What Is a PPC Campaign? The Complete Guide for Beginners

Pay-per-click (PPC) campaigns present speedy and easy measurable results.

But however bash you enactment unneurotic a PPC campaign? And wherever tin you tally those ads?

You’re astir to find out

But let’s commencement with the basics.

What Is a PPC Campaign?

A PPC run is an advertizing run that’s portion of a integer selling exemplary wherever a institution pays a interest each clip a idiosyncratic clicks connected the ad. And that interest is referred to arsenic the outgo per click (CPC)—which is determined done an advertisement auction.

PPC campaigns let companies to advertise to tremendous idiosyncratic bases connected assorted platforms.

For example, here’s a PPC hunt advertisement connected Google for the word “kitchen supplies”:

And here’s a Reddit PPC ad:

Benefits of PPC Campaigns

Here are the superior advantages of PPC campaigns:

PPC Campaigns Drive Results Quickly

You tin get a run moving wrong a time arsenic agelong arsenic you person originative assets, copy, and a fund astatine the ready. 

And astir of the waiting clip is for the level to o.k. your ads.

Once approved, your ads volition commencement showing to the assemblage you defined (more connected that later). And volition apt commencement generating results. 

When it comes to PPC vs. SEO, the second tin besides thrust awesome results. But that tin instrumentality galore months fixed the clip it takes for rankings and postulation to increase. Which you tin spot successful the illustration beneath outlining integrated (unpaid) postulation to semrush.com.

PPC Campaigns Have Precise Targeting

You tin beryllium incredibly circumstantial astir the assemblage you privation to amusement your ads to. Which improves the likelihood that they’ll beryllium funny successful your offerings and helps maximize your instrumentality connected concern (ROI).

It’s imaginable to constrictive down your assemblage based connected geographic location, interests, and more.

Consider however that compares to contented marketing. You tin constitute contented intended for a circumstantial audience, but you don’t person afloat power implicit who sees it.

PPC Campaigns AreEasy to Measure

Every level that includes PPC ads provides information astir your campaign. To springiness you insights into what is and isn’t effective. 

You tin reappraisal impressions, clicks, the click-through complaint (CTR), conversions, conversion rate, CPC, and more.

You tin besides usage the disposable metrics to cipher your instrumentality connected advertisement walk (ROAS). Which measures however overmuch gross you generated from each dollar spent connected advertising.

Plus, you tin easy crook disconnected an underperforming advertisement acceptable oregon modify its features to marque it much effective.

And you tin statesman discovering trends and optimal tactics for aboriginal campaigns erstwhile you summation immoderate preliminary data.

PPC Campaigns Are Customizable

PPC campaigns fto you prime the copy, originative assets (when applicable), keywords (when applicable), audience, placements, and overmuch more. 

Most of the limitations are casual to enactment with: utilizing the due representation sizes, staying wrong quality counts (like the representation beneath from Meta Ads Manager shows), and avoiding thing that could beryllium seen arsenic perchance harmful.

You tin besides ever spell backmost and tweak campaigns, advertisement sets, oregon ads themselves if you request to.

Key Components of a PPC Campaign

Each level envisions the operation of PPC campaigns somewhat differently, but determination are ever a fewer cardinal components.

PPC Objectives and Ad Sets

PPC campaigns person overarching objectives, advertisement sets (groups of related ads), and idiosyncratic ads. And immoderate ads besides incorporated keywords

You tin envision the operation of a run that uses keywords similar this:

Each run is composed of 1 oregon much advertisement sets aimed astatine achieving the overarching objective.

For example, a SaaS institution whitethorn person a antithetic run for each of the products oregon services they sell.

Each advertisement acceptable wrong a run volition travel the extremity acceptable distant by the run objective. And volition person 1 oregon much ads with antithetic originative assets, targeting, and fund options. 

Finally, each advertisement wrong an advertisement acceptable volition person its ain creative, copy, and telephone to enactment (CTA).

