Their Characteristics, What To Expect, Cost, & How To Hire All In One Place
If you just Googled “PPC Companies Near Me,” you’ve come to the right place for an explanation of what PPC (Pay per Click) is and how an experienced marketing company uses this channel to cost-effectively target potential customers.
PPC advertising makes the best use of your ad money to promote your company, service, or product. A PPC campaign is tied to certain keyword search terms related to your ads that you think your target audience will search for in order to find what you’re promoting. When someone types that keyword into Google or some other search engine, or social media platforms such as Facebook or LinkedIn, your most relevant ad displays. If someone clicks on the ad, you pay for it; if they don’t click, you don’t pay.
You might be thinking, well, I can use organic advertising and not have to pay anything. Think again. PPC ads yield 50% more conversions than organic advertising. According to Google, paid advertising has an average ROI of 200%, meaning you get $2 for every $1 spent on PPC ads. So, you get back double for what you spend to get those conversions.
While this might sound straightforward, PPC ad campaigns involve a lot of moving parts in a very complex process. Which is why you just Googled, “PPC Companies Near Me.” You know this is a specialized expertise where the best company can get you the best results.
A good PPC ad company is fully conversant in multi-channel data-driven campaigns that optimize constantly for the ever-changing search engine algorithms. You also want a PPC company located near you that is familiar with your local market.
So, in this post, let’s look at:
- Why you need a pay-per-click company
- Why they should be located near you
- Characteristics of a great PPC team
- What to expect
- What does PPC cost?
- The different pay-per-click pricing models
- How to hire a PPC company
Why You Need a PPC Company
A PPC company is an expert in:
- Keyword research
- Search relevance
- Target audience research and targeting criteria
- Optimized landing page development
- Ad writing
- A/B testing
- Website tracking implementation
Keyword research is, well, key. You have to pay for keywords. And if you pay for keywords that don’t generate results, you’re throwing away money. On average, businesses waste 15% of their budget on irrelevant keywords; industry-wide, that’s $17.4 billion wasted on irrelevant keyword search terms. That’s great for Google and other PPC platforms, not so great for your business.
Once a campaign is created and implemented, it’s not just a matter of sitting back and waiting for results. It needs to be continually evaluated and optimized based on accumulated data. You need a PPC company that knows how to analyze the data and make decisions that get you the best bang for your ad budget with minimal waste.
A strong PPC campaign is one that gets even stronger over time. An experienced company manages your ad campaign to improve your quality score, relevance, messaging, and audience targeting, resulting in more leads, conversions, and sales.
It’s not a simple process. An experienced pay-per-click company knows the process inside and out and handles it with a high level of precision and accuracy. This means your campaign gets the best return on investment to achieve revenues that exceed profit margins. In addition, hiring a PPC company ensures you make the most of your ad dollars while minimizing the investment of your time better devoted to other aspects of running your business.
Why You Need a “PPC Company Near Me”
Everyone is remote working today. Why a preference for a “PPC Company Near Me”?
Because a local company knows your local market, your community, your culture. Local insight is critical to avoid mistargeting and to preserve brand recognition and loyalty. Most people search the web for something local. According to a study shared by Search Engine Land, 60% of people made use of the information they found on local online ads and on a business’s website. A local PPC company familiar with your market can best target those people.
An additional benefit is that if you are co-located in the same time zone, you can more easily collaborate in real-time and synchronize meeting schedules. Plus, it’s always nice to have the option to see who you are working with face-to-face. Even if neither of you has an actual physical office location, that’s why places like Starbucks and office-sharing sites exist.
Characteristics of a Great PPC Company
The characteristics of a great pay-per-click company include:
- Transparency – You get a full explanation of what ads convert, why the ads convert, and what specific results achieve.
- Philosophy – How do they develop a marketing strategy with practical solutions implemented to achieve set goals?
- Experience – There may be reasons to opt for a start-up over an ad company with decades of experience and a demonstrated track record of success in attaining customer goals and expanding business. We just can’t think of any.
- Pricing – Identify realistic deliverables that meet your budget parameters.
