Advantages and disadvantages of PPC advertising

Advantages of PPC advertising

Cost-effective

With PPC ads, you only pay when a user actually clicks on your ad (hence the name pay-per-click). This means it can be an incredibly cost-effective channel that helps you maximise your return on ad spend (ROAS). You also have complete control over your budget, so you can choose to spend as much or as little as you can afford. 

Trackable and measurable

PPC ads, such as Google ads, are straightforward to track and measure results. You can see a wealth of data, including impressions, clicks and conversions for each keyword. This means it’s easy to calculate your return on investment and see which campaign, ads or keywords are performing the best.

Highly targeted 

You can create highly targeted PPC campaigns to ensure that you only target potential customers interested in your products or services. From demographic information, like location and device, to specific keywords, you can ensure your ads only appear to your target audience. 

Immediate results 

Unlike SEO and content marketing, you can see the results of your PPC campaigns almost immediately. This makes it incredibly effective for new businesses who want to see results quickly. 

Quick to set up

One of the key benefits of PPC advertising is that campaigns are relatively quick to set up. This is especially true if you don’t need to build dedicated landing pages or add conversion tracking.

Customisable and controllable

After your ads campaign has been running for a while, you can make adjustments to improve its performance based on how it’s performing. You can add or remove keywords, tweak ad copy, edit landing pages, and increase or decrease your budget. If you need to, you can even pause ad groups or campaigns.

Works with SEO and content marketing

Combining PPC advertising, SEO, and content marketing can form an effective digital marketing strategy. PPC often targets users ready to purchase using commercial intent keywords (e.g., hair dryer for sale), whilst content marketing targets informational intent keywords (e.g. how to dry curly hair or best hair dryers for curly hair). By combining PPC, SEO and content marketing, you can capture your target audience, whatever stage they’re at. 

Disadvantages of PPC advertising

Competitive

If you’re trying to target popular keywords or in a highly competitive industry, your PPC budget can start to add up. PPC campaigns require constant monitoring and tweaking to ensure you’re not wasting money on costly keywords that are not generating conversions. If you’re on a limited budget, you might find that your ads don’t show for competitive keywords, meaning you need to rethink your PPC strategy. 

Some users are wary of ads

One downside of focusing solely on PPC is that some users are cynical about ads, especially Google Search Ads. Some users will avoid clicking on the sponsored links at the top of the search engine results. This is one key reason it’s good to focus on both PPC and SEO to ensure your business performs well in both the paid and organic search results.

Time investment 

Although a simple PPC campaign can be relatively quick to set up, that doesn’t mean you can just set it and leave it to run. You’ll need to monitor your PPC ads to ensure you get the desired results. Building dedicated landing pages is also a must for most PPC campaigns, and this can be fairly time-consuming.

Skill and expertise is needed

Setting up and managing a PPC campaign not only takes time but also skill, experience, and expertise. You’ll need to conduct keyword research, write compelling copy, build landing pages, set up tracking, and continuously monitor and manage your campaign. This is why many small businesses use a specialist PPC agency to ensure they get the best possible results. 

How we can help

Whether you’ve already tried to set up your own PPC campaign but aren’t seeing results, or you’re unsure where to start, we can help you get the results you want. 

Logica Digital has over 15 years of experience running effective PPC campaigns for businesses of all sizes. Why not take advantage of our free digital marketing audit to get started? 

We’ll analyse your current PPC strategy, look at your SEO rankings, see what your competitors are doing, and make some simple recommendations on what you can do to improve.

Get in touch with us to learn more about how we can work together on your PPC strategy and help you achieve real results!

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