Pay Per Click and Smaller Businesses
Small to mid-size businesses can struggle with developing a large enough following for advertising to be successful. A small company of less than 100 employees, for example, may openly question how they could hope to compete with the massive advertising budgets of global conglomerates. In that case, is advertising and marketing even possible for such a small business? The answer is a resounding yes. Small and mid-size businesses can reap incredible benefits from the focused targeting and scope of search engine marketing, also known as pay-per-click advertising.
Pay Per Click (PPC) advertising, is an advertising model in which advertisers pay for advertisements to appear within the search results of major internet search engines. The ads appear within the search results and are shown depending upon the search queries used. Advertisers are then charged according to how many clicks their respective ads receive. PPC advertising can have far-reaching benefits for any business, but their use can have particular utility for smaller businesses.
I’ll outline just three ways that utilizing PPC campaigns can help small businesses’ marketing and advertising efforts.
Focused Advertising
The first way that PPC can help smaller businesses is through PPC’s incredibly focused advertising structure. Unlike traditional advertising mediums such as print, T.V or radio that rely upon saturation and robust advertising budgets, PPC campaigns can be tailored and scaled to fit any budget. Also, their pay-out structure ensures that only relevant customers and traffic will be seeing your ads. This level of personalization and relevant targeting is impossible through traditional advertising mediums.
PPC also targets customers at the tail end of their purchasing cycle. PPC advertisers can further optimize their ad spend by specifically targeting keywords related to the end of a purchase cycle. This late pipeline targeting is especially useful for smaller businesses who cannot afford to maintain lengthy sales pipelines.
Customized Budgets
This brings us to the second major benefit for small businesses, customized budgets. PPC advertising gives advertisers unmatched customization and personalization when it comes to budget. Because ad spend is determined by the total number of clicks, advertisers can set budgets by the dollar amount. These budgets can be set by day, by month, or even by interaction rate. This allows small businesses to spend only as much as they feel is necessary. That is a unique advantage, especially when compared to traditional advertising methods that usually have set budgets.
Increased Visibility
Finally, PPC allows smaller businesses an accessible way to improve their visibility. Traditional advertising channels such as print or T.V rely upon name recognition and brand saturation. This is quite simply, not an option for smaller companies. In PPC however, name recognition matters less, as the ads appear in direct correlation to the search queries entered by users and customers. The anonymity of the internet allows smaller businesses to win business, even over more recognizable brands or companies.
With focused targeting, customizable budgets, and improved visibility, PPC gives smaller businesses a valuable tool in the competitive world of marketing and advertising.
