Pay-per-click advertising is essentially as old as search engines themselves, and legions of companies have relied on PPC to attract and convert web users by skipping the fight for rankings and floating straight to the top of the search engine results page. Yet, since the advent of PPC, dozens of other digital marketing strategies and systems have emerged to help businesses achieve success online. Most businesses, even those utilizing PPC, also participate in search engine optimization; companies practice email marketing, search engine marketing, affiliate marketing and more; content marketing in general has proven to be a powerful tool in engaging web users and building loyal communities of customers. All this is to say — do business leaders still need to engage with PPC advertising in the coming year, or has it become woefully outdated?
It Depends
Not every business needs to participate in every digital marketing strategy. Different digital marketing strategies have evolved to address the needs and wants of different organizations. Some businesses are trying to build a brand based on informative content, while other businesses are developing a marketing strategy purely around aesthetics. Some businesses choose their digital marketing channels to maintain corporate transparency, while other businesses strive to hide as much of their internal workings as possible while gaining visibility with consumers. Some businesses are striving to capture as much web traffic as possible, regardless of how much of it falls within their consumer audience, while other businesses are striving to be exceedingly targeted with their marketing efforts and reach the eyes and ears of only the web users most likely to convert.
All this is to say that not all businesses need to engage in PPC — but that doesn’t necessarily mean that PPC has become irrelevant. In fact, for many types of companies, PPC remains an incredibly important tool for achieving visibility, attracting consumers and developing a loyal fan base. The key to leveraging PPC effectively is to fully understand the method’s advantages, which in 2024 will include:
Tight control over advertising spend. A business sets a maximum budget for their advertisement, so they cannot massively overspend if their ad gains more traction amongst consumers than anticipated.
Payment only for rendered service. Companies are not paying for PPC ads in the mere hopes that they generate leads; they only incur charges if and when an ad receives a click from a real web user.
Competition without long-term SEO effort. SEO is always valuable, but PPC allows younger businesses to vie with high-ranking search competitors by placing sponsored posts at the top of the SERP.
Speedy launch of advertising campaigns. Setting up a PPC campaign can be as fast as a few clicks through a search engine’s PPC ad service — though it is often wise to take advantage of the expertise of white label PPC providers.
Easy comparison of different advertising strategies. With PPC, testing different types of advertisements is simple and affordable, which allows companies to experiment with new strategies to achieve greater success.
There are some specific industries where PPC advertising is always a wise investment. Companies likely to benefit most from a robust PPC campaign include those that tend to have:
High customer lifetime values. It makes sense to spend more on lead generation when any individual customer can provide an outstanding value to a company over their lifetime. Examples of this type of business include dentist and doctor’s offices as well as colleges and universities.
High margins. Again, paying for visibility with PPC isn’t a significant concern if each purchase provides a major return to the company. Examples of “big ticket” items worthy of PPC include home appliances, cars, repair jobs and lawsuits.
Hard-to-find products. Many e-commerce retailers operate in a remarkably narrow niche, and connecting with the consumers who need those exact products can be difficult with less targeted digital marketing strategies.
By no means are these the only indicators that PPC can be useful, but they are strong reasons for a business to make PPC a primary component of their digital marketing strategy. In 2024 and likely beyond, PPC will remain not only viable and relevant but incredibly useful to those companies that need it most.