PPC For Manufacturing: What It Is And How To Get Started

Advertising online isn’t new by any means, but due to the way the pandemic has affected practically every aspect of business, many more companies and their marketing teams are stepping into digital marketing. For business owners and the marketing managers in charge of promoting their organization, the term “PPC” has likely come up at least once during your research. 

If you’re relatively new to digital advertising mediums, PPC might be a brand-new term for you to learn about. So, let’s make it easy and cover the basics of PPC for manufacturing companies. We’ll discuss what PPC is, what it’s used for, how PPC works, why this marketing tactic is beneficial for growing businesses, how to get started creating your own PPC ads, and what you can do to improve your chances of converting relevant leads into customers through your PPC campaign.

Further, we’ll answer a couple of the most common questions business owners ask when learning about PPC for manufacturing ads.

What is PPC?

Pay-Per-Click, also known as PPC is an ad type (and common SEM service) that many manufacturers use to advertise their services, as these ads have a high rate of visibility when the right budget and strategy are involved. You’ve almost definitely seen PPC ads populate among your search results at any given time. They’re simple text ads that show up above the rest of the search results in your query. PPC ads resemble ordinary search results, except for the “Ad” modifier that is attached to the tail end of each listing.

When an organization or marketing team purchases a PPC ad, the ad itself populates based on the keywords the organization bids on. Let’s say, for example, that the keywords “grocery store in Boston” are available to bid on for a PPC ad. If one organization bids the highest amount for those keywords, their PPC ad will be the most visible compared to other bidders.

How Do Paid Searches Work?

In brief, PPC ads work somewhat like an auction. A specific keyword set or word phrase is available for businesses to bid on, and the highest bidder gets the most visibility when those keywords are typed into a search query. The more popular the keyword or key phrase, the higher the bid usually has to be in order to rank high with those keywords. The company that has won the bid for the keywords or key phrase pays for PPC ads each time a user clicks on their ad. If nobody clicks, the company does not pay for the PPC ad.

At a glance, this ad method seems incredibly simple, but several elements need to be considered in order for PPC ads to yield success. The campaign (including wordage, timing, and theme) needs to be compelling. The ad group (for companies that purchase several ads) needs to be well-organized. The keywords need to be relevant to the services the organization offers. For example, if the keywords that populate the PPC ad are “drug manufacturing companies in Utah,” then the company with the highest bid on those keywords should most definitely be a drug manufacturer in Utah, or something very closely related.

Finally, the website or landing page that the PPC ad leads to when a user clicks it needs to be organized, easy to navigate, mobile-friendly, and directly related to the keywords in the ad.

FAQs About PPC Ads

There’s a lot that PPC articles and short tutorials don’t tell business owners about PPC for manufacturing. As a result, organizations that are new to PPC advertising often have questions concerning the process. To help clear up confusion and help owners and marketing teams decide whether a PPC campaign fits their unique strategic needs, answers to common PPC questions are detailed below.

• What if I exhaust my budget before the campaign ends?

Your budget is the total amount of money you’re willing to spend on a PPC campaign. If you have a budget listed, that is all the money you’re spending. If you have exhausted your budget before the end of the campaign, the campaign technically ends. You won’t be charged more money than what you’ve bid, but the ads will stop running when that occurs.

• How are PPC costs determined?

PPC cost breakdowns can get complicated, but to break down the cost factors in the easiest terms, we will look at the bid, audience targeting, and the ad’s quality. The bid refers to the sum you’re willing to pay when someone clicks on your ad. The cost per click will be less than or equal to your bid. As for targeting, if you’re advertising in a competitive market, you might pay higher costs for PPC ads to beat out other advertisers. Finally, the quality of your ad may either increase or decrease the cost.

• How much is a PPC campaign going to cost?

The cost of a PPC campaign can vary quite a bit depending on the details involved. On average, though, small and midsize companies can expect to pay $9,000 to $10,000 per month on these ads.

• How do I know if my PPC campaign is generating success?

Keeping an eye on your analytics is essential when it comes to determining the success of your ads. When you’re running a PPC campaign, Google will track various datasets related to each ad, and those analyses are then organized into simple reports that display how many clicks the ad gets, as well as how many lead conversions resulted from the ads.

• Do PPC ads work?

If PPC ads didn’t work, their market presence would be virtually nonexistent. PPC ads can account for almost half of a page’s clicks, and furthermore, when a person clicks one of these ads, they’re twice as likely to make a purchase than they would be if they found the website organically.

• How much time should I spend tracking my campaign?

