultra-Specific and Useful

This is ever so relevant when it comes to drafting ad copy for small business PPC. You want your ads to grab people’s attention first so that they are encouraged to click on your ad to learn more and make a purchase. You only have a couple of lines and approximately 60 characters to do this in, so you have to make it count!

Step 3: Monitor Campaigns & Optimize for Best Results

What we love about PPC for small businesses is the fact that we can monitor the campaigns instantly and switch out what is not working. This is especially true when it comes to PPC for small businesses who don’t have thousands of dollars to spend each month.

Even with a limited budget, you can target specific keywords and show your ads to the target audience that matters. Spend your money where it matters most. Because these things are done in real-time, you can instantly know which campaigns are not performing and pause them to avoid wasting ad dollars on keywords that may not be converting.

These are the three basic steps that you need to follow in order to add value to your small business PPC campaign. If you’d like our help setting up your PPC campaign - or even just a consultation on the great work you’ve started, get in touch!

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