Pay-per-click (PPC) advertising can feel intimidating when you’re new to it. With so many platforms, acronyms, metrics, and moving parts, it’s no surprise that many businesses aren’t sure where to start. But it doesn’t have to be overwhelming.
When approached with the right strategy, it becomes one of the most powerful tools in your digital marketing toolkit because it helps you reach the right people at the exact moment they’re searching for what you offer.
In our guide to PPC marketing for beginners, we’ll break down how PPC works, whether it’s the right choice for your business, and what you need in place to get started confidently.
What is PPC advertising?
PPC advertising is a digital marketing model where advertisers pay each time a user clicks their ad. Rather than relying solely on organic visibility, PPC lets businesses buy targeted traffic immediately. For a start-up, or a business looking to gain traction quickly, it can be the perfect place to start, especially if you have a decent budget.
PPC is a core part of most marketing strategies because it:
- Reaches users actively searching or showing intent
- Delivers results quickly
- Offers measurable performance
- Scales with budget
- Can target very specific audiences
- No locked-in long-term commitment
- Cash-flow flexibility
PPC advertising is present when a user is searching for a product or service directly, giving them a higher intent of conversion. It’s a popular form of search engine advertising and can be used across numerous platforms including:
Google Ads
Google Ads is the largest and most powerful PPC platform available and includes features like Search, Shopping, YouTube, Display and Remarketing, Discovery, and Performance Max. As it’s the most popular platform, it does come with higher cost-per-clicks (CPC) and higher competition.
Microsoft Advertising
With Microsoft Advertising, you can run ads on search engines like Bing, Yahoo, DuckDuckGo, and other partner networks. Although it’s not as big as Google Ads, advertising on Microsoft often comes with cheaper CPCs with lower competition.
Amazon Ads
If you’re an ecommerce business that sells tangible products, Amazon ads is the ideal platform. This is because customers who come to Amazon already have the high intent to purchase, and using Amazon ads effectively allows your product to be seen by hundreds, if not thousands, of potential customers.
Is PPC right for my business?
PPC provides a great opportunity to drive traffic to your site, but there may be times where it isn’t the ideal choice for your marketing goals or objectives. For example:
PPC is ideal when:
- Users are already searching for your product or service
- You need results quickly
- You have clear conversion actions
- Your website is ready to convert
- You’re launching something new and need immediate visibility
- You’re in a competitive industry and need top positioning
PPC isn’t ideal when:
- There is no existing search demand
- You don’t have a clear conversion path
- You have no tracking in place
- You need free, long-term traffic
- Your margins cannot support paid traffic costs
Any business with the sole purpose of increasing revenue, requires a website with clear conversion actions. If your website doesn’t have a clear route to conversion – such as form submissions, products to purchase, or event sign ups – then there’s far less benefit in paying for your clicks.
Being PPC-ready means your business has a clear offer, a trackable goal, and a website that persuades visitors to take action.
Key Performance Indicators in PPC
Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) are a key element of PPC for beginners. KPIs are measurable numbers that show whether your efforts are moving in the right direction. They tell you if your campaign is working, if it isn’t working, and where you should focus next.
Your KPI’s will vary depending on your business and goals, but there are a few typical metrics you should be looking out for on your PPC campaigns.
Primary KPIs
Primary KPIs are key for revenue and profitability – which is the numbers that really matter. Some primary KPIs include:
- Return on Ad Spend (ROAS) – this is a metric that measures the gross revenue generated for every pound you spend in percentage.
- Conversion value/cost – this is essentially the same as ROAS, but without the percentage.
- Profitability/margin alignment – this KPI helps you align your margins with your targets.
Conversion value/cost and ROAS are both very similar KPIs – the only difference between them is the way you calculate them. Conversion value/cost is calculated by dividing your conversion value by your cost. ROAS is calculated in exactly the same way, but multiplied by 100 and given as percentage. Ultimately, they both offer an important understanding of how your campaigns are performing.
Secondary KPIs
Secondary KPIs are centred on how your campaigns are performing towards the path of success. They tend to focus on engagement and market presence metrics such as:
- Cost Per Acquisition (CPA) – this measures the total cost of acquiring one new customer or achieving one conversion through a specific campaign or action.