Weekly campaign examinations are recommended. By looking into your campaign performance once a week, you’ll have time to make changes before campaigns end, make way for improvements in your strategy, and learn about which ads consistently perform best.

Benefits of PPC for Manufacturing

There’s a reason why PPC is a popular advertising tool. This method of advertising, when done correctly, presents organizations and marketing teams with numerous benefits. These include the following:

• Fine-Tuned Audience Targeting: The keywords that business owners or marketing managers bid on help to bring in specific audiences. By choosing specific words, demographics, device types, and more, businesses can gain attention from the exact sort of person they are looking for.

• Increased Company Visibility: PPC ads can be useful in bringing new audiences to a business. It increases company visibility, as this ad method allows users to post ads on applications, social media pages, websites, and search engine result pages,

• Lead Generation and Conversion: A well-placed PPC ad can both generate and convert leads. When a potential customer clicks on a PPC ad, the company’s click-through rate increases. When the potential customer reaches the organization’s service pages, they’re likely going to explore the offerings available. Plus, because PPC ads can populate on search result pages, websites, and social media pages, they are drawing customers in from various platforms.

• Decent ROI: PPC can be quite effective when done correctly, and part of what makes it appealing is the fact that if a company is paying for the service, it’s working. Pay-per-click ads, as the name suggests, only cost money when an internet user clicks on the ad. In this way, they’re affordable and often provide a decent ROI.

• Higher Revenue: If an organization carefully tracks its ROI on PPC ads, it can increase business revenue. Measuring the cost per conversion and cost per acquisition helps to measure the true value that PPC ads contribute to company revenue.

Getting Started with PPC

Incorporating PPC advertising into your marketing strategy is relatively quick and easy to initiate, though it is not quick and easy to perfect. PPC for manufacturing can yield significant increases in relevant traffic to an organization’s website with a very short turnaround time. Some SEO strategies can take several months to produce results, but PPC can drive traffic quite quickly, especially for business owners who have the budget available to invest.

Getting started with PPC for manufacturing is a simple process, especially when the manufacturing business already has a Google account.

1. Sign up for a Google account or sign in to your Google account.
2. Once signed in, visit Google Ads and click the “Get Started” button to be redirected to the page you’ll use to set up a new campaign.
3. Fill out the information requested. This includes information about the business’s customers, audience size, and ad platforms. 
4. You’ll then input your ad copy, set up your budget, and finalize all of the information keyed in to ensure it’s correct.
5. Provide billing information, and launch your ads.

Essential PPC Strategies

To give your PPC campaign the greatest chances of success, it’s essential to have a PPC strategy. Creating and launching an ad is not the beginning and end of the whole campaign, so to ensure that you’ve got a robust set of ads, you’ll need to be strategic, analytical, and time-smart.

Take a look at the basic strategy tips listed below to improve your PPC success.

• Write your ad copy with quality in mind.

Before launching a PPC ad, make sure you’ve proofread the copy. Having ads with a clear message, correct spelling, and relevant wording is key.

• Make sure your landing pages are optimized.

The landing pages your PPC ads link to should be optimized, neat, and closely related to the PPC ad’s topic.

• Research the way your competitors are performing.

Don’t copy your competitors, but learn from the strategies they employ to determine what works, what doesn’t work, and when to promote certain services or products.

• Try split-testing your ads.

Certain versions of ad copy land better than others. Try to segment your ad copy into at least two test segments to monitor which copy converts more leads.

• Focus on long-tail keywords.

Long-tail keywords tend to be more affordable when it comes to PPC ads. With a more targeted keyword approach, you’re likely going to have more qualified leads clicking on your ads. Plus, you’ll save money in the long run.

• Keep conversion your main goal.

Having leads click on your ads is ideal, but it’s only half of the process. If leads click on your ads only to leave your site immediately afterward, nothing has been accomplished. Make conversion your main goal, and ensure that your ads are honest, relevant, and valuable to your audience.

• Monitor the performance of your ads.

Monitor your analytics regularly. Keeping an eye on your campaigns and the various ads therein can help you determine which ads perform well and which ads could use some improvement.

Practically any business with a reasonable budget available can yield significant benefits through the use of a well-designed PPC ad campaign. However, as mentioned above, it’s fast and easy to start creating and launching PPC ads, but it’s not fast nor easy to perfect your PPC strategy. PPC ads can get quite competitive when it comes to securing the right set of keywords so in order to stand out from competitors in your industry, it’s essential to create high-quality copy for your ads, link to relevant, well-designed pages that leads will want to explore, and optimize your content as much as possible.

If you need help, you’re not alone. Reach out to David Taylor Digital for professional service, assistance, and advice you can apply toward your PPC endeavors.