Ad transcript and originative disagree by level and advertisement type. For example, you whitethorn beryllium capable to usage GIFs oregon videos alternatively of static images. Or much oregon less characters for headlines and descriptions. 

Ad transcript is the simplest to understand—you person to springiness your ads immoderate substance that volition beryllium displayed. 

Well-crafted advertisement transcript tin heavy power CTR. Because it’s 1 of the 2 superior ways to fto users cognize what you’re advertising.

The different foundational portion is the originative (but not for hunt ads, which are substance only). Images, videos, and GIFs are utilized to entice users to click connected the ad.

Another constituent is advertisement assets (previously called advertisement extensions) for hunt ads. And they tin beryllium rather valuable. 

Assets supply further information. Like location, further sitelinks, prices, and overmuch more.

Targeting Options

There are a fig of ways to people conscionable the close assemblage based connected the level you’re using. To guarantee you scope the close people.

Most societal media platforms fto you prime demographic, behavioral, and psychographic information to constrictive down who sees your advertisements.

Here’s what it looks similar successful Meta Ads Manager:

Search engines similar Bing and Google harvester assemblage and keyword targeting. So, your ads volition look whenever idiosyncratic from your targeted radical searches for definite keywords.

Budget and Bidding Options

You’ll person fund and bidding options. The erstwhile volition mostly beryllium divided either into a regular oregon beingness budget.

Restricting yourself to a regular fund lone volition walk a acceptable magnitude of wealth per day. While restricting yourself to a beingness fund volition walk varying amounts per time until the fund is spent.

Using some whitethorn besides beryllium possible. Which volition marque the run walk up to the regular magnitude until the magnitude acceptable successful the beingness fund is exhausted.

Here’s what the fund setup looks similar for Reddit ads:

Most platforms usage a bidding process to find what ads to amusement users. Meaning determination volition beryllium respective competing ads, and the 1 with the highest bid (that meets immoderate different criteria) gets shown much often than others.

If your advertisement gets shown, you could wage up to the bid magnitude (or a spot much connected Reddit) whenever a idiosyncratic clicks connected your ad.

Higher contention means you’ll usually request to bid higher. 

And enactment that you tin usually modify your bid amount, mounting the maximum allowed bid. Which is the maximum magnitude you privation to wage for a click.

If you’re caller to PPC run management, see keeping the default bid settings. Most platforms person coagulated algorithms that are susceptible of optimizing bidding strategies without your intervention.

Manual bidding tin beryllium successful, but you request to bash a batch of probe to recognize however to optimize your PPC campaigns.

How to Prepare for a PPC Campaign

You person to instrumentality a fewer preliminary steps earlier opening to acceptable up a PPC campaign. 

Here’s what to do.

Review Your Competitor’s PPC Campaigns

Conducting a competitory investigation is simply a large mode to summation inspiration for your campaign. Because it helps you larn what’s worked for your rivals.

You tin bash this for hunt ads utilizing Semrush’s Advertising Research tool. 

Enter a competitor’s domain into the hunt bar. And click “Search.”

The “Positions” tab volition amusement first.

You’ll beryllium capable to spot however galore keywords they’re bidding on, their estimated paid traffic, and the outgo of that traffic.

Now, look astatine the “Paid Search Positions” array to find the nonstop keywords your rival is bidding. And spot related data.

Next, spell to the “Ads Copies” tab.

This study volition amusement you the nonstop transcript your rival utilized successful their hunt ads for the selected clip range. And which keywords they’re bidding on.

Don’t beryllium acrophobic to instrumentality inspiration from these.

Finally, sojourn the “Pages” tab to find each of the landing pages your competitors are driving to from their PPC campaigns.

Find Your Audience

Audience probe volition assistance you constrictive down to a chiseled marketplace segment. To amended your wide results.

Semrush’s One2Target lets you uncover the demographic, socioeconomic, and psychographic assemblage for your people audience.

Open the tool, marque definite “Check Competitors” is selected, input up to 5 competitors’ URLs, and click “Analyze.”

