PPC Advertising for Small Businesses: A Guide to Success

Are you a small business struggling to get consistent traffic and sales? Pay-Per-Click (PPC) advertising can be a powerful tool to reach potential customers and drive conversions. However, many PPC campaigns are unsuccessful due to a lack of information or time investment. This guide will equip you with the knowledge and tools you need to implement successful PPC ads for your small business.

A Quick Primer on PPC Ads

PPC advertising is a form of online marketing where you pay for clicks on your ads. When a customer searches for a product you offer, your website appears at the top of the search results. This puts your business in the fast lane to reaching potential customers. Instead of waiting months for organic traffic to build, you pay to have your website displayed prominently when people search for keywords related to your business.

Where Can You Run PPC Campaigns?

There are many PPC platforms available, each with its own strengths and targeting options. Google Ads is by far the most popular, offering massive reach across Google Search and its partner network. If you want to target users of other search engines, you can try Microsoft Advertising and Bing Ads. Plus, many social media platforms offer ad programs. Facebook Ads, Instagram Ads, LinkedIn Ads, and others allow you to target users based on demographics, interests, and behaviors.

How PPC Ads Work Behind the Scenes

To understand PPC ads, there are a few essential terms you’ll need to know:

• Keywords: These are the phrases people type into search engines. You’ll choose keywords that are relevant to your business, ideal customers, and products/services.
• Bids: PPC ads are like an auction. You’ll set a maximum bid (the highest amount you’re willing to pay) for each click on your ads.
• Landing Page: This is where people ‘land’ after clicking on your ad. It’s crucial to have a dedicated landing page that matches the ad’s message and encourages conversions (rather than sending searchers to your generic home or pricing page).

The Benefits and Drawbacks of PPC for Small Business

PPC ads can drive conversions faster than waiting for organic traffic to roll in. However, not all PPC campaigns are successful, and not every marketing channel works for every business. About 45% of brands consider PPC a valuable strategy. Which side of the fence you end up on depends on how you weigh the pros and cons of PPC in light of your company’s unique offerings and needs.

The Pros of Giving PPC a Try

The key benefits of PPC for small business are:

• Fast-tracked Results: With PPC you get instant visibility. Once your campaigns are up and running, you can start seeing traffic and conversions right away. This makes PPC a powerful tool for quickly testing new products or promotions. It’s also perfect for capitalizing on seasonal opportunities.
• Laser-focused Targeting: PPC puts your message in front of the people most likely to be interested. With granular targeting options (demographics, interests, location, even time of day), you can make the most of ad dollars.
• Measurable and Accountable: From clicks and impressions to conversions and ROI, you have access to detailed data that reveals what’s working and what’s not. This allows you to make decisions based on the data you have. You can also optimize your campaigns in real time.
• Budget Control and Flexibility: PPC empowers you to set your own budget, big or small. You can choose how much you want to spend per day, per click, or per campaign.

The Possible Cons of PPC Advertising

What about the downsides? Every marketing technique has its costs. With PPC, you’ll need to keep in mind the following:

• Ongoing Investment and Effort: You’ll need to invest both time and money to see results. This includes a decent budget for ad spend (more on that soon), as well as for ongoing monitoring, analysis, and optimization.
• Tough Competition: If you’re trying to rank with popular keywords, you’ll face a lot of competition. This drives up the cost of clicks. As a result, small businesses with limited budgets might face challenges competing for high-value keywords.
• Clicks Don’t Equal Conversions: PPC can get people to your website, but there’s no guarantee they’ll make purchases. You still need to optimize your landing pages, website experience, and overall sales funnel to turn those clicks into conversions.
• Savvy and Skeptical Searchers: People are becoming increasingly aware of (and annoyed by) online advertising. As a result, many searchers avoid clicking on ads, which can impact your campaign’s effectiveness.
• Learning Curve: PPC platforms are often user-friendly. However, creating and managing successful campaigns takes time, experimentation, and a solid understanding of best practices. So you’ll need to invest in learning the ropes or consider working with a PPC expert.

Is PPC Right For Your Small Business?

So how do you know if PPC is a good fit for your specific business? While your mileage may vary, PPC can be a highly-effective strategy for companies that:

• Sell products or services with high search volume
• Operate in niche markets
• Have a clearly-defined target audience
• Can measure ROI effectively

PPC might not be the best fit if your business:

• Has a very limited budget
• Is in a highly-specialized or emerging industry
• Is focused more on long-term brand building than short-term gains

6 Tips for Developing an Effective PPC Strategy for Small Businesses

Between keywords, landing pages, and quality scores, PPC can be a lot to wrap your head around. Whether you’re testing the waters or going all-in, these six tips will help you drive results.

