All the big search engine providers such as Google and Microsoft Bing offer paid search results and if done well, there’s little doubt that they get results. But, at what cost and moreover, are they worth it for an average business?
What is PPC?
If you’ve heard of PPC but aren’t sure what it is or what it means, it’s an acronym that stands for “Pay Per Click”. For the noobies out there reading this, other commonly used terms are “paid search”, “paid ads”, “Google Pay Per Click”, “Google Ads“, and “Adwords” to name a few. Google is by far the leading choice for paid advertising as its search engine accounts for the lion’s share of the search market. According to StatCounter’s global stats page, the statistics for January 2022 show that it accounts for over 91 per cent of global searches with Microsoft Bing in second place with LESS than 3 per cent. That’s a huge difference and the clear reason why most businesses choose Google’s platform since it reaches nine out of ten search users. There are countless pages that will provide you with a long-winded detailed breakdown of what PPC is but for a succinct definition, this short, precise explanation sums up what Pay Per Click paid advertising is in a nutshell.
Are Google Ads worth it?
There are several important factors to bear in mind if you’re considering getting started with paid advertising on Google. Perhaps the most important aspect of it is will it be your campaign bet set up correctly? Google’s ad platform is very confusing and can take a while to learn. If you try to do it yourself with no previous knowledge, it’s highly likely that you won’t do a very good job. Most novices set up their campaigns only to find that it’s costing them a lot of money monthly without getting the results they expected.
This is typically due to not honing their campaign correctly. The most common mistake is reaching an audience that they don’t want to target and wasting most of their budget on pointless advertising. For example, you may own a hair salon in London but your ads are showing up to users in Scotland. Since they’re unlikely to travel hundreds of miles for a haircut, you’re not only wasting their time but your money.
Organic vs. paid ads – Which is better in the long run?
Organic results are the “natural” ones that appear lower down the results page. Google’s ads are at the very top of the page and even above the Local Map results which is the box that contains local businesses with customer reviews; Although some are fake, most reviews are real. The best part about organic results is that they’re free and if you can rank in both organic and local map results, it can be very beneficial.
On the other hand, an ad campaign, even if it’s run well, will cost you money every single month whereas the organic result (assuming you can rank high up the list) are long-lasting. Moreover, they’re often more trusted than paid ads because most people are aware that companies that appear high up on the organic listings are likely to be genuine businesses. So, in this context, the answer is “Yes”, they are better in the long run.
In summary
Paid ads are great and can get results instantly. On the other hand, they can be expensive to run and take a sizeable chunk out of your monthly profits. Organic results can be better and cheaper, but take longer and are harder to achieve.