- Communication – You have a question. You get an answer. It’s that simple. They communicate as clearly and regularly as needed.
What to Expect from a Great PPC Company
You can expect:
- Set specific goals with attainable metrics.
- Analyze and learn from competitor campaigns.
- Target audiences at each stage of the buyer’s journey to ensure ads reach the right people, in the right place, at the right time.
- Conduct thorough keyword research that includes relevant search terms, ideal parameters, and both long-tail and short-tail keywords.
- Setup campaigns with full tracking abilities, transparency, and proper conversion paths that are easy for your sales team to manage from their CRM.
- Manage daily and total campaigns within budgets.
- Track relevant conversions and provide full visibility into:
- how well your campaigns convert after they are launched and
- provide insight on how each ad needs to adapt for even better success
What Does PPC Cost?
It sounds simple. You pay per click. But there are a variety of pricing plans. You could spend anywhere between 5 cents per click to upwards of $30, with an average cost of around $2. The average small to medium-sized business invests between $1,000 and $10,000 on PPC marketing every month with an average yearly ad spend budget of $60,000.
Why is there such a range of differences?
In part, it is because different platforms charge different rates for their respective PPC programs. But the main reason is that PPC ads work as an auction system—you bid on the keywords associated with your ad campaigns. Because it is based on competition, auction bidding constantly varies, which is why it is good practice to set a maximum bid to ensure you don’t exceed your budget. Further complicating matters, some keywords are inherently worth more than others, so the bidding starts higher.
The reason some keywords are higher valued than others relates to customer acquisition cost. What drives the bidding process is the likelihood of acquiring more valued customers as well as those that likely repeat customers. So keywords that can potentially generate $100,000 in sales are getting higher bids than keywords worth only $100 in potential sales.
There’s also the competitive aspect. If you have more and better keywords than your competition, you likely attain greater market share. It’s why, for example, insurance companies are willing to spend upwards of $80 per click.
The higher the successful bid, the higher the chance your PPC ad displays higher within a search result rather than a competitor ad. If you are the top bidder, your ad is the top ad and the one most likely someone clicks on.
But even if you are the highest bidder, it doesn’t necessarily mean you always earn the top position. Google, in particular, factors in your CTR (click-through rate) to determine ranking. High CTR is considered an indication of quality and reputation. So if your ads get a high CTR, you might get the top position even with a lower bid.
Which is why we said before that pay-per-click marketing is a complicated process, not for a novice.
What Are the Different PPC Pricing Models?
Different companies offer different PPC pricing models or packages. How do you decide what is the best package for your business? The only way to determine that is to discuss with the PPC company your:
- Marketing goals
- Desired timeframe to reach goals
- Budget
- Business environment (competitors, buyer profiles, etc.)
Based on that conversation, the PPC company can offer a pricing plan that fits your needs. It is highly recommended to have that conversation before you hire them.
How to Hire a PPC Company
Consider the PPC company as a potential partner in your business. What you want to know is whether the PPC company has:
- Experience with businesses like yours of similar size and business segments
- Other relevant digital marketing expertise, such as SEO strategy
- Proficiency in working with multiple platforms (Google, LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, etc.)
- Verifiable client success stories and online reviews
- Reporting models and procedures that reflect your KPIs
Tag Marketing Offers PPC Services Near You That Doesn’t Stink
Tag Marketing offers a demonstrated record of creative growth-driven digital marketing success with local B2B and B2C companies. As a family-owned business, we value relationships; our success is built in direct relationship with yours. Our goal is to exceed your expectations, not just meet them.
What we’ve achieved for our clients speaks for itself…
Average PPC results on platforms such as Facebook and LinkedIn:
- 90% average engagement boost
- 80% average traffic increase
- 60% average conversion growth
Average PPC results on platforms such as Google:
- For every $1 Pure n Natural gave us, we returned $51.49
- For every $1 SMT Machining gave us, we returned $28.81
- Area Appliance went from $80 to acquire a new customer, down to only $28/customer (65% improvement)
The industry average return on investment for pay-per-click is $2:1, but Tag Marketing’s is $25:1!