PPC advertising has always been the dream of marketers. Earlier, thousands of dollars had to be spent on billboard ads, print, and media ads, and still, there wasn’t any guarantee that these would work or garner the expected amount of attention. Enter PPC advertising and things have suddenly started looking up for businesses. Now, marketers can customize and target advertisements to get unbelievable results. For an ecommerce brand, sales are the biggest driving force behind its success. Now, if you can use PPC (Pay Per Click) advertising to your benefit, your brand can grow further. For this, you need to sign up with an ecommerce PPC management agency that has expertise and experience in handling such marketing campaigns.
According to Google, brands are making an average of $2 earnings every day for each dollar they are expending on AdWords. That’s quite a profit and if you haven’t been using PPC marketing so far, maybe it’s time to reconsider your decision.
Now, the question is, how do you make sure your brand stands out from the rest when everyone else is also using PPC advertising?
Should you look for ecommerce PPC management services near you?
Consumers are flooded with ads no matter where they go or what they search for. Everyone wants instant gratification. Do you know, that according to studies, users now have an attention span of only 8 seconds? When you have less than 8 seconds to pique their attention, you know you need professional expertise.
This is where PPC management services can help. They have the know-how and experience to make PPC a part of your digital marketing campaign. They will monitor, oversee, and handle the PPC campaign and budget for you.
In PPC, you have to pay for an ad only if a user happens to click on it, not otherwise. However, the PPC ads need to be optimized continuously during the campaign run and it’s imperative to keep a tab on areas that need improvement. This is possible by analyzing the performance metrics of the campaign.
How can PPC advertising help ecommerce?
Running an ecommerce store means catering to customers online. So, you have to capture their attention through ads and drive them to the store. When PPC is managed by professionals, it can offer many advantages:
- A sudden spike in traffic: PPC advertising is sure to bring in new users to your store almost right away. This doesnt mean that your job is over. You still have to work relentlessly to convert these new leads into paying customers vis-a-vis the sales funnel. PPC will only introduce your brand to new people who can then start exploring your products.
- Help you meet your business goals: PPC advertising will allow you to meet your business targets because it can guarantee quick results. SEO works but SEO strategies take a while to show results. You have to wait patiently to enjoy significant payoffs.
- Targetted advertising: Not only will PPC managers have control over your business budget but they will also decide and control which audiences to target. PPC managers will find out about your audience in-depth and analyze their behavior. They will target customers depending on factors like gender, marital status, location, age, special shopping habits, specific interests, and income. You can use this data to build granular groups to show your ads to, instead of targeting anyone who uses specific keywords in the ads. In short, you can get demographic data and fine-tune your campaigns to cater to specific customers only.
- It’s no secret that ad budgets tend to spin out of control very often, especially when you must compete with big brands that have enough funds to display ads. PPC management services will control the budget for you because, in PPC advertising, you only pay when ads get clicked.
- When you work with PPC experts you can benefit from their expertise. This is especially useful when you are just starting out and have limited expertise in digital marketing and SEO. Experienced PPC teams can handle technical details while you get yourself updated with the ins and outs of PPC management. That way you can avoid risks of failure because of a lack of expertise.
- Recruiting in-house turns out to be far more expensive than outsourcing PPC. That’s because hiring in-house means keeping aside salaries and other benefits for them, spending on infrastructure and equipment. But, when you work with an ecommerce PPC management firm, you don’t have to worry about any of this.
- PPC advertising needs keyword research and this is where an ecommerce PPC agency can help. The best keywords for ads are those having high search volumes. A PPC management company can help you with finding these keywords as they have specialized resources and tools for it.
- When you outsource your PPC campaigns to a third party, you get the time to focus on other important business matters. For instance, digital ads are becoming hugely popular in the US and more and more users are spending time on video streaming sites. It makes sense to create digital videos to take advantage of this trend. You may also need to look at your SEO strategies to attract local audiences. All this can be done seamlessly when you don’t have to worry about taking care of PPC marketing.
Tips to choose the best ecommerce PPC management services for your company:
Now that you have decided to partner with an ecommerce PPC management company, how do you choose one in a city like New York? Here is a list of things you need to look at to find an agency that can be the right fit for your business:
- Define your objectives: Without clearly identifying your goals, you cannot understand what you wish to achieve. Once this is clear, you can plan accordingly and allocate resources.
- Scan the portfolio: Instead of rushing to sign a contract with just any ecommerce PPC firm, take time out to research their background. Scan their history to see how well they have delivered in the past. You can have a look at their past clients and projects to understand what to expect in terms of results and services.
