PPC for Beginners: The Ultimate Pay-Per-Click Guide for 2024

Pay-per-click, or PPC, advertising is one of the most popular forms of digital marketing available to businesses.
However, they require expertise and experience to be run to the best of their capabilities, and as such, often experience a loss of resources and revenue if not managed correctly.

PPC for beginners has a learning curve, but luckily our guide exists to help guide you through all those little details. With this, you can set up your PPC campaign for success and start seeing dramatic increases in your ROI.

What is PPC Advertising

PPC (Pay-per-click) advertising is where businesses set up promotional ads and pay a set fee every time one of them is clicked. PPC ads can be links at the top of search engines, appear on social media platforms, and as web banners, among other things.

They are a way to extend your business’s reach and visibility by paying for clicks, rather than hoping organic traffic will do all your work.

How does PPC advertising work?

Depending on the platform, there are different ways you set the costs for your PPC ads. On Google Ads, for example, advertisers bid on set keywords. The higher you bid for the keyword, the more chance your ad has of appearing for a search containing it.

The CPC (cost-per-click) varies depending on the competitiveness of the keyword, the placements you’re bidding for, and your ad’s overall Quality Score.

Why choose PPC advertising?

PPC advertising can be implemented with immediate effect, meaning in a few clicks your ad can be out there in the world, appearing on search engines and social media platforms.

PPC advertising is also one of the most highly targeted forms of advertising you can do. PPC ads let you choose the demographics, age ranges, interests, location and other targeting metrics that mean your ads are served to a highly specific group who are more likely to engage and convert.

All of this lends itself to a solid reporting structure. With PPC you can measure results clearly, see exactly what is and isn’t working and adjust strategy accordingly. Information like clicks, impressions, CPC rates and conversions are easily available actionable insights, allowing for continuous optimisation.

How To Set Up A PPC Campaign: Your Step-by-Step Guide

First, choose which platform your PPC campaign will run on. Popular choices include:

• Google Ads – these also show on Google’s partner sites, like YouTube.
• Bing Ads – a smaller platform and reach means lower competition and CPC.
• Meta Ads – for extensive targeting based on interests and likes on social media.
• LinkedIn Ads – for targeting based on professional criteria like job title.

Choose the target audience that best aligns with your customer base and business goals. B2B SaaS companies, for example, often choose LinkedIn and Google Ads.

Account set-up

1. Sign up on your chosen PPC platform
2. Enter all business details, time zones and currency preferences
3. Under billing, add payment information and preferred payment method
4. Verify information
5. Review account details

You’re now ready to launch your first ad!

Launching a PPC campaign

On many PPC platforms, the first question it’ll ask will be “what is the campaign goal/objective?” This could be a number of things but the most common goals are:

• Increase impressions or awareness
• Increase traffic and clickthrough rates (CTR)
• Generate leads

The campaign objective will define the platform’s approach to selling the ad. Traffic campaigns will focus on broad targeting and high-traffic keywords for example, whereas a lead generation campaign’s messaging and targeting will be more direct, offering clear CTAs and offers to encourage sign-ups.

The place the ad fits in the marketing funnel will also impact the ad’s aspects, including copy, clear visual content, and targeting and performance metrics measured.

Keyword Research for PPC

PPC campaigns, especially those like Google Ads, are highly reliant on the keywords chosen to target. Researching and choosing the relevant keywords to align with business goals is an absolutely crucial, necessary step in PPC advertising.

It helps to have an additional SEO tool like Ahrefs or SEMrush, but Google Ads also offer an inbuilt Google Keyword Planner for you to complete keyword research, and assess search volumes and difficulty, while also considering bid rates for those keywords.

You can type in a broad primary phase associated with an industry, and then using these tools, niche down and look for longtail keywords and more specific niches within those.

Choosing the right keywords

In keyword research, the most important thing is to match user intent. Focussing on that and the ad relevance to the user ensures they are delivered to the people most likely to engage and convert.

A good example of this is the work done by the University of Arts Bournemouth which targeted specific search terms across the UK like “art and design degrees UK” or “design undergraduate courses”.

Negative keywords

Invariably, keywords that don’t match your industry or user intent will occasionally show up in your ad delivery reports. To stop those keywords from taking up valuable traffic and CPC revenue, add them to a negative keywords list. This will help direct your ads to the right users and make them more relevant.

Creating Ad Copy That Works

PPC copy can be difficult to write. It usually (depending on platform) needs to be snappy, short, and yet convey the information an ad’s intent clearly.

Typically, a PPC ad will have several places for copy placement:

• Headline
• Description
• CTA
• Display URL

These all need to work in tandem to ensure the messaging is clear and concise. PPC ad copy should quickly convey the benefits of the product or service, and address the pain points your company solves.

This is also achieved through strong CTAs that encourage engagement. A B2B lead generation ad might have something like “sign up now for a free guide” or “try a demo of our software now!” to create urgency and offer something back, increasing the likelihood of conversion.

Make sure to include keywords in each aspect of your ad and campaign, as this improves ad relevance and Quality Score. When your ad copy closely matches the search queries of potential customers, it signals to the search engine that your ad is relevant, which can lead to higher ad placements and lower costs-per-click.

