Pay-Per-Click

Pay-per-click or cost per click (CPC) is a type of digital marketing, where an advertiser pays a search engine a fee for every click made on the ad. This is a method of buying visits to a website rather than ranking in the organic search results.

With this video, you'll get to know the way PPC advertising works, along with CPC and CPM.

PPC is a good idea for those who want to drive qualitative traffic to their website as PPC add is shown only to potentially interested users.

Models to Calculate CPC

1. Flat-rate PPC. An advertiser and the website's owner agreed upon a fixed amount of money for each click. It can be changed only after the reconsideration of the agreement.
2. Bid-based PPC. The advertisers take part in the auction, the aim of which is to get the maximum of clicks for the lower price. They inform you about the highest price they are ready to pay. It's done to ensure that advertisers don't bid lower than the actual value of the keyword is.

Factors That Influence CPC

• Сompetitiveness. There is the maximum cost per click for every particular industry. If the competitiveness is high, it will be more challenging to fight for better ranking. Still, if all the advertisers of the same sector are ready to pay $5, the quality of the add will matter.

• Quality Score. The quality of an ad is essential as search engines take care of user experience. For example, advertiser John is ready to pay $7 per click, while Ann — $5. A search engine will analyze the add itself, a keyword, the relevance to the landing page, and past keywords' performance.

  If John's keyword is "leather sneakers," and the ad leads to leather oxfords — a search engine will not place this ad first even for $7. If Ann's keyword is "leather sneakers," and the ad leads to a page with leather sneakers — her add will be considered more relevant as it satisfies the user's need.

  Besides, a search engine predicts the CTR of the add basing on its past performance.

  So, the higher is the Quality Score, the higher the ad will rank in the Search Engine Results Page, and the lower the CPC will be.

• Season. Seasonal campaigns are very popular since the advertisers can choose the time of the year when they can spend more money in the shortest period.
• Geographical location. You can set specific locations like countries, cities, territories to show your ad to people from there. It will help to find the right people who need your services.
• Time of day. It is essential to know when your potential customers are likely to interact with you and look for your services. For example, if you sell cars, the users are not expected to search them at 9 am on Monday because they are at work. The best time is probably in the evening. In contrast, they can look for a book during the break or lunch.

Google Adwords is the platform for PPC advertising that works with the keywords, ad text, landing pages, and maximum bids to provide a good user experience.

Try PPC advertising to enlarge your target audience in the shortest period!

References

1. The article provides a holistic view of PPC. It defines the term, considers its benefits and best platforms to run it on, explains how to get started, and offers best practices to follow.
2. The article considers PPC and the way paid search marketing works.

Last Updated: 22.03.2023