- Focus on results: Rather than trusting a company simply because it has many certifications, it’s important to see whether it can provide results. Certifications are proof that the company has skilled employees but it’s no guarantee that the performances are up-to-the-mark.
- Compatibility: Make sure they understand the business; else, they cannot help you achieve your goals. It may be a good idea to find out if the agency has worked with clients like you in the past. If not, it may not be a good idea to entrust them with your business, especially if you have a niche audience.
- Run test campaigns: This is an easy way to check if the ecommerce PPC management company will be able to help you or not. This is similar to a demo test where you see how the company works and whether they have what it takes to give results. While a single test is not enough to judge its efficacy, you will at least get an idea of what to expect from them.
- Know who will work for you: It’s very important to be aware of the people who will be in charge of your projects. While some agencies will provide individual attention throughout, others may outsource some of their work to third parties. This doesn’t necessarily mean your work will be affected, but it’s always better to ensure that the people involved are professional and reliable.
- Don’t get locked in: If you find that the agency you have signed up with isn’t delivering results as expected, you should be free to disengage and move on. Be ready for a safe exit and sign a contract accordingly, so that you can move away if anything goes wrong. Read between the lines before signing a contract; you don’t want to get locked into a long-term contract and end up wasting a lot of money.
- Choose the right payment model: Before working with an ecommerce PPC management company, decide on the budget. Once they know what your business goals are, they will provide you with a quote. Even if they cannot give you an exact amount, a ballpark figure is needed to see if their services are affordable or not.
- Understand their priorities: The agency you choose must value data and analytics because, in PPC, revenue is directly related to advertising expenses. This is why data and analytics become very crucial for success. A good ecommerce PPC management firm will know how to make use of numbers to strategize new methods to improve overall returns. They will know the value of information gathering and sharing this information with their clients. Ask them about the tools they will use to measure PPC metrics, how they will share data with you, whether will you be able to independently access their reports, etc.
- Knowledge of local searches: You probably know that almost 82% of users of smartphones will look at search engines to know about businesses that are nearby. So, they tend to use words such as “near me” when they shop. Almost 76% of such searches are followed by in-store visitors on that day itself. This is why one cannot afford to ignore the importance of local search. Your ecommerce PPC partner must have an in-depth knowledge of local searches, both organic and paid.
- Mobile compatibility: Given that most searches happen on mobile devices, your PPC management company must know to make the ads accessible across all such devices. Mobile optimization can be tricky as the algorithms keep changing. This is why working with an experienced and informed agency is important.
- Focus on the right channels: Whether it’s shopping or local search, your PPC agency should be adept at handling all types of platforms. There are no right and wrong channels in marketing; it entirely depends on your end goals. While some agencies are better at handling search campaigns, others can design and manage paid campaigns on social media. This is why you first need to figure out what it is that you want and then proceed to choose an agency, depending on the channels you plan to use.
- Knows the ins and outs of digital marketing: It’s very important to choose an ecommerce PPC management service that is well-versed in everything in digital marketing. PPC marketing is part of an overall digital marketing plan and PPC strategies are designed to accomplish high-end business objectives. A good agency will look at the big picture and work on improving different aspects of digital marketing.
Use these guidelines to find a leading ecommerce PPC management agency in New York. When you can get a good agency to work with, it will provide you with numerous advantages. It will save you the headaches of managing the campaigns and conserve precious resources. It can automate different parts of the campaigns like attribution tracking, ad targeting, reporting, and budget planning. They will make use of tools like Google Analytics to keep a track of the campaigns and assess their performances continuously.
If you have never worked with a PPC management agency before this, you may be doubtful about the new partnership. However, there are things you can do on your part to make this partnership work. Set clear goals, making sure these and your expectations are communicated to the agency. If you don’t know what you want in the first place, you cannot expect the agency to deliver results. You can gather information about your past campaigns and share this with the agency. Hard data helps them to figure out your audience’s behavior and interests. They can see what had worked and what didn’t in the past campaigns. This is important to save time and relieve them from the tasks of starting the research from scratch.
To make the partnership work smoothly, choose to have a single point of contact. This eliminates the chances of confusion and miscommunication. It is also beneficial for the agency because they know whom to interact with. Responses are quicker and the work progresses faster.
PPC agencies can be great at what they are trained to do; so, there’s no harm in listening to their suggestions for improvement. Since they are experts, it makes sense to pay heed to what they say. Of course, this shouldn’t stop you from getting your queries and doubts clarified. Don’t hesitate to ask about anything when you aren’t sure about it. This helps you to learn in the process and you can have complete peace of mind knowing that your digital marketing is in good hands.