What exactly is PPC: benefits and opportunities

What exactly is PPC?

Did you know that the first PPC ad appeared back in the mid-1990s? This was linked to the Planat Oasis site in 1996, which was a computer application filled with various informative and advertising links. By 1997, over 400 major brands had paid the site for placement and clicks.

But what exactly is PPC (pay per click)? Simply put, it’s a way of advertising where you only pay when someone clicks on your ad.

Many people equate the concept with Google ads, but this is not the case, it is a much more complex and comprehensive concept with a lot of potential and benefits. We will explore these in more depth in our article

The benefits of PPC

• • Immediate measurable traffic generation

  • Measurable and traceable data

  • Almost every detail can be controlled

  • Positive support for other marketing channels

  • Wide range of targeting options

  • Positively supports SEO analytics as many clicks are coming to the site

Perhaps most importantly of all, PPC can provide you with quick measurable data. We can compete with anyone who has been in the market for several years, even with huge experience, as we are on equal footing on each platform (e.g. google). Just setting up a campaign structure takes time, and then it generates real traffic straight away. Importantly, each company can fully customise and personalise both the campaign structure and the targeting settings.

Of course, like everything else, PPC has its drawbacks. It is essential to have a professional to make it work properly. This is a very complex area and requires a lengthy follow-up (optimisation) even after the ads have been set up. The seemingly low click prices of a few 100 HUF can quickly add up to a massive amount. They also do not always lead to direct sales revenue. Of course, if the campaigns are properly managed, the last two problems are easily solved.

Opportunities in PPC

As mentioned above, many people equate PPC advertising with Google ads. We will now show you the wide range of possibilities that PPC as a concept encompasses.

• • Google Ads: perhaps the most obvious platform. Here we are referring to Google ads, which you can find by clicking on “ad” in the search results. I’m sure many of you have come across this when using google. It’s important to note here that it’s no longer just a matter of how much an advertiser pays to appear at the top of the page, but that Google is looking at a much more complex structure to ensure that we as users get truly relevant and valuable ads
  • Paid social media ads: here we can think of Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn or any other social media platform where we can find different posts, stories, messages with a “sponsored” appearance. According to the previous public perception, these interfaces are primarily used for branding and awareness building. But it is now increasingly clear that real traffic can be generated on these platforms.
  • Google Shopping Ads: formerly known as PLAs, or product listing ads. This works in a similar way to general Google ads, but instead of just text, you get visuals of products with key information, increasing conversion rates and display opportunities.
  • Facebook: Facebook still has the most prominent role in social media. This is the site most visited and most frequented in Hungary and worldwide.

Facebook already has very sophisticated targeting options and ad settings. For example, we can specifically target people who have got engaged in the last few months and are therefore likely to get married in the near future. In addition, there are many opportunities to achieve different goals:

• • Like campaigns

  • Support for posts

  • Redirection to a website

  • Conversion access

  • Application download

  • Video promotions

1. Youtube: if you want to try something new and interesting, you should definitely consider youtube. Since Youtube is already a Google product, it’s similar in structure, but in a more visual environment to reach your audience. It’s highly targetable, so you can choose the audience you want to reach and the videos you want to appear under. As we saw in the previous graph, YouTube is the second most visited social media platform, so like Facebook, it can reach huge crowds.
2. Google Display: in addition to search engines, you can also display your ads on other Google partner websites, apps, blogs. As before, we can target people with specific interests and demographic characteristics. Here, we reach our potential recipients through a combination of our different visual and short text materials. We use this platform mainly for remarketing, i.e. targeting people who have already met us before and we just want to get their attention again.

Of course, there are many more possibilities, but we have tried to list the most important ones on the Hungarian market and which are definitely worth considering for the initial start-up.

Fast, Cost-effective, Measurable, Customizable

PPC is therefore a very popular online advertising method for boosting traffic to a website. It may not be suitable for selling every product or service, but every company should consider whether it might want to use this fast, cost-effective, measurable and customisable form of advertising.

What else might interest you…