- Conversion rate – this metric is the percentage of users who complete a desired action, such as making a purchase or filling out a form.
- Cost Per Click (CPC) – this is the average amount a business pays for each click on their ads.
- Impression share – this gives you the percentage of impressions an ad receives compared to the total number of impressions it’s eligible for. It’s important to note that this metric isn’t available for all campaigns.
- Quality score – this metric impacts your ad rank. The higher the score, the better the ad placement and lower CPC you’ll get.
Contextual KPIs
Contextual KPIs are your traditional metrics that measure campaign performance against your goals. They don’t typically influence campaign decisions, but they can certainly influence future data-driven decisions:
- Click-Through Rate (CTR) – this shows the number of times your advert was clicked vs. the number of times it was shown to users in total.
- Engaged sessions – this allows you to measure meaningful interactions, as it shows sessions that last longer than 10 seconds.
- Impressions and reach – impressions indicates the total number of ad views, whereas reach is the number of unique users who saw your ad.
5 steps to getting started with your first PPC campaign
So we’ve covered what PPC is, the fundamental KPIs to track, and whether the channel is right for your business in our PPC guide for beginners. Now it’s time to look at getting started with your first campaign. Below are five key steps to help you on your way to success.
1. Set clear goals
Before thinking about what keywords to target, your budget, and the content of your ads, you should first start by choosing the single goal you want your campaign to achieve. For example, do you want your campaign to:
- Increase website visits?
- Generate more leads?
- Boost sales?
- Grow brand awareness?
Whatever you choose, make sure you start with one goal to begin with as this will help you make clearer decisions and achieve better results.
2. Determine your audience
The next step is to be clear on your audience and who the campaign is meant for. The best way to determine this is to ask yourself these questions:
- Who is the ideal customer for this campaign?
- What do they care about?
- Where do they spend their time?
- What would motivate them to take action?
The better you understand your audience, the easier it will be to choose your messaging, the tone of that message, the imagery you’ll use, and the platforms you’ll utilise.
3. Define your message
Once you’ve set your goals and determined your audience, you can define your message. You want to ensure you craft clean headlines, compelling descriptions, and strong calls-to-actions (CTA) that encompass keywords that match user intent. Identify your audience’s needs, pain points, or motivations and incorporate how you can solve these in your ad copy.
Keep your messaging simple, easy to understand, and consistent throughout your site and landing pages. This will help build trust with your audience and increase the likelihood of conversion.
4. Set your tracking and budget
Even the most creative campaign needs solid tracking, because data is just as important as creativity. You need the right tracking infrastructure in place before you launch so you can measure performance accurately and make smart optimisations. Some key tracking infrastructure to set up include:
- Tracking pixels and tags – be sure to install the necessary tracking pixels and tags for the platforms you’re using. These allow you to collect data on actions people take after seeing or interacting with your campaign.
- Conversion tracking – define what counts as a ‘conversion’ for your campaign, then set up conversion events using tools like Google Analytics 4 (GA4) and Google Tag Manager (GTM). This lets you attribute outcomes directly to your efforts.
- UTM parameters – add UTM parameters to all campaign links so you can track the source of your traffic, the medium users came through, and the campaign they interacted with.
- Dashboards and reporting – you can do this in your preferred reporting tool to help you monitor performance all in one place and track key KPIs like impressions, clicks, and conversions.
When it comes to budget, this will determine how well your campaign will perform. The higher the budget you allocate, the better the outcome will be. The best way to calculate your budget is to work backwards. Start with how much you want to earn from your campaign, then calculate how much you need to spend to get there.
5. Launch your first campaign
Once you’ve set up your tracking and allocated your budget, you’re ready to go with your first campaign! It’s important to monitor performance closely once you’ve launched your ad as you may need to adjust targeting, budget, and keywords depending on what’s working and what isn’t.
Find out how we can help your PPC efforts
Reading and learning about PPC is one thing, but launching a successful campaign is another. We hope our guide on PPC marketing for beginners has helped you understand this paid initiative a little better. However, if you find you need professional support to plan, launch, and optimise your paid campaigns, we can help.
At Fifteen, we work with businesses to create data-driven PPC strategies that maximise budget and deliver results. Don’t hesitate to contact our team today and learn how we can ensure your PPC works harder for your business.