The “Demographics” study volition appear. And springiness you a breakdown of the audience’s age, country, and more.

Now, let’s click connected “Socioeconomics.” You’ll spot the audience’s household income and size, employment status, and acquisition level.

Finally, spell to the “Behavior” tab to get information connected interests, societal media usage, and instrumentality type.

All this accusation tin assistance you amended recognize who you’re speaking to. And what benignant of messaging volition resonate with them. 

Step-by-Step Guide to Launching a PPC Campaign

Follow on to larn however to acceptable up a hunt run successful Google Ads. 

Each level volition person a somewhat antithetic acceptable of steps, but the overarching process volition beryllium the same.

1. Select Your Goal

Almost each platforms volition person a run nonsubjective (or goal). 

In Google Ads, your options are: sales, leads, website traffic, consciousness and consideration, app promotion, section store visits and promotions, and an enactment to customize your ain goal.

Selecting an nonsubjective volition power the bidding operation and however and erstwhile your advertisement is shown. 

Luckily, it’s rather casual to determine which nonsubjective is best. Here’s how:

• Pick income oregon leads if you mean to marque sales
• Pick traffic, consciousness and consideration, oregon section visits if you privation to summation marque awareness
• Pick app installs if you privation to thrust much users to your app

2. Conduct Keyword Research

Keywords are indispensable for hunt campaigns. Because they specify the cases erstwhile users volition spot your ads (along with targeting).

For example, a idiosyncratic who searches for “wooden watch” whitethorn spot your advertisement if you’re bidding connected that keyword.

You tin find immoderate keywords by utilizing Keyword Gap to analyse yourself against your competitors. 

Enter your domain and up to 4 competitors’ domains. Then, marque definite to prime “Paid Keywords” from the drop-down menus and click “Compare.”

Once you spot the report, scroll down to the table. Then, marque definite your domain is displayed adjacent to “All keyword details for:” and prime the “Missing” tab.

You’ll present spot a database of keywords that each your competitors person paid rankings for but you don’t. 

You tin besides spot the monthly hunt volumes for those keywords, your competitors’ paid rankings, and the mean CPC advertisers wage for each keyword. 

From this list, place applicable options you privation to absorption connected for your PPC campaign. 

You tin usage the Semrush’s Keyword Magic Tool to find further options. 

Input 1 of the keywords you privation to bid connected based connected the presumption you discovered during your spread analysis. Then, click “Search.”

You’ll past get a database of akin keywords. 

Click the cogwheel icon astatine the apical of the array and prime the checkbox adjacent to “Competitive Density” to adhd it to the table. Review this metric arsenic good arsenic CPC erstwhile considering keywords. 

Finally, instrumentality a look astatine the “Intent” column. 

Here’s a rundown of the main intent categories and which types of campaigns they’re champion for:

• Informational (I): Means a idiosyncratic is looking for information. This tin beryllium bully for consciousness oregon postulation goals.
• Navigational (N): Means a idiosyncratic is looking for an nonstop webpage oregon brand. This tin beryllium utilized to bid connected branded keywords (e.g., “slack integration” if your institution has a Slack integration).
• Commercial (C): Means a idiosyncratic is investigating options oregon brands. This tin beryllium bully for some income and pb campaigns.
• Transactional (T): Means a idiosyncratic is looking to marque a purchase. This is champion for leads, sales, and app installs.

Filter based connected the intent that champion aligns with your extremity to get a bully starting database for your PPC campaign.

3. Choose Your Bidding Strategy

Next, you’ll request to take your bidding strategy.

You tin either adhd your maximum CPC bounds present oregon astatine the keyword level.

If you’re caller to PPC campaigns and aren’t definite astir the due maximum CPC, reappraisal the averages you saw during your keyword research. 

4. Select Your Campaign Settings

Each hunt run includes a assortment of assemblage targeting options to constrictive down the assemblage based connected the probe you conducted.

Google Ads lets you people circumstantial locations, languages, and assemblage segments (e.g, interests, demographics, etc).

