With social media advertising beginning to change the way we do social media marketing, it is a good idea to understand the difference between Pay-Per-Click (PPC) and social media advertising. PPC refers to paid advertising from “click ads” online. What this means is, you the business will pay for any click you get. In comparison social media ads like in Facebook, have you pay for ad space; any impressions or clicks you get do not change how much you spend on the ad.
Before you start any Google (or Bing) ads, it is important that you have a landing page optimized for conversions. You don’t want your ad to just point to your homepage, it should point to a page that has a buy now button or leads a prospect to contact you quickly. If your website is optimized for conversions, you will get a better Return On Investment (ROI) on each click you pay for. We discussed this in aprevious article about analyzing conversions and adjusting your website design to encourage better conversions.
The great thing about Google (Bing) ads is they have an excellent keyword planner tool. This tool gives you guidance on keywords for your service or product. Just type in your keywords, add your location and it will show you the search volume and the competitiveness for each keyword or long-tail keyword (which is more than one word strung together to equal a keyword). You can use these tools to guide your SEO content as well. These tools will also tell you how much you will pay for a click.
There are a few different tactical ways to run your ads in these formats. Some people like to pay the top dollar for top words to be in top position. We only recommend this if you have the budget and your site is properly configured and tested for conversions. With this strategy, you could be paying $5 to $10 a click so you want to make sure it counts. The ROI on this can be pretty good if your sales account for it, for example if each purchase was equal to $1000 than spending $10 to get $990 equals a very good ROI. However if your site has not proven to do well at converting clients or if your product requires consults with buyers before a quote can be made, you may want to look at the other tactic.
The next tactic many markets use is to pick less common, less competitivekeywords and long tail keywords. If I pick a keyword like “Growth Hacking Barrie”, this long-tail keyword is not heavily used in Barrie, Ontario so I wouldn’t pay as much per click or for position. However I would need to know that my prospects would even use this term in a search. This is where the keyword planner comes into place and tells me whether it is a term searched in the past and how much it was searched. Use the planner as your guide and compare what it says to your available budget and what you know about your conversion rates. Next we will discuss social media advertising.
Pretty much all social media platforms allow for paid advertising now, with the exception of new and hip ones (i.e. snapchat). The difference with social media advertising against Google & Bing, is that you pay no matter how many clicks and impressions occur. Impressions stand for, someone seeing your ad but not engaging with it in any way. The interesting thing about this type of advertising is that although it can be more expensive then the pay-per-click model, we have found it to be much more effective in bringing in prospects and building brand recognition. Social media is very visual and engages users on a more personal level. If prospects see your logo all the time and if you are saying something fun and worth sharing you could trend on these platforms and build followers faster. The important thing in social media to remember is, try to not make your ads too promotional and pushing for sales. This is a platform where people are socializing and sharing information, they don’t want to see a commercial. Instead think of neat things that people might want to talk about, comment on, or share with their group of friends. This is where demographics play an important role in setting up ads.
The other benefit in social media advertising is, the platforms have access to much more detailed demographics than Google & Bing ads. Social media collects everything on us from our relationship status, to our favorite music, to our travel plans, and so on. This is very helpful to businesses who want to pay for ads that will reach their exact target market. For example, if you are running a doggy daycare in Barrie you might want to setup an ad targeted to people who work, live in Barrie, travel, and have dogs. You might also want to include a cute video of one of your doggy clients playing with a toy or with each other. A post like this will be targeted to your demographic market and will have a very cute video, which means it will likely be shared among many, many people; especially on Facebook. When your ad is finished, likely the post will still be being shared in many circles, so you are getting ongoing visibility and not paying for it. This just gives you an example of how a social media ad differs from a Google or Bing ad.
It is always a good strategy to run both PPC and social media advertisements. However if you can only afford one platform ongoing, then take the time to run a teston both ad platforms and see which one gives you the best ROI. We are partial to social media advertising as we often work with businesses who want more visibility. On the other hand, if you are an ecommerce website you may find running ads for each product in Google gets you instant sales. This is why it is important to make the time to test out both platforms and analyze your results. Have a question about online advertising? Leave it below in the comments!
