You Can Pay For Anything, Including Clicks

If you're trying to build your business or site, Google Ads can be an amazing tool to do just that.

Paid search, more "cool-ly" known as pay-per-click (PPC) advertising, is a way you can pay search engines to place your ad or landing page higher on search engine results. This is a great way business including yours can home in on your target audience by reaching users who are actively searching certain keywords or phrases related to your campaign. If you sell shoes, using commonly searched and popular keywords such as "sneakers" or "basketball shoes size 11" can be a good place to start on your paid search journey.

Bidding is Google's way of selling their ad spaces online to the highest bidder. Like an auction, you have to set a budget and a bid. You bid to Google how much you are willing to pay-per-click. Many businesses are bidding for keywords every day and the fight for the most common ones can be vicious but even Google has their standards. Google chooses their top pick based on two main factors:

• Cash: Obviously. Google is all about dat money so they will be first looking to who is placing the highest bid for their spot. Those who are willing to pay more money per click will receive priority spot, but it doesn't end there.
• Quality: Google doesn't want to give their space to the bidder who only has the highest bid. What if that bidder has a garbage ad or is keyword stuffing? Google cares about the user enough to make sure that quality ads are displayed on their search engine which is why they evaluate the bidder's ad campaign under criteria such as relevancy to the user's search and the ad's appearance.

Now here's the cool thing,

There's something in the world of paid search where you only pay when someone clicks on your ad. This is a very cost-effective and results driven way to advertise as no dollar is going to waste. But this doesn't mean that PPC is going to only be cheap. Companies can spend thousands of dollars very quickly when bidding for ad space and keywords and as clicks go up, so does their cost. This is a way a $20 budget can quickly turn into $4,000 over a month if not kept under watch.

So, why should businesses use paid search?

Paid search is a wonderful tool to intentionally and specifically reach an audience through a very widely used method of exchanging information, internet search. It allows for business to market directly to people who are already looking for specific products or services.

People Like to Buy, Not Be Sold To

People all over the world are buying like crazy so it would seem apparent that they would love ads that help show them where to buy right? Wrong. Just about everyone finds ads annoying so rather than shoving your ad in a consumer's face without them even wanting what you're selling can be inefficient. Paid search allows users to almost search for you without you having to go find them just for them to be annoyed.

Tracking Results

Through paid search businesses like yours can see real results for how your campaigns are performing including clickthrough rate (CTR) and how much its costing so that you have a watchful eye on the ins and outs of your advertising.

"We're All in This Together"

By setting up PPC bidding, Google created a working market for ad space which allows businesses to compete for their success using Google's platform. Google has a massive userbase and companies have money to spend on advertising which creates a symbiotic relationship of business which benefits both parties by working together to build an online world that helps businesses grow.