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How PPC fits into a wider communications strategy

Digital marketing - 16th January 2023
PPC ad

Pay-per-click, or PPC as its more commonly known, can be incredibly complementary to a wider communications strategy, depending on your overall objectives. 

Firstly, what is PPC? 

PPC is a form of digital advertising whereby the advertiser pays each time someone clicks on their advert. One of the most common providers is Google Ads. Here, advertisers pay to show their advert in the top section of the search rankings results page (SERP) when someone searches using a certain keyword/key phrase. 

But be warned. Your advert must then direct the user to a highly relevant landing page. One that is designed to answer the query they have, or information they need. Not doing so could result in Google showing your advert less often, or not at all. 

Examples of how PPC fits into a wider communications strategy: 

  • To support organic SERP brand building efforts: when searching for a specific product or service, seeing your brand name in the organic results and at the top of the page serves to reinforce your position as the leader in this space. Remember, PPC and search engine optimization tactics (SEO) are friends!
  • Reach audiences at the top of your marketing funnel: often, the people we reach with PPC are not familiar with our brand. An exception here being to support rankings alongside our own brand name. By making your name seen, you not only make it easier for someone to choose your company, you also have the opportunity to further serve relevant content to that person through blogs, social media, or other digital advertising.
  • Promote your company ahead of key events and trade shows: if you are attending an event and want to drive visitors to your booth, for example, you can set up a PPC campaign to target those searching for the event and/or exhibitors that will be there. 
  • Driving product or company launches: running PPC campaigns during a big launch further enhances organic SEO efforts by increasing visibility and availability for your audience. This could be: 
    • media coverage which appears on SERPs
    • organic and targeted paid social campaigns 
    • email marketing 
    • wider digital advertising on relevant media websites
  • Target local traffic: if your business needs in-person visitors, alongside building your reputation through media relations, increasing your authority through blog content and nurturing customers through social media, you can also target people in your local vicinity. For example, ‘restaurant open in Manchester now’ or ‘spa day near me’. 

Measurement

Ultimately, all digital marketing tactics will work in tandem for many strategies, or alone if there is a specific audience and piece of content you are looking to promote.  

What’s important is to constantly monitor results and assess the ROI of each tactic. There are many tools that you can do this through, Google Analytics being the most common. You just need to ensure that you link your PPC account to your Google Analytics account. By doing so, the click throughs can be tracked and compared amongst all of your website activity. 

Want to know more? Take a look at all our digital services or read about how changes in tracking are evolving digital marketing measurement. 

Chiara Balachandran