Pay-per-click advertising: 4 Things Your Students Should Know

Pay-Per-Click or PPC marketing is a paid tactic that companies use to drive traffic to a website or web page. 

As the name suggests, an advertiser pays when a person clicks on an ad and drives them to an app or website to take an action – such as giving personal information or making a purchase. 

While PPC is most common on search engines such as Google or Yahoo, it can also be used on social networks. For many companies, PPC advertising is attractive as you only pay for clicks so it’s cost-effective, gets quick results and is targeted. 

So what should your students know about PPC marketing to use it effectively to drive traffic and high-intent leads?

1. Campaign set-up and management

The success of a PPC campaign relies on how it is set up and managed. The most important things to understand are the goal of your campaign (e.g. brand awareness, lead generation) and the keywords to rank for on the search engine results pages (SERPs). 

Using targeted keywords means that your ad will get found by your target audience. The goal is to get your ad in front of people that will click and convert.  

For example, if a company sells birthday cards, the keywords to target and pay for could be ‘birthday cards’, ‘personalised card’, ‘buy birthday card’. 

Other elements to consider as part of a PPC campaign are:

 – The ad platform – It’s important to advertise where your audience is so research is key. Luckily Google is one of the biggest search engines so it’s a safe bet for most brands. Other platforms to consider are Facebook, Bing and AdRoll (for remarketing.   

 – Campaign structure – Multiple campaigns are best when it comes to PPC. This allows a company to create multiple ad groups that can target different keywords and set a daily budget, location and day-parting. 

 – Custom landing pages – It’s important to think about where people go once they click on an ad. Create custom landing pages that follow on from the ad’s messaging with trackable links using UTMs.  

 – Ad creation – Look to incorporate targeted keywords into your ads in the headline and copy. Consider using A/B testing on different ads so you can use variants to see what messaging works and optimise ads based on results. 

2. PPC optimisation

Once an account is set up and ads are running, it’s crucial to track PPC performance to minimize cost-per-click and maximize click-through-rate. 

So understanding how campaigns perform through review and analysis can help your students tweak and edit elements to get the best return on investment (ROI) possible.

To do this, students need to analyse some PPC campaign elements:

 – Keywords – When it comes to search, keywords can change as what people search for changes. It’s also important to test exact match and broad match keywords to try and catch all searches. 

 – Budget – Knowing which ads to put money behind takes skill and experience. Monitor and analyse PPC campaigns daily and change budgets according to performance. Consider manual bidding to have more control over your budget. In other words, put your money behind what works!

 – Location – Don’t waste money and time on locations that don’t provide quality leads. For local companies, look at key cities or towns in target areas. 

 – Conversion actions – Make sure the conversions being tracked (e.g. email signups, purchases) are the right ones, particularly as Universal Analytics has now migrated to GA4.   

3. PPC Targeting and Segmenting

The more defined an audience is, the easier it is to target them with relevant ads. 

As a paid advertising channel, targeting and segmentation are crucial in PPC to ensure ads are featured in the right places for the right searches and saying the right things. But how can your students do this effectively? 

There are several customer segments companies can target:

• Location
• Demographic
• Customer behaviour
• Purchasing behaviour
• Interests and values

Once the segments are chosen depending on the business type and goals, the best way to target each group is to use specific keywords, personalise ads, use A/B testing, analyse campaigns and optimise when and where possible.

4. PPC Analysis and Reporting

When a company’s money is on the line, management and stakeholders want to make sure it’s getting the best ROI possible. That’s why PPC analysis and reporting is so important. 

It not only helps the marketing team understand what’s working but also shows the value or potential of PPC for a company. 

Getting data for PPC campaigns is usually easy as the platforms are set up to show key metrics such as clicks, impressions, CTR or conversion rate. The challenging part is analysing that data and reporting will facilitate that.

Your students need to look at trends and metrics over time to determine performance and select the right keywords. Some elements to include in a PPC report are:

• Conversions
• Date range
• Ad targeting
• Cost per acquisition
• CPC
• Website or landing page traffic
• Historical data (compare weekly or monthly to see changes or growth)  

PPC Marketing: Conclusion

PPC marketing is an important marketing channel for companies because it works! WordStream found that search ads increase brand awareness by 80% while the average click-through rate for an ad in the first position is 6.3%.

Any marketing graduate with the ambition to succeed in the workplace would benefit from an understanding of PPC marketing and hands-on experience in setting up and managing campaigns. 

Offer your students valuable PPC experience

Get a free demo of our Pay-Per-Click simulation to see the hands-on and practical experience you can offer your students. Find out why universities, schools, and learning providers trust us to give students the skills they need to succeed in the workplace.