Everything you need to know to find the right PPC supplier
If you’re in a hurry to get your product or service featured at the top of the search results, then PPC (Pay Per Click) advertising – a form of digital advertising – will be a useful and relatively low-cost tool to invest in.
The main goal of a PPC campaign is to drive sales by:
- Driving more traffic to your site
- Improving the quality of traffic to your site (those with buying intent)
- Appealing to the right audience/s
- Avoiding wasted ad spend
- Reducing overall advertising spend
Businesses that want to gain more visibility in the search engines tend to work with an SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) expert to help them improve their rankings organically. While this can generate impressive results, you’ll need to be patient as it can take 6-12 months to make an impact. And the good news is that PPC and SEO campaigns can work very well together.
Another acronym that you’ll come across regularly as you shop for PPC experts is ROAS (Return on Ad Spend). This can be improved by boosting ad quality, ad targeting, your bidding strategy and the competition in your industry. You may also hear them talk about CTR (Click Through Rate), CPC (Cost Per Click), Conversion Rate and ROI (Return on Investment) – all key metrics in PPC.
With a carefully designed PPC campaign in action, you should expect to see an increase in leads, sales, calls, or whichever metric means the most to you. Ads will become visible in the SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages) almost immediately, which should lead to a quick flow of users to your site.
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What is PPC?
You’ll have seen PPC adverts when you’ve searched for things online – the first two or three results tend to be sponsored and if you look carefully you’ll see it’s been marked up as ‘sponsored’ or similar. You will likely have come across Facebook or other social media Ads when scrolling, too. If you click on the link in the advertisement, the advertiser will pay a small fee.
The idea of PPC advertising is that you (the advertiser) only pay a fee when someone clicks on your link, so you retain full control of your budget at all times. Because PPC ads operate via an online auction, the price you pay can fluctuate depending on factors such as ad placement, competition, the time of day the advert is posted etc.
PPC is available on Microsoft Advertising (Bing Ads) and also social media platforms such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube, Tiktok etc. Facebook Ads, but by far the most powerful platform to invest in is Google Ads. Through a smart PPC campaign, you can also remarket to visitors who have shown previous interest in what you do, and therefore have a much higher likelihood of converting.
What should a PPC supplier do for you?
Each PPC expert will have their own process, but you should expect them to follow these steps:
Step 1: Build a strategy
They’ll get to know you and your business, find out what results will mean the most to you, and then get to work building a PPC advertising strategy and choosing the platforms that will form part of your campaign.
Step 2: Research
Your PPC consultant will then start to research keywords, competitors and audience demographics for your ad targeting. At this stage, it will be helpful if you have some information on the types of people you are trying to reach, i.e. what age group are they? Where might they live? What are their interests?
Step 3: Create advertising copy and multimedia elements
Your advert will need to be carefully designed if it’s to capture the attention of (and the clicks from) your target audience. It will need to be written well, with a clear call to action, and accompanied by interesting visuals such as a video or image. They’ll also look at your landing page design to make sure it’s relevant to the ad (otherwise it will alienate visitors immediately and fail to perform so well).
Step 4: Manage the campaign
Once the ad copy and creative are both live, your PPC professional will manage activity, ensuring maximum return on investment along the way. They’ll spot if something is performing particularly well, or particularly badly, and tweak the campaign accordingly.
Step 5: Track performance and report back
You should expect your PPC expert to report back to you regularly to let you know how your online advertising is performing and whether your budget is right.
What makes a good PPC supplier?
A low-value PPC supplier will rely heavily on automation, whereas an expert will have the skills to manually tweak your campaigns to deliver the best performance. A good PPC agency or freelancer should be able to demonstrate previous success by showing you what they have achieved with other campaigns. They should have a specialism in Google Ads (naturally), but they should also be clued up on social media marketing and multi-channel ad campaigns, too. They will be able to clearly explain their reporting process to you so that you are fully aware of performance, and they should also show you how their audience/keyword/competitor research is conducted.
How do PPC suppliers price, and what factors affect this?
Most good PPC suppliers charge a monthly fee, which is paid on top of your budget for ad spend. If you’re looking for a relatively low-cost option then you could consider supplying the creative yourself – particularly if you have in-house talent who can manage this part of the process.
Agencies often work with a tiered pricing system that’s based on your ad spend, for example, £500-£1000 per month for an ad spend of up to £5k. Another factor which could affect the price you pay is the number of keywords and ad groups you’re targeting.
What’s the difference between using a freelance PPC consultant and a PPC agency?
If you’re on a shoestring budget, then a freelance PPC consultant is probably your best bet. While the lack of overheads will keep the cost of their services down, they should still be able to do a pretty comprehensive job for you.
However, remember that good PPC ads perform well not only because of the strategy but also because of the quality of the ad copy and accompanying creative. It’s hard to find one person who is able to master and deliver all of these skills, so if your budget is higher then it’s better to go with a good PPC agency that can cover all bases.
Marketing Supermarket’s top tips for finding the perfect PPC supplier for you
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Be clear on your budget
Before you start looking for a PPC expert, be clear on the amount of money you have to spend on a monthly basis. You can enter this into our PPC quote request form so you’ll only get responses from suppliers who are able to come in under your allocated budget.
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Ask for a free consultation
You shouldn’t part with any money or sign any contracts until you’ve had a consultation with your chosen PPC supplier and asked them to review your existing ads campaign set up, to ensure you’re a good fit for each other.
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As for details of previous work
You’ll find that a good PPC agency or freelancer has no shortage of success stories under their belt, so ask them to show you an example of where their input on PPC had an impact on metrics.
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Understand how they report
You should expect your PPC provider to report back to you on your chosen metrics at least once a month. Any less than this and they’ll start to miss important information that could help shape your campaign.
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Understand their areas of expertise and processes
Be sure that their knowledge extends beyond Google PPC advertising to social media marketing and multi-channel marketing. And ask them about their research process – how do they find the information they need with regards to audience profiles, competitors and keywords?
Why use Marketing Supermarket to help you choose your PPC supplier?
Marketing Supermarket is your dedicated comparison site for PPC advertising services. It was designed by marketing experts, for marketing experts. We understand the intricacies of a cleverly designed PPC campaign, and we’ve designed our quote request process to ask the most pertinent questions that will deliver the best outcomes.
Use Marketing Supermarket to quickly narrow down your PPC supplier choices, and check out our guide on how to compare PPC suppliers to help you make your decision.