Tip #1: Set a Realistic Budget

Before you dive into keywords or ad copy, you need to define how much your business is willing to spend on PPC. Fortunately, you don’t need a big budget to get started.

Here are the key factors to consider when setting a PPC budget for your small business:

• Your goals for the campaign. Would you like to drive sales, generate leads, or increase brand awareness? This often influences how much you’ll need to invest. Simple awareness or views is less costly, while genuine leads and conversions require more investment.
• Your target audience. Reaching a broad audience costs more than targeting a niche market.
• Keyword competition. The Cost Per Click (CPC) fluctuates depending on the popularity and competitiveness of your target keywords.
• PPC platform and channels. Google Ads, Bing Ads, and social media ads all have varying cost structures.

To make the most of a modest budget, we recommend:

• Start small and scale. Begin with a modest budget and monitor the results. Identify what’s working, then gradually increase spending on high-performing campaigns.
• Focus on high-value keywords. Prioritize the keywords most likely to convert (we’ll delve deeper into this shortly).
• Optimize for quality scores. For Google Ads specifically, a higher Quality Score can lower your cost per click and improve your ad’s position. Other platforms have similar metrics.
• Track results and adjust accordingly. Monitor your campaigns closely, and make adjustments based on performance data.

Tip #2: Structure Your Campaigns for Maximum Efficiency

A well-structured campaign makes all the difference. If you provide the right information, the PPC platform will be able to easily understand what you’re offering and match your ads to the right searches. That means more clicks and a better ROI.

Here’s how to create PPC campaigns that work as hard as you do:

• Start with clear objectives. What do you want to achieve with this particular campaign? Defining your objective upfront will guide you in keyword selection, ad copy, and landing page design.
• Group keywords into tightly-themed ad groups. Instead of lumping all your keywords together, divide them into smaller, highly-specific ad groups. For example, if you sell web hosting, you might have separate ad groups for “shared hosting”, “VPS hosting”, and “cloud hosting”.
• Create dedicated landing pages. Don’t send all the traffic to your homepage! Create individual landing pages that align with each ad group’s theme and keywords. This ensures a consistent user experience and improves your chance of conversions.

Tip #3: Conduct Thorough Keyword Research

Keywords are the bridge between your business and the people searching for what you offer. Choosing the right keywords will put your ads directly in their path. And according to a study by Backlinko, the #1 result in Google search results receives more than a quarter of all clicks.

Fortunately, there are plenty of tools you can use to find keywords to target. If you’re new to keyword research, and especially if you’re starting with the Google Ads program, we’d recommend Google’s own Keyword Planner.

This tool lets you enter words and phrases related to your business, and find keywords searchers actually use. You’ll get data on those keywords, such as:

• Average Monthly Searches: The number of people searching for the keyword
• Competition: How difficult is it to rank for the keyword
• Suggested Bid: How much you might need to bid per click

There are fancier premium solutions you can try as well, with more options and features. However, Keyword Planner is a solid place to start. It’s free, and it focuses on the metrics that matter most in PPC advertising for a small business.

No matter what tool you use, creating a strong keyword strategy takes time and practice. Here are a few techniques to focus on upfront:

• Create topic buckets. Organize your products or services into categories. For example, if you offer financial software, you might have ‘buckets’ like “billing tools”, “invoicing systems”, and “time trackers”.
• Fill your buckets. Brainstorm keywords for each bucket. You’ll need to think like a customer. What words or phrases would they use to search for a business like yours?
• Consider user intent. Is the searcher looking for information (“how to create invoices”), comparing prices (“invoicing software cost”), or ready to buy (“best invoicing tools”)? Ensure that you match your keywords to their intent.
• Choose keywords that are easier to rank for. You’re aiming for relevant terms with a decent search volume and low competition. The shorter and more obvious keywords are almost always the most competitive, so look for ‘long-tail’ keywords that are four words or more.

Tip #4: Leverage Geotargeting

If you’re a local business, you don’t want to waste your budget showing ads to people in the wrong place. That’s where geotargeting comes in. It’s important if you primarily do business with customers in certain locations or countries, even if you don’t have a physical storefront.

To use geotargeting to best effect, start by defining your radius. If you have a physical location, determine how far customers are willing to travel for your business. Do you serve a hyperlocal area (a few miles), a specific city, or a broader region?

