Should a Small Business Use Pay Per Click Advertising?

According to a report released by digital marketing firm WordStream, approximately 2 million small businesses used Google Adwords last year. The 2 million businesses combined to spend a total of 7.2 billion dollars on Google Pay Per Click (PPC). The question is whether the expense was worth it for those businesses or not.

Ultimately it depends on the details of the business; goals, marketing objectives, industry, etc. PPC marketing can provide profits, and Google Adwords still remains as the most used and well-known platform for it. That being said, the actual process of PPC – more specifically the process of bidding on keywords – can be somewhat expensive and inexact. This can in turn create potential downfalls for small businesses who have limited marketing budgets and resources.

It’s widely accepted that the majority of businesses can effectively make PPC advertising work for their objectives and goals. The one aspect of PPC that is crucial for success is selecting specific,  targeted, and relevant keywords that can drive leads and eventually deliver sales.

Three Kinds of Businesses That Can Effectively Use PPC

Local Service Providers:

Local service providers, particularly if their services are somewhat expensive, can use PPC in a powerful way that allows them to bid on geographic-specific keywords. Providers such as dentists, lawyers, doctors, and particular types of home-repair businesses fit into this category. The kinds of keywords that are used for these businesses are usually of “high-intent.” Meaning that they are buyer, purchasing oriented. In order to gauge how much a particular keyword will cost to use, you can use the Google Traffic Estimator Tool, which is free of course. Businesses who can generate high margins on single purchases or high lifetime revenue from single clients, and those who gain from high purchase-intent, can directly benefit from PPC advertising.

Businesses Who Sell Hard-to-Find Products/Services:

The small businesses that fit into a specific market niche can also effectively use PPC advertising and achieve strong results. There are literally thousands of examples that could be used here. People often times use search engines to find products and/or services that they cannot find in their immediate geographic location.

Software:

There are a lot of software companies that attain success using PPC. Because software users are usually looking for certain functions or features, like an XML editing tool for example, but might not know where to buy them, they turn to the search engines. Software also doesn’t cost much, if anything at all, to ship.

PPC May Not Be For You If…

• You or your business has small profit margins.
• You are targeting a specific type of customer, not keyword. This applies to new brands, and ones that don’t fit into the defined search categories.
• You are do not realize you have to track and analyze PPC data in order to effectively run a campaign.

PPC can be a useful tool in the marketing strategy of many businesses. Local based service and product providers can benefit a lot from making use of pay per click advertising. Whether you are a retail store or a restaurant, PPC may be the right match for your online marketing needs. It’s important to assess your current strategy, see if Adwords and PPC can work for your brand, and then take the necessary steps to begin.