Keywords, Bids & Ranks: How PPC Actually Works — UNBXD

You may see PPC as just another one of the many digital marketing acronyms scattered across the industry. However, knowing the benefits of using PPC and understanding exactly how it works can be invaluable for your business.

What Is PPC?

PPC (Pay-Per-Click) advertising does exactly what it says on the tin. It’s a type of digital advertising where advertisers pay each time a user clicks on one of their ads. It’s a popular form of digital marketing which allows businesses to run advertising campaigns on platforms such as Google Ads. PPC can be used to increase website traffic, increase sales, generate leads or promote brand awareness, and businesses accrue costs whenever their adverts are clicked.

Common Types of PPC Advertising Formats

Paid search ads

There are a few different types of PPC ads, but perhaps the most common is paid search advertising, where providers show your ads to users who search for certain keywords. These text-based ads show up at the top of SERPs - Search Engine Results Pages - instantly reaching people who are showing an active interest in what you’re offering.

Display ads

Display ads are banner, image or text ads which appear on various websites. They’re selected in order to target specific audiences based on predetermined criteria. This means that whilst PPC search ads are shown to users who are actively searching for your product or service, display ads are instead shown to users who are potentially interested in your offering. Display ads tend to have a lower conversion rate than search ads, but the CPC (cost-per-click) is often lower.

Remarketing ads

Remarketing campaigns target people who have previously visited your site. Have you ever been browsing Facebook only to see an advert for the pair of shoes you were looking at a few days before? That’s due to a remarketing campaign.

These ads tend to have high conversion rates, as they’re used to bring back customers who were close to converting or have already converted - a lot of the work is already done. This usually includes those who have already made a purchase, signed up to the newsletter, spent longer than x seconds on the website or those who have added products to their cart but not checked out (cart abandoners).

Popular PPC ad platforms

There’s a huge range of platforms available to use for your PPC ads, and the best choice for you will depend on various factors including your budget, your preferred type of PPC ad, the amount of campaigns you’re looking to run, and your target market. Popular PPC ad platforms include:

Google Ads
Microsoft Ads
Instagram Ads
Taboola
YouTube Ads
Adroll
Pinterest Ads
TikTok for Business
Reddit Ads
Criteo
Facebook Ads

How PPC Works

Keyword Research

Keyword research is the foundation of a successful PPC campaign. It involves selecting the most effective keywords to target, which may not always be the most obvious: this process ensures your ads appear when people search for your products or services.

Start off by creating a keyword list based on your website's content. Categorise keywords into brand, generic, related, and competitor terms. Begin with broad terms such as ‘coffee shops’ and then move to more specific terms such as ‘independent coffee shops in Bournemouth’. Specificity is essential; focus on long-tail keywords for better relevance and cost-effectiveness.

There are concatenation tools available online which will help you to expand your list to include related words, synonyms and even misspellings. You can then use keyword research tools to help refine your list, allowing you to eliminate keywords with particularly low search volumes or too much competition. Prioritise keywords with high search volume and low competition for optimal results.

Group your keywords logically, mirroring your website's structure. Organised ad groups improve performance and Quality Scores - this is important when you reach the bidding stage of your campaign.

The PPC Auction System

Once you’ve got a good number of relevant keywords under your belt, you can begin to craft an ad using them in the copy before sending it to your chosen PPC platform. Once they’ve approved your ad, they’ll begin to show it to users. Keep in mind that you'll only pay when someone actually clicks on your ad, known as a cost-per-click fee.

Search engines don't display ads for every search. Instead, they do so when they detect a search with a commercial intent. Whether or not your ad appears on the page - as well as how high or low it is displayed - depends on how much you're willing to pay for a click, which you’ll specify as your highest bid. The more competitive the keyword, the more you should expect to bid if you want your ad to be displayed.

Search engines aim to show ads that users find relevant and enticing to click on. Irrelevant ads lead to a poor user experience and a loss of ad revenue for the search engines. Your ad will be given a Quality Score based on a few different factors including the relevance of each keyword to its ad group, landing page quality and relevance and the relevance of your ad text. This Quality Score will then be multiplied by the amount you’ve set as your maximum CPC (cost-per-click). The result is your Ad Rank, which dictates where your ad shows up on the page.

Benefits of PPC Advertising

It’s Cost Effective

If you choose the right keywords and ensure your ad achieves a high quality score, PPC advertising can be incredibly cost-effective. PPC offers you control over your spending, so you can make ongoing improvements to your campaigns, eventually striking a balance between budget and results.

Immediate Results

Organic marketing efforts like SEO (Search Engine Optimisation), blog posts, social media posts and videos aim to drive traffic to your website, but this can take months - with PPC advertising, potentially customers are instantly shown your ads. Organic growth is still necessary if you want to build long-term brand awareness and recognition, but PPC can help get you off the ground straight away.

Targeted Advertising

PPC allows for precise targeting of specific demographics, including their ages, locations and interests. You can split your target market into many smaller groups and devise targeted campaigns to fit each of them. This is particularly important for display or remarketing ads where customers benefit from high levels of personalisation.

Measurable ROI

PPC campaigns offer detailed and measurable results including data about impressions, clicks and conversions. These stats are instantly available for you to analyse and mean you can make constant, tangible changes to your campaigns which have a true impact. No more trying to guess what your customers respond to best - PPC gives you that data. This means you can keep making changes until you achieve a positive ROI (return on investment).

Are You Looking To Improve The Performance Of Your PPC Campaigns?

At UNBXD, we have an exceptional track record of planning, launching and running successful PPC campaigns for a variety of businesses across different industries. We work as strategic partners with our clients to outline clear objectives and maximise your ROI.

Ready to get started or looking for more information? View our full list of digital marketing services, request a quote or contact us.