PPC – Google & Bing Ads
Before you start any Google (or Bing) ads, it is important that you have a landing page optimized for conversions. You don’t want your ad to just point to your homepage, it should point to a page that has a buy now button or leads a prospect to contact you quickly. If your website is optimized for conversions, you will get a better Return On Investment (ROI) on each click you pay for. We discussed this in aprevious article about analyzing conversions and adjusting your website design to encourage better conversions.
The great thing about Google (Bing) ads is they have an excellent keyword planner tool. This tool gives you guidance on keywords for your service or product. Just type in your keywords, add your location and it will show you the search volume and the competitiveness for each keyword or long-tail keyword (which is more than one word strung together to equal a keyword). You can use these tools to guide your SEO content as well. These tools will also tell you how much you will pay for a click.
There are a few different tactical ways to run your ads in these formats. Some people like to pay the top dollar for top words to be in top position. We only recommend this if you have the budget and your site is properly configured and tested for conversions. With this strategy, you could be paying $5 to $10 a click so you want to make sure it counts. The ROI on this can be pretty good if your sales account for it, for example if each purchase was equal to $1000 than spending $10 to get $990 equals a very good ROI. However if your site has not proven to do well at converting clients or if your product requires consults with buyers before a quote can be made, you may want to look at the other tactic.
The next tactic many markets use is to pick less common, less competitivekeywords and long tail keywords. If I pick a keyword like “Growth Hacking Barrie”, this long-tail keyword is not heavily used in Barrie, Ontario so I wouldn’t pay as much per click or for position. However I would need to know that my prospects would even use this term in a search. This is where the keyword planner comes into place and tells me whether it is a term searched in the past and how much it was searched. Use the planner as your guide and compare what it says to your available budget and what you know about your conversion rates. Next we will discuss social media advertising.
Social Media Advertising
Pretty much all social media platforms allow for paid advertising now, with the exception of new and hip ones (i.e. snapchat). The difference with social media advertising against Google & Bing, is that you pay no matter how many clicks and impressions occur. Impressions stand for, someone seeing your ad but not engaging with it in any way. The interesting thing about this type of advertising is that although it can be more expensive then the pay-per-click model, we have found it to be much more effective in bringing in prospects and building brand recognition. Social media is very visual and engages users on a more personal level. If prospects see your logo all the time and if you are saying something fun and worth sharing you could trend on these platforms and build followers faster. The important thing in social media to remember is, try to not make your ads too promotional and pushing for sales. This is a platform where people are socializing and sharing information, they don’t want to see a commercial. Instead think of neat things that people might want to talk about, comment on, or share with their group of friends. This is where demographics play an important role in setting up ads.
The other benefit in social media advertising is, the platforms have access to much more detailed demographics than Google & Bing ads. Social media collects everything on us from our relationship status, to our favorite music, to our travel plans, and so on. This is very helpful to businesses who want to pay for ads that will reach their exact target market. For example, if you are running a doggy daycare in Barrie you might want to setup an ad targeted to people who work, live in Barrie, travel, and have dogs. You might also want to include a cute video of one of your doggy clients playing with a toy or with each other. A post like this will be targeted to your demographic market and will have a very cute video, which means it will likely be shared among many, many people; especially on Facebook. When your ad is finished, likely the post will still be being shared in many circles, so you are getting ongoing visibility and not paying for it. This just gives you an example of how a social media ad differs from a Google or Bing ad.
Summary
It is always a good strategy to run both PPC and social media advertisements. However if you can only afford one platform ongoing, then take the time to run a teston both ad platforms and see which one gives you the best ROI. We are partial to social media advertising as we often work with businesses who want more visibility. On the other hand, if you are an ecommerce website you may find running ads for each product in Google gets you instant sales. This is why it is important to make the time to test out both platforms and analyze your results. Have a question about online advertising? Leave it below in the comments!
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