Paid Advertising For Beginners

If you work in the business world, especially in the marketing/advertising industries, you have likely heard the term “Pay-Per-Click advertising” tossed around as if it is common knowledge. People love to use marketing terms as if they’re common knowledge to everyone, but that’s not always the case… It is perfectly okay to need some clarification on what certain digital marketing terms mean! This article will attempt to clarify some of the most common questions business owners and professionals have with regards to Paid (PPC) Advertising.

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What is Paid (PPC) Advertising?

Pay Per Click Advertising (PPC) is a marketing strategy in which a business pays money in return for clicks on a digital advertisement that they are promoting. PPC Advertising is a very different strategy from organic digital advertising. When running a paid ad campaign, what you spend has a major effect on the outreach of your advertisements. You are paying money to a third-party platform (typically a social media platform or a search engine) to promote your brand to specific audiences of consumers.

Some marketing companies specialize in managing PPC advertising campaigns for businesses. The goal of marketers who are experienced in managing PPC campaigns is to maximize value by reaching as many targeted consumers as possible per dollar spent, as well as encouraging a specific “action” from consumers such as a website visit or a phone call. By taking the time to make creative advertisements, prototype the advertisements, and run extensive testing processes on the ad’s, some PPC ad campaigns end up being much more effective than others.

Where Does Paid Advertising Happen?

Paid advertising strategies are typically incorporated on social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, LinkedIn and TikTok. Paid advertising can also be utilized on search engines such as Google. Each social media platform is slightly different in how paid advertising is incorporated, requiring different skillsets and strategies. Each platform also offers unique benefits. For example, one business that focuses on selling business to consumers (B2C) might be a great fit for Facebook Advertising while another business that focuses on selling business to business (B2B) may do better on LinkedIn. A third business that wants to be trendy with the younger generations may even want to focus on TikTok. It is very important to assess which avenue of paid advertising is the best fit for your particular business before considering implementing a paid advertising campaign.

(If you would like a free assessment of your business with regards to digital marketing, click the link to set up a meeting with the Mythic Media team and we would be happy to point you in the right direction)

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How Does Paid (PPC) Advertising Work?

When implemented effectively, paid (PPC) advertising works by fulfilling all major components of a consumer’s journey to buying a product or service. In the case of social media paid advertising campaigns, the process first starts by creating promotional video or picture advertisements. Once the advertisements are created, you must decide how much money you would like to spend to promote your advertisements and on which social media platforms. Once you establish a budget, you can begin to trial your advertisements with a wide variety of factors such as ad copy (headlines, primary text, call to action, etc), audiences, among other factors. Once you have enough data to figure out what the most effective ad strategy is to move forward with, you spend your monthly campaign budget to promote your most efficient ad’s and link them to a call to action of some sort. This is a very simplified explanation of a complex process. The best paid advertisers are often creative and innovative in coming up with new ways to improve efficiency.

How Do I Know if Paid Advertising is a Good Fit for my Business?

Each business is unique and there is ultimately no “one size fits all” formula for paid advertising. The businesses that tend to experience high levels of success are businesses that sell higher margin products or services (such as Doctors, Dentists, Car Dealerships, Gym’s etc) who are willing to embrace creativity and thinking outside of the box in their advertising efforts. The best way to know if your business may be a fit for Paid Advertising is to set up a meeting with an expert and have them evaluate your business for potential marketing opportunities.