When it comes to growing or scaling a small business, there’s only so much you can do on the organic front.
You can create email campaigns all day and post on social media consistently – but at the end of the day, these digital marketing channels only provide slow, steady growth. Which is great for your long-term goals, not your short-term ones.
One of the most beneficial marketing tools for a small business owner is PPC advertising, to capitalize on attracting new customers and build an online presence.
PPC management services for small businesses allow you to expand your reach and target a new prospective audience for a relatively low cost. With the right strategy, local businesses can gain authentic brand recognition from qualified leads in and outside their community.
Here’s everything you need to know about the benefits of PPC advertising:
What is PPC?
PPC stands for pay-per-click. It’s a type of advertising where businesses are only required to pay for the ads when the links are clicked.
Small business owners bid on specific keywords related to their products, services, or industry. The business owner with the highest bid gets their ads displayed at the top of the results page to an audience searching for that specific keyword.
For example, let’s say, someone is looking for a florist in Los Angeles. They would head to google and type in the search bar “florist in Los Angeles.” A small business can then bid on this keyword, so their ads appear at the top of the search results page above the other results.
Pay-per-click advertising is driven by keywords and your targeting options. For your PPC for small businesses to be successful, you need to be strategic with your keywords, location, and demographic information.
10 Benefits of PPC Advertising For Small Businesses
1. Expand Your Reach
Did you know PPC brings twice the amount of web traffic to your website than SEO? One of the main benefits of PPC for small businesses is its ability to reach a large or niche audience. Small businesses can easily create PPC ads and use keywords that help them get noticed by an audience interested in shopping for your brand. Since PPC ads are slotted at the top of the results page, you can temporarily outrank your competitors for that given keyword.
2. You Only Pay Per Click
Unlike other advertising models, you only have to pay per click. So if no prospects or web visitors click on your ad, you aren’t charged for that impression. This means PPC advertising can be a relatively low-cost option, especially for small, niche businesses struggling to reach their target audience through organic efforts.
3 . Access To a Suite of Reporting Tools
Once a campaign has ended, you gain access to detailed reporting to understand the success of your campaign. This will provide you with key insight into your audience’s likes and dislikes. Which ads worked? Which ones didn’t? Which ones had the highest click rate? You can then use this data to constantly update your PPC advertising strategy, enhance your SEO strategy, and improve your overall approach to marketing initiatives.
4. Increase Website Traffic
It can take weeks, months, and even years to get your content to rank on the first page of the results page. However, with PPC advertising, you automatically gain that top slot at the top of the results page. This will help you increase your web traffic quicker and more efficiently.
5. Easy Set-Up Process
Google has simplified the PPC process so that small business owners can easily create ads and get them up and running in seconds. This user-friendly platform is straightforward, regardless of your marketing expertise.
6. Expansive Targeting Options
Google allows businesses to get relatively specific with their targeting. You can target individuals by keywords, location, and demographic. with local business PPC, you can narrow your target to that region using geofencing to improve the overall quality of your leads.
With this technology, brick-and-mortar businesses or small businesses that only provide services to a specific city, can get more strategic with their targeting and connect with viable leads in their area.
7. Enhance Your Local Presence
In 2022, 97% of individuals used the internet to discover local businesses. Search engines provide meaningful information that helps consumers make informed purchasing decisions. With local business PPC, you can educate prospects in your community about your products and services, persuading them to shop with you in person or online. Whether web visitors are searching for a florist or a barbershop in their area – with PPC, your business will be the first suggestion.
8. Build Brand Recognition
Even if your target audience doesn’t click on your ads, you’re still enhancing your online presence. Every impression you receive is still valuable to your online business. Whether someone is new to your business or is familiar with your products or services – when they’re ready to shop, your brand will be the first one that comes to mind.
9. Nurture Leads at Every Phase of the Funnel
Your PPC ads will be seen by more than just new prospects. PPC ads will also be noticed by potential buyers, individuals familiar with your brand but haven’t converted, and anyone that may have forgotten about you. That means you can nurture leads at every part of the sales funnel.
10. Delivers Instant Results
Studies suggest PPC has a 50% higher conversion rate than organic search results. Once your PPC ads are set up and ready to go, you’ll see an uptick in web traffic and may even notice one or two new conversions.
11. Higher ROI
According to Google, businesses generate $2 in profit for every $1 they spend on Google ads. If you have strong keywords and a well-thought-out strategy, PPC can drive an 8:1 return.
12. Improve Your SEO Strategy
Not sure which keywords to use in your SEO strategy? Use them in your PPC strategy first. This is a great way to test how effective your keywords are before you commit to adding them to your headlines, meta descriptions, and landing pages.
How to Leverage PPC for a Small Business
If you’re a small business ready to experience the benefits of PPC advertising, there are a few things you’ll need to do before you get started.
Here’s a breakdown:
- Define Your Budget: Before you can get started, you need to define your budget. This is how much you are willing to spend on the entire campaign. With a budget, you can better assess the ROI of your PPC initiatives and find ways to improve your ROAS over time.
- Decide Your PPC Limit: Your PPC limit is how much you’re willing to spend for each click. If you go too low, your competitors may outbid you. So you’ll want to find a happy middle.
- Choose Keywords: Keyword research is arguably one of the most important aspects of your PPC advertising campaign. You’ll want to narrow your list to two or three keywords that are trending or popular in your industry. These keywords will be the driving force of your campaign.
- Build Your Campaign: Next, it’s time to launch your campaign! Once you have the resources you want to use, you can build your campaign inside Google or Bing’s user-friendly platform.
- Adjust Based on Data: Throughout the campaign, you’ll have access to invaluable data and analytics about your campaign. You can use this data to finetune your campaign and make meaningful adjustments.
Experience the Benefits of PPC With Kanbar Digital
Ready to explore the benefits of PPC for small businesses? We’re here to help. Our paid media team can help you with PPC management for small businesses. We have countless years of experience building results-driven PPC campaigns for businesses of every size and are here to help you get noticed in and outside your community.