The Benefits of a Paid Ad Campaign
In this week’s
post we will uncover the benefits of including paid ads in your Digital
Marketing Campaign. Paid ads are one of the most important channels in your
digital armoury. Paid advertising is an online advertising model where
advertisers bid to participate in real-time auctions in order to show their ads
to specifically targeted audiences instead of waiting for them to find your website
organically. Paid ads are presented on search engine results pages (SERPs) and social
media platforms. According to HubSpot data only 30% of internet users click on
paid ads while searching. Although the statistics are relatively low for
engagement of paid search ads, if strategically used they can prove beneficial
to your digital marketing campaign and here is why: -
Pay Per Click
(PPC) is a model of paid advertisement wherein advertisers pay a fee each time their
ad is clicked on. It can be a really good option for websites which are not
ranking on the SERPs with organic searches alone. PPC garners instant results,
displaying your ads instantly after their approval. Enabling businesses to
increase their sales and conversion rates,
Paid advertising
is also a cost-effective way to drive traffic to your website. Goggle
Ads operates on a pay-per-click model wherein users bid on key words and pay a
fee for each click on their ad. Advertisers only pay when a user clicks on the
ad (Cost Per Click). Along with being cost effective, it is a more targeted approach
to adverting’s than traditional methods as you are not wasting your advertising
budget on people who are not interested in your business.
With digital
marketing, key performance indicators are used to determine what is working and
what isn’t. Paid advertisements are measurable as they provide businesses
with valuable data, which can further be used to optimise your marketing campaigns
for a higher return on investment. For instance, you can view if a particular
keyword is generating more sales and conversations than others. These finding
can then be implemented in your wider marketing strategy.
By Kelsey Smyth
Even with a click through rate of 30%, Google’s own Chief Economic Hal Varian has estimated that there is a significant return on investment with a value of 2 to 2.3 times the spend, so it is definitely worth exploring for any business both large and small. Especially in current economic climate where so much business has been driven online, being able to use Google Ads to appear in Google Searches has the potential to have such a positive impact on so many businesses. As Ciara wrote about in her post on making paid Ads work for your business it is imperative to put the work into doing it right as it would be easy to throw cash at it. To borrow her pun the need to be ‘fit’ for purpose.
ReplyDeleteIt's funny, 30% click rate is quite low but when you think about it, 30% of how many internet users - that's a huge number! Taking advantage of that is important and if you have the budget, then why not which brings in the point you made about paid ads being cost effective - you only pay as much as you are comfortable with - nearly gone are the days of set fees for advertising - you are now in control of it. Paid ads are also measurable and again this information is at your finger tips, whereas in traditional media, measure how far your ad has gone can be taken with a pinch of salt.
ReplyDeleteGood point about paid ads being targeted and cost effective. If a person clicks on your ad they clearly had interested, leading to a greater chance of a conversion. Advertising budgets back in the day it was a case of advertise to the masses and hope it appeals to some. Paid ads can be super focused, and, with a budget set as you mentioned you don't have to worry about costs skyrocketing. Also, to use the data from a paid campaign to inform a business' organic approach in the future is really clever, and worth the money alone it could be argued.
ReplyDeleteWhat a great blog post, Kelsey! While a lot of businesses tend to stick to search engine optimisation because it's effectively free, they forget that paid ads can be relatively cheap and can target customers directly! You're saving lots of time and getting guaranteed results with paid ads so it's really a debate on what you feel is more important for you as a business. Trust in organic results is definitely a big factor in going with SEO over paid ads but this doesn't mean paid ads should be ruled out. A mix of the two strategies could be a match made in heaven for a small business.
ReplyDeleteA conversion rate of 30% is relatively low for paid ads, but as you mentioned, if they’re used correctly and target the right audience, they can offer a number of benefits for small businesses. Good point about ads being cost-effective. Pay per click ads are a clever way of advertising, you only pay for the number of times the ad is clicked on. Usually, people who click on PPC ads are searching for keywords relevant to your ad, the ad will appear at the very top of the SERP, therefore they’re more likely to convert to a sale. Great blog post Kelsey.
ReplyDeletegreat post
ReplyDeletegreat tips and some excellent takeaways and food for thought.
Caitriona