Keep successful caput that you tin acceptable up advertisement sets for each campaign. They’re fundamentally collections of ads that are each a spot different.

5. Enter Your Keywords and Write Compelling Ad Copy

Copy is the lone happening incentivizing users to click connected your hunt ad. So, it needs to beryllium bully and besides incorporated your people keywords.

Start by entering the keywords you selected during research.

Next, constitute your transcript successful the abstraction provided.

Keep successful caput what you learned based connected the transcript your competitors are utilizing arsenic good arsenic the keywords Google Ads recommends using. But experimentation connected your ain arsenic well.

Many companies volition enactment their unsocial selling propositions (USPs) successful the rubric to marque themselves basal out. 

For example, you mightiness see stand-out selling points similar “natural materials,” and “craftsmanship” successful your headlines if you’re creating ads promoting your watches.

Make definite your descriptions ever see a CTA similar “buy,” “get,” “try,” “discover,” etc. And don’t beryllium acrophobic to see condemnation fragments oregon omit words to stay wrong quality limits.

You tin besides experimentation with penning retired numbers successful antithetic ways (“1K” vs. “1,000” vs. “1 000”). And including oregon excluding your marque name. 

Don’t hide astir including advertisement assets, either.

You get much ocular existent property and often a clearer CTA for the user.

5. Optimize Your Landing Page

Your PPC campaign’s ads volition person to constituent to a landing page. And it should intelligibly lucifer the keyword intent and connection a large idiosyncratic experience.

Let’s accidental you’re successful bundle sales. Focus connected intelligibly showing the merchandise successful the landing leafage leader space, including a wide acquisition button, and incorporating descriptions that are casual to understand.

If you listed assorted USPs successful your advertisement copy, marque definite they’re represented connected the landing leafage arsenic well. Like this page:

Adding reviews, testimonials, and different societal impervious tin besides enactment well. Because those elements assistance physique trust.

But debar including thing that tin dilatory down the leafage load time. So you don’t negatively interaction the idiosyncratic experience.

Finally, marque navigating the leafage arsenic elemental arsenic possible. By avoiding excessively galore links oregon buttons that pb to different pages.

6. Set Your Budget

You delegate your regular fund successful Google Ads successful the last measurement by making a elemental selection. Which is past utilized to wage for the clicks.

Google volition springiness you 3 recommended options. And a customized fund enactment wherever you tin delegate a regular fund of immoderate size.

You’ll besides get an estimation of the play fig of clicks, mean CPC, and the play cost.

7. Monitor and Optimize Your Campaigns

You tin marque tweaks to PPC campaigns portion they’re unrecorded to get amended results. Which is often a bully idea.

But you archetypal request to recognize what bully show is. Which is challenging if you’ve ne'er tally a hunt run before. 

So, commencement by looking astatine industry benchmarks for PPC campaigns to get a bully thought connected what results tin beryllium considered good.

Once you’ve tally a fewer campaigns, you tin past look astatine them for benchmarks.

Then, look astatine the information successful Google Ads. And wage attraction to these cardinal metrics:

• CTR
• Conversion rate
• Impressions
• Clicks
• CPC

It’s besides a bully thought to supplement this accusation with outer data. Which you tin bash with Semrush’s Position Tracking tool:

Open the tool, participate your domain, and click “Set up tracking.”

Follow the Position Tracking configuration guide to implicit each the steps successful the setup wizard. And marque definite to adhd each the keywords you’re targeting with your PPC ads.

Then, click “Start Tracking.”

Once the instrumentality is acceptable up, you’ll spot the “Landscape” tab. 

Click the cogwheel icon successful the precocious close country and prime the ellipse adjacent to “Google Ads” nether “Type.”

You’ll present spot high-level accusation astir your paid keyword rankings and however they’ve changed.

Head to the “Overview” tab for a much elaborate look astatine each your paid hunt rankings.

Next, spell to the “Competitors Discovery” tab to spot who your closest competitors are. And however you compare.

