There are many different ways to gain visibility online. For instance, you can go the search engine optimization (SEO) route, or perhaps you prefer to have your social media properties be your main online presence. Another great method of improving your online presence is pay per click (PPC) advertising.
Many small businesses employ a little bit of everything in their online marketing strategy. They have some SEO, social media, and PPC. But there are still those that don’t understand the real value in PPC or simply don’t give it enough merit.
So, I’m going to share the benefits of having a robust PPC campaign, regardless of the size of your business.
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Look Bigger than You Are
Display campaigns are a thing of beauty when it comes to “fake it until you make it” marketing. Many small businesses need to portray an image of a larger company in order to have customers trust them with their business. Small home-based companies are notorious for having to market in this manner. And there’s nothing wrong with it! In fact, PPC can help you establish a perceived image of being large in size.
Through a display ad campaign, a small business owner can publish ads on sites such as CNN, ESPN, Youtube, and many more. When customers see your ads on trusted sites, some of that trust will rub off on your brand. Plus, it never hurts to advertise next to some of the world’s most trusted brands.
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Target Keywords You Can’t Organically Capture
SEO is tough. It takes a long time to see results, and the entire system can shift whenever search engines update their algorithms. For a small business, it’s often a difficult online marketing tactic to try and utilize effectively. PPC allows those same small businesses, who can’t master SEO, to have a presence in search results for targeted keywords.
Let’s say you own an archery supply store and when you conduct a Google search for your products, your company website doesn’t show up until the fifth page of Google. You won’t make many sales being that deep into the search engine results. However, in under 10 minutes, you could have a PPC campaign up and running for those same products and be featured on the first page of Google. Even if you show up in the number 2 through 10 spot, on the first page of Google, a PPC ad will allow you to leapfrog the first place result and place your ad above them.
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Run Ads Only When You’re Open
If you run a service based company, there are times when you’re not answering the phone, and there’s no one at your office to answer the phone. However, organic search and social media presences don’t discriminate against office hours. They send traffic to your company website day and night. If you’re not there to answer the phone, your competitors can easily walk away with your traffic.
PPC allows businesses to run ads during certain times of the day and have them turned off at other times. This allows you to focus marketing dollars on time of day, when you’re open. This is hugely beneficial for a small business that needs to optimize every penny in their marketing budget.
Regardless of what marketing channels you’re currently using to create an online presence, PPC needs to be one of your main marketing solutions. It gives you the flexibility and resources that no other online marketing method does.
Jacob Baadsgaard is the CEO of Disruptive Advertising. He is a passionate digital marketer and entrepreneur with 7 years of enterprise digital marketing experience. He personally managed over 40 million dollars in annual marketing budget and consulted many of the Inc. 100 companies while at Adobe, including groups like: GE, John Deere, Citibank and Home Depot. Connect with @DisruptiveAds on Twitter.
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