5 Reasons Why Your SMB Should Start PPC Campaigns Today

There are many reasons why you should start a PPC ad campaign. To summarize them all in one sentence: it’s because you can’t afford not to.

There was a time when placing online ads before the eyes of your target audience was an expensive game reserved for companies with fat budgets.

Nowadays, you can route highly targeted traffic to your website via an online ad for literally cents on the click. And pay per click (PPC) advertising is the way to do it.

It’s a brave new world for entrepreneurs and SMB owners.

And, just in case the above isn’t reason enough for you to fire up a Google Adwords account on the spot, here are five other points to consider

1. Diversify your traffic sources

If you’ve done the groundwork to secure your company a coveted top-3 position on the first page of Google, that’s great.

But what happens if the search engine’s algorithm shifts one day and you lose that hard won asset?

By complementing your organic search results with a PPC ad, you diversify your traffic flows. You hedge your bets and reduce the risk of fresh online visitors running dry, a situation that would eventually trickle down into your sales figures.

2. Improved marketing funnel analysis

The links between Google’s PPC ad platform and Google Analytics is incredibly comprehensive.

Consequently, from the moment someone clicks your ad, you can track these potential customers through every stage of your buying funnel.

It’s easy to see which call to actions (CTAs) and other components are the most effective, and which need a little work.

Put another way, a PPC campaign provides you valuable data to easily test and produce higher converting marketing strategies and materials.

3. SEO alone is no longer viable

Over the past several years, it’s become increasingly time-consuming and expensive to secure a top-3 position on Google. Not only that, but avoiding over optimization penalties in the process requires serious expertise.

It’s a constant tightrope. And one where a fall means you lose all the money you invested if Google blacklists your website. Organic traffic is appealing but these days, SEO is volatile, complex and tricky to scale reliably.

A PPC campaign on the other hand can be established with relatively little expertise, minimal cost and without concerns of penalization and sudden, unannounced search algorithm changes.

4. You’re missing from the front page

Due to the difficulties of modern SEO, more and more businesses adopt PPC campaigns and guarantee their front page position on Google. The result?

All of your competition have a front page presence.

If you’ve opted out of PPC, that means your competition are at the top of the search results while you’re potentially nowhere to be seen. And, according to WordStream.com, over 64% of web browsers click PPC campaigns rather than the organic results.

Remember, Google makes money off these ads, so it’s only natural PPC results get pride of place at the top of the page.

5. Easily track marketing spend efficiency

Marketing is one of the largest (if not, the largest) expenses for many SMBs. Sure, you have to throw money at marketing, but it’s important to spend that money wisely and maximize your return on investment (ROI).

With the kind of comprehensive data available to business owners via Google Analytics, you’d be hard pressed to find a marketing platform more capable of squeezing every last drop of ROI from your invested cash.

Set up your first PPC campaign today

Facing a new marketing method can be daunting.

It’s normal to harbor concerns about generating sufficient ROI and whether or not the time investment to learn it will prove worthwhile. Especially if your to-do list is already overwhelming at best.

However, between the current complexities of the search engine landscape, the minimal costs involved and the solid, actionable data produced by a PPC ad campaign, this is one new method that’s genuinely worth experimenting with.

Once you’ve set up a few campaigns and start seeing the results, it can even be pretty fun, too.