In 2016, a massive $32.47 billion was spent on search advertising in the United States alone. With this set to rise to $45.63 billion by 2019, it’s clear that PPC is here to stay. Google’s domination of the market isn’t letting up with Google contributing 75.8% of all US ad revenue in 2016 and with newer platforms such as Bing, Facebook, Yahoo, Amazon and Yelp starting to gain traction, if your business is still not utilising this powerful online marketing channel then you’re likely to be missing out on a huge percentage of business. Here are 5 key reasons why your business should be investing in a PPC agency and paid advertising in 2017:
SEO alone isn’t enough
In a study completed by Wordstream, they found that on average 41% of clicks go to the top 4 paid ads on search result pages and for high commercial intent searches (someone more intent on converting), paid ads received 65% of all clicks.
What’s more, unlike organic results PPC ads aren’t affected by Google’s regular algorithm updates meaning you don’t have to worry about your search rankings tanking due to a Google update. Also, PPC is far quicker to market than SEO, whilst getting your site to the #1 organic position on Google could take months or years, getting your PPC ads in front of potential customers can take just a few hours.
It’s Super Targeted
Not only is PPC quick to get set up and your ads showing, but it also allows you to get your ads directly in front of your potential customers at multiple points throughout their buying journey, this is made possible by offering a multitude of different targeting options. A report by Pardot found that 70% of buyers use Google search when in the consideration stage of the buying journey. So, whether your potential customer is a high net-worth individual looking for a hotel to stay at or a distressed homeowner looking for a local emergency plumber, by utilising paid advertising you can ensure your offering is visible in the right place, at the right time.
Also as Search Engines and Social Platforms continue to learn more about their users and how they behave when performing certain online tasks such as making purchases, doing research or browsing their newsfeed, it’s now easier than ever to reach your potential customers online.
Everything Gets Tracked
What gets tracked, gets managed. This is especially true with PPC, you have full control over things like how much you spend, what search terms your ads are shown for and even what times of the day your ad can be seen.
Most platforms allow you to set up conversion tracking which means you can see exactly what your customers searched for before buying your product, allowing you to bid more aggressively on those terms.
Continuously Improving
PPC Ads are continuously being improved, such as Google implementing a 4th Ad position back in February 2016 which pushed organic results further down the page or the addition of ad extensions such as Price extensions allowing searchers to compare prices of services or products directly on the search results page and the new Adwords Click-To-Message function that prompts users to start a live chat like conversation with the advertiser directly from the advert.
It’s clear that Advertising platforms are going to continue to find innovative ways of engaging users with their ads.
It’s not just search either
In 2017, there are more ways to reach your target audience than ever before. Nearly every major Search Engine or Social Platform offers advertisers the opportunity to target their users with highly relevant and targeted ads. Whilst Paid Search may not be the best fit for your business, there are other paid avenues to utilise such as Shopping campaigns, Display advertising, YouTube advertising and Retargeting.