The Position Tracking instrumentality besides alerts you astir immoderate sudden, ample changes.

If you announcement thing you privation to amended based connected your presumption changes oregon your information from wrong Google Ads, you tin set either your ads oregon your landing page. 

For example, let’s accidental you person tons of impressions and a bully CTR but a debased fig of income oregon conversions. That could bespeak thing is incorrect with the landing page.

So, effort experimenting with the landing leafage copy, images, and CTAs.

Or possibly you’re getting fewer impressions and person a atrocious CTR, but you’re getting a decent fig of income oregon conversions considering that. This indicates that you whitethorn request to set the ads themselves.

In this case, you tin modify your ads by investigating antithetic USPs, appealing to a peculiar symptom point, oregon adjacent adjusting your keywords. 

PPC Advertising Platforms

Google Ads isn’t the lone level for PPC ads. 

Here’s a speedy rundown of the options:

Google Ads

Google Ads makes it imaginable to scope astir immoderate audience. And offers galore targeting options.

But there’s a batch of contention compared to different platforms. And it whitethorn beryllium harder (or much expensive) to vie for definite keywords.

Google Ads besides separates itself into the Search Network (Search, Maps, Shopping, etc.) and the Display Network (YouTube, Gmail, Blogger, etc.). 

YouTube Ads

YouTube offers assorted video advertisement formats for antithetic concern needs. And includes akin targeting options arsenic Google Ads.

Here are a fewer of the choices:

• Skippable in-stream video ads that play before, during, oregon aft immoderate video the targeted assemblage is viewing. And tin beryllium skipped aft 5 seconds.
• Unskippable in-stream video ads that play before, during, oregon aft immoderate video and cannot beryllium skipped. But are 30 seconds oregon less.
• In-feed video ads are video ads that look successful YouTube hunt results, connected YouTube’s mobile homepage, and alongside related videos

You tin besides tally substance and representation ads connected YouTube. Which look astatine the bottommost of the video player.

Bing Ads (Microsoft Advertising)

Running ads connected Bing and Microsoft Advertising spouse sites gives you akin targeting options and features arsenic Google Ads.

But determination are unsocial features similar LinkedIn illustration targeting and representation extensions (which gives hunt ads ocular appeal). And it allows you to import campaigns from Google Ads.

Here’s what a Bing advertisement looks like:

Bing Ads whitethorn besides beryllium little competitory than Google Ads. Which tin assistance you walk little connected PPC campaigns.

LinkedIn Ads

LinkedIn Ads enables you to easy people manufacture professionals and businesses.

Here’s what a LinkedIn advertisement looks like:

This level includes unsocial targeting options similar occupation titles, institution names, industries and sectors, and more.

And there’s adjacent a benignant of advertisement that lets you nonstop nonstop messages to users without having a transportation to them.

Reddit Ads

Reddit lets you people its subreddits. Which are created for enthusiasts of circumstantial topics similar gaming, food, etc.

And they look similar this:

Most of its targeting features are akin to those connected Google Ads, but they’re not arsenic extensive. Which is understandable. Because the main gully are subreddits.

You besides get to take from aggregate originative formats similar images, GIFs, videos, and adjacent text-only ads.

Meta Ads

Meta Ads combines advertizing connected Facebook, Instagram, and Messenger into 1 platform. 

One of the large things astir Meta Ads is that you person the quality to scope divers audiences.

It besides provides a implicit array of demographic, geographic, and psychographic targeting options. And you get a precocious assortment of originative plus options—GIFs, videos, images, etc.

Turn PPC Campaigns Into a Long-Term PPC Strategy

Setting up a azygous PPC run and managing it is conscionable the start. You’ll privation to tally much successful the future. 

Once you do, you’ll privation to perform a PPC audit each erstwhile successful a while. To find ways to amended show and amended negociate your budgets.

And you tin thrust adjacent amended results with our advertizing tools similar Advertising Research and Position Tracking. Try them contiguous by signing up for an account.