Setting Your PPC Budget & Bids

No matter your budget, you want to get the most out of it, and that’s only achievable if you allocate funding well.

Break down marketing goals, and what’s needed to achieve them to establish how much budget can be funnelled into your PPC campaigns. A good starting point is to allocate a small amount of your marketing budget and then scale up based on campaign performance.

Then, distribute that budget across your ad platforms, groups and individual ads based on their priority.

For example, content management solutions software, Alfresco, split their budget across four groups based on their likelihood to convert and the cost to convert.

Bidding strategy

Once you’ve decided your budget allocation, you need to decide which type of bidding will work best for your PPC campaign. On Google Ads for example, you can choose between manual and automated bidding and different cost-per types.

Manual bidding is where you set individual bid limits for each keyword or keyword group. This lets you closely monitor and adjust budgets to the literal penny; however, it relies on the expertise of the marketer running the campaign and human knowledge which isn’t as comprehensive.

Automated bidding uses algorithms and machine learning to analyse thousands of data sets and adjust your PPC strategy accordingly.

There’s no need for manual adjustments as it can make changes quickly and effectively, making your targeting more granular and effective.

Monitoring and Optimising PPC Campaigns

Now, once the campaign is set up, it’s essential to monitor it closely and continually to be able to identify shifting patterns and trends in the industry, and adjust ads in real-time.

There are many metrics you can track for PPC, but we recommend sticking to those that provide actionable insights.

Key performance metrics like clickthrough rates, conversion rates, cost-per-click and return on ad spend (ROAS) are highly indicative of a campaign’s success.

A high clickthrough rate indicates your PPC ad has a high relevance score and is reaching the right potential customers. A low clickthrough rate suggests something in your messaging isn’t resonating as it should, or that your target demographics need to be amended.

The conversion rate indicates the effectiveness of your landing page and the relevance of your product or service to the ad itself. Low conversion rates can indicate that people aren’t driven to take the next step after clicking through from your ad.

The return on ad spend (ROAS) tells you how profitable your campaign is. This is measured by dividing the revenue generated by the total cost of your advertising.

Of course, the first number should always be much higher than the second; and if it is, your ad is paying for itself.

Tips for optimisation

To improve your cost-per rates and overall ad success, don’t be afraid to experiment! You can try different strategies across ads including changing copy, A/B testing, and adjusting bids and keyword lists based on performance.

Through continual monitoring and optimisation, you can respond quickly to changes and fluctuations in the market, keeping your ads and landing pages highly engaging and relevant.

Common PPC Mistakes to Avoid

As with anything, PPC has a learning curve. Those new to it often fall into common PPC pitfalls that waste budget and resources at the beginning of their campaign journey.

Misuse of keywords

It’s easy to mistake high-cost keywords with those that will provide the most value. But this isn’t always necessarily the case. Hitting the right longtail keyword can have higher success rates at a reduced cost. Experiment with high-value keywords and put more budget behind those proven to drive success.

Keep checking your negative keyword list, too. As new, irrelevant keywords appear in your history, make sure to add them to your negative keywords so as to prevent any further budget waste.

Budget mismanagement

Make sure your ad campaign strategy matches the budget available. If you have a lower budget, don’t try and do too many ad groups and campaigns. You’ll end up with lots of ideas and ads, but no real budget to give any of them a fair shot at succeeding.

If something isn’t working, refine the campaign and try again, but also don’t be afraid to call time of death on an ad group that isn’t converting, and instead move your resources to successful campaigns.

Advanced PPC Strategies for Future Growth

The most successful PPC ad campaigns are those monitored closely and granularly, with active changes made based on the reporting data.

Once you’ve got to grips with the fundamentals of PPC advertising, you can start to play with the more sophisticated and advanced features to make your campaigns even more successful.

Here are a few ways to enhance your success rates:

Remarketing

In B2B marketing, on average, it takes 8 touchpoints to make a sale. So, if you’re not using remarketing tactics in your PPC campaigns, you are missing valuable opportunities to connect with potential purchasers who are already aware of your product. Be sure to add frequency caps to your ads, however, as you don’t want to oversaturate a user and turn them off the product offered.

Audience targeting

This ties nicely into remarketing as you can upload custom email lists that target those who have already visited your site.
Other advanced options beyond standard demographic choices include the creation of lookalike audiences based off historical data. This opens up your PPC campaign to a host of new potential leads based off their search patterns and general interests that match existing customers.

Automated tools

Lastly, don’t do it all by hand. Automation and machine learning tools exist to help us streamline our processes and spend more time on development and strategy. Use ChatGPT plugins and scripts to manage large-scale PPC campaigns for better delivery, accuracy and ROAS.

Mastering PPC for Continued Success

Mastering PPC requires continuous learning, experimentation, and adaptation. And although everyone can do it, it takes a lot of expertise and experience to truly master PPC advertising.

That’s why a lot of businesses choose to outsource PPC management to experts who know the minute details of how to make campaigns a successful stream of revenue for a business.

Just like us.

Drop Common Ground a message today and let us help you achieve success with expert PPC management, for better ROI.