Pay per click Marketing for Small Businesses; does it make sense?

Most small businesses do not use Pay per click marketing, also known as Paid Search, PPC, Ad Words or Sponsored links (these are the links that run across the top and right of most search engines. Companies buy these ads through an auction system on the search engines). And I’ll be honest; when I first came into this business I didn’t see much value in PPC marketing. I thought only brand-new businesses or really bad websites (sites that are not able to be optimized) needed paid search. Why spend money on paid links; instead, just work harder to rank organically as those results are more trusted and clicked on more often. However, I have found over and over again that paid search has a place in almost any small businesses marketing plan. So here are five reasons that small businesses should consider a PPC campaign.

1. Target Geographically: Paid Search can be laser focused on certain areas, allowing you to purchase very desirable terms only in the areas you do business in. Organic search can be geo-targeted but it involves the searcher entering in geo-targeted keywords. With pay per click, you can pick the areas you want your ad to show up in increase the effectiveness of your budget. Geo-targeting is also useful if you plan to target new areas or expand locations, giving you a quick foothold in new areas.
2. Jump start a new business or site: If you have a new business or have just launched a website, its going to take time to drive traffic to your site even with the best search engine optimization firm in the business. So run a small targeted PPC campaign to drive traffic, start spreading the word and collecting new leads.
3. Fill in the gaps in an ongoing Search Engine Optimization: This goes right with number two. Let’s say you have been aggressive with your search techniques, building back links and gaining rankings in the engines. There are still words that you will want to target that you aren’t ranking for. The most lucrative keywords in your industry are going to be the most competitive and paid search can you give you a presence at the top of these search pages.
4. Seasonal Specials: If your business is seasonal at all, you can use paid search to increase your traffic at key points of the year. If you know the next three months are going to be slow, start a paid campaign for your most relevant keywords to make sure you still have traffic and leads coming in. On the flip side if you are a purely seasonal business you can use PPC to really drive traffic during the hot times.
5. Test keywords, conversions and your page: Because PPC marketing is so flexible and the reporting is so good, you can use it in combination with Google Analytics to test your page and your search strategy. Run some paid search on the keywords you are trying to rank for. See if that traffic converts to customers, and if it does, that’s great. If it doesn’t, you might need to think about the effectiveness of your keywords, your site and possibly your business model. Because you can test these words instantly it could save you six months of time and money trying to rank for keywords that might bring traffic to your site but not customers.

There are other great reasons as well but they generally apply to larger businesses with larger budgets. For instance there is research that shows that companies that own both the top ranking, organically and paid, get better name recognition and reputation with searchers. But small businesses need to be smart and reasonable. In a dream world with unlimited budgets maybe we could do that, but our goal is to your grow your business not bankrupt it. Would we ever recommend that a company focus its budget on Ad Words instead of a Search Optimization Campaign? Probably not, but it could be a very effective additional strategy for gaining new customers. So how do you do it with a small budget and limited knowledge of the space? We will address that in a future post. You can also just contact us and I would be happy to go over strategies with you.

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