If you’re an online-only business, you can start by taking a look at your website’s metrics. Where are the majority of your customers coming from? You can also check out social media metrics to see where engagement is highest.

Then you can use your ad platform’s targeting options to specify regions, countries, states, etc. that you’d like to focus on. To use geotargeting to best effect, you can also:

• Customize your ad copy. Mention the local area in your headlines and descriptions. This helps make your ads even more relevant.
• Use location extensions. If you’re using Google Ads, this feature automatically adds in your business address, phone number, and a map, making it easier for customers to find you.
• Exclude irrelevant locations. You can exclude specific locations to further refine your targeting.

Tip #5: Craft Compelling Ad Copy

So far, we’ve focused on how to increase the odds your ads will be shown to potential customers. However, those searchers need to actually click on your ads. So along with being optimized, they need to grab attention.

To write ad copy that turns clicks into customers, it’s important to start strong. Your headline needs to grab attention by:

• Including your target keyword. Show them that you’re offering exactly what they’re looking for.
• Highlighting a pain point or desire. Speak directly to the searcher’s needs. What are they struggling with? What are they hoping to achieve?
• Creating urgency or scarcity. Tap into that fear of missing out with language like “Limited Time Offer!” and “Only 3 Spots Left!”

Next, show them the value. Don’t waste time listing features; focus on the benefits. Your ads should be all about how your service solves customers’ problems or makes their lives better.

For example:

• Feature: We offer 24/7 emergency plumbing services.
• Benefit: Leaking pipe at 2 am? We’ll be there fast to fix the problem and save you from a major disaster.

As you do that, remember to speak their language. Use language that resonates with your target audience. It’s best to avoid jargon and focus on creating a human connection.

Finally, provide a clear next step. Don’t leave your potential customers guessing what to do now. Tell them exactly how to take action with phrases like “Call Now for a Free Estimate” or “Visit Our Website to Book Online”.

Tip #6: Optimize and Test Continuously

To ensure your campaign’s success, you’ll need to constantly search for ways to improve. Every small optimization compounds over time.

The goal is to find what works, do more of it, and get rid of what doesn’t. Here’s how to turn your small business PPC ads into a well-oiled, lead-generating machine.

Be ruthless about relevance. You can continue to refine your targeting. The more relevant your ads are to searchers, the better your results should be. Use the data from your initial campaign to:

• Improve your demographics. Are you reaching the right age groups, locations, or income levels?
• Fine-tune interests. Are people with certain interests converting more often than others?
• Master device targeting. Are your ads performing better on mobile or desktop?

Embrace experimentation. Testing helps you discover what works. Never settle for “good enough” ad copy.

Instead, you can run A/B tests to compare variations on:

• Headlines. Try different hooks, value propositions, and pain-point solutions. 
• Descriptions. Experiment with various benefit statements and stronger calls to action. 
• Landing pages. A/B test your landing pages to maximize conversions. Even small tweaks can make a big difference.

How To Maximize Your ROI from PPC Ads

After following the steps above, you’ll be well on your way to generating clicks and conversions. But how do you get the most out of your small business’ PPC investment?

Attracting new customers is just half of the job. The other half is turning those first-time buyers into loyal, repeat customers. Ads are great for bringing in new buyers, but retention is vital for long-term growth and profitability.

To maximize retention, you’ll need to understand customer behavior. If you can identify those at risk of churning, you can take proactive steps to keep them engaged.

Those steps include:

• Deliver an exceptional experience. Remember, your customers have options. Therefore, you need to make every interaction with your business positive and memorable.
• Make your website interactive. Your website should be fast, easy to use, and mobile-friendly. A confusing or frustrating website will turn promising searchers away.
• Be generous with communication. Keep customers informed at every step. Send order confirmations, appointment reminders, and updates that provide value.
• Offer top-quality customer service. Be responsive, helpful, and go above and beyond to resolve any issues.

Level Up Your Small Business with PPC Ads

Contrary to popular belief, PPC advertising isn’t just for big brands with deep pockets. It can help small businesses like yours reach new customers, drive sales, and grow.

The most important things to remember are to start small and be patient. Give your ads time to gain traction, then experiment with different campaign styles and assess the results. PPC advertising isn’t a set-it-and-forget-it technique; it rewards investment.

Of course, as your PPC campaigns start to drive conversions, you’ll need a way to manage the influx of customer inquiries. With Groove, you can connect your inboxes to collaborate seamlessly, create a self-service knowledge base, and analyze your support performance. Sign up for a free trial today!