There are two ways to get discovered by the consumer. You can either invest in organic marketing and wait to be discovered by your customers or pay to skip to the front of the line. One of the most effective forms of this paid marketing is PPC (pay-per-click). This way, you pay a sponsored ad and a fee every time a user clicks on it. This is performance-based marketing that can make your traffic skyrocket in the shortest amount of time. Here’s why and how it should be applied to PPC.

1. Much superior visibility and reach

As an e-commerce business, you’re not just concerned about the conversion rates. Sure, they matter, but so does traffic. A 10% conversion rate on a site with 100 visitor traffic is smaller than a 1.1% conversion rate on a 1,000-visitor site. It’s simple mathematics.

You’ll easily get to the top of the page using PPC. While you will be flagged as sponsored content, more people will get exposed to your presence, and you’ll get more traffic.

Another advantage is that PPC engine analytics are so advanced that you’ll get access to far higher accuracy when targeting qualified leads. After all, it’s in the best interest of these social media platforms and search engines to provide you with a full product.

Unlike organic reach, PPC gives you an immediate boost. In other words, this is the simplest way if you’re quickly rushing to get an initial audience. All you need to do is have your campaign set and approved. When this is done, things will run as smoothly as possible.

You can pick any platform you wish to increase the CTR on. For instance, you can integrate your PPC into your Instagram marketing strategy or just go SERPs.

2. Cost control

The best thing about PPC is that it’s innately made to be easy for budgeting and cost control. The term means pay-per-click, meaning you can set exactly how many clicks you want to buy. You can allocate your advertisement bonus to PPC more efficiently than in other fields.

You also get a chance to measure the exact ROI. In other fields of digital marketing, calculating how much you’re spending for conversion is incredibly hard. Here, it’s transparent and gets updated in real-time.

Still, there are some tips you want to follow to get the most out of this. For instance, you want to:

• Set a realistic budget

• Monitor and adjust bids

• Utilize ad scheduling

• Implement geographic targeting

This last part is especially important because not every market is equally as relevant to you. So, you want to allocate more resources to your advertising in certain locations. This way, you’ll get the maximum value.

It’s also worth mentioning that budgeting becomes a lot easier with PPC. For instance, you’ll already have a video marketing budget; now, you’re adding the cost of advertising this content.

3. Performance tracking and optimization

With PPC, you always get the right numbers. This helps you see if you’ve reached your conversion goals, but you must first set your conversion goals to get this metric.

Next, you must start tracking conversions. Usually, your PPC platform (Google Ads or Facebook Pixel) will provide the necessary tracking software. Still, you need the right PPC marketing company to recognize the most relevant metrics. Sometimes, these are specific ads or campaigns, which could also be exclusively related to keywords. With the help of professionals, you’ll have an easier time tracking these conversions.

Another thing you should consider is A/B testing. If you’re unsure which solutions to choose, you can always set up an A/B test and see how they perform. This way, one will be a clear winner; just make sure to understand the fallacy of some parts of this testing method.

Remember that you’re not the only one innovating and improving your PPC campaign. Your competitors are doing the same. This is why you need to continuously monitor and optimize your presence.

4. Remarketing opportunities

The rule of seven says that an average person interacts with a brand at least seven times before deciding to reach out. You need to find people who clicked on your ad or entered your site organically and target them via your PPC campaign.

Now, because these people have already shown interest in your brand, you can consider them qualified leads. This means that converting them won’t cost as much and won’t take as much effort.  

You need to focus on figuring out your shopping cart abandonment rate. You’re looking for customers who visited your site without making a purchase.

People who have already purchased go to a different category, but even they can be reached via a repeat PPC marketing campaign.

In e-commerce, nothing is more cost-effective than return customers. They cost five times less to convert, and about 20% make up 80% of the profit.

5. Competitor analysis

E-commerce is more competitive than some other industries. Let’s say you’re in the hospitality industry and run a small pizza place. No one will eat at your place every single day. Just because someone has gone to a different restaurant doesn’t mean they won’t return tomorrow.

The problem with e-commerce is that you have too many direct competitors simultaneously. Also, unlike in the hospitality industry, customers don’t have to travel to reach you. Instead, they just click on another link and buy from them the exact product they originally intended to buy from you.

Now, with the help of advanced competitor analytics you’re provided with via a PPC agency you decide to work with, you’ll get an idea of how hard you must try/invest to get ahead. This also needs to be repeatedly measured and readjusted to stay valid.

Wrap up

Finally, PPC is just a tool. The results will depend on where you decide to advertise, how good the agency you collaborate with is, and how much you invest in it. Also, you don’t have to choose between organic marketing and PPC. The truth is that you should use both, and this is when they give the best results. Most importantly, to ensure that you get the results, you need to learn a bit about the subject matter, regardless of whether you’re hiring professionals.