Pay-per-click (PPC) is a form of digital marketing where advertisers pay each time people click on their ad. PPC advertising comes in different types, including pictures, videos, text, or a combination. It is offered by search engines like Google and other social networks such as Facebook and Instagram. The fee paid per click in this form of marketing is usually insignificant compared to what you will benefit from the result. For example, you may spend $1 per click, and get $200 in sales.
How Does Pay-per-click Work?
The PPC advertising model functions based on keywords. Advertisers bid on keywords relevant to their products or services; when people search for those keywords or phrases on search engines, the ads will appear, and the advertisers pay each time someone clicks on the ad.
Therefore, companies that rely on this model would carefully analyze the keywords that are more applicable to their products or services, and then they bid on those keywords to get a high number of clicks, which can lead to traffic for their business, sales, and eventually profits.
The PPC model offers an opportunity to advertise your products and services directly to your target audience. These users are actively searching for relevant content and are more likely to be interested in what you are offering since they were searching for something related. The top PPC advertising platforms include Google, YouTube, Microsoft, Facebook, TikTok, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Twitter.
Types of Pay-per-click Ads
There are different types of PPC campaigns with different formats you can choose from, depending on the platform you use.
Search Ads
When users search for things on Google, search ads appear on the result pages; the search ads are shown when the users search for related keywords, so only people searching for terms related to your products and services will see your search ads.
Video Ads
Video ads are used on websites and are best on platforms like TikTok, YouTube, and others. There are different types of video ads; the common one on YouTube is a pre-roll ad, shown briefly before the video the user wants to watch.
Display ads
This type of ad appears in the form of banners or images on websites within the Google display network and other partner sites; they can be shown at the top, side, or bottom of the webpage.