When it comes to advertising your business, the Internet is one of the most efficient tools that you can use. In fact, you can run an entire advertising campaign online and see stellar results.
In particular, pay-per-click (PPC) advertising is a powerful method. However, not every entrepreneur knows what to expect when it comes to cost.
Let’s explore everything you need to know about the factors that influence PPC cost.
The Quality Score
One of the most notable factors that affect the overall cost of a PPC campaign is the quality score. Put simply, this value is a number assigned by Google that serves as a quality rating of both your PPC advertisements and the keywords that you choose for your business.
Google also factors in relevance when calculating this value.
In practice, the score is meant to reward businesses that choose relevant, high-quality keywords and punish those that don’t. This is due to the fact that these attributes can either improve or detract from the overall user experience.
For example, let’s assume that the owner of “www.soccersocks.com” decides to focus on a keyword related to makeup. Additionally, let’s assume that the PPC ads they used had little to do with the website itself and were centered around the keyword they chose.
This means that Google would assign them a lower quality score due to the way that these factors affect the experience of their users.
Quality scores are important because they influence the cost per click (CPC) of your advertisements. A good score will allow you to pay less money per click, while a high score will require you to pay more.
If you find that your quality score is not as high as you would like it to be, you can aim to maximize your click-through rate (CTR) and make your advertising assets as relevant as possible.
Bids You Make on Keywords
This factor is far more simple when it comes to how it affects the cost of your PPC campaign. The higher the bid that you make on a particular keyword, the more money you will spend throughout the campaign.
It’s important to note that low-cost keywords aren’t always bad and high-cost keywords aren’t always good. To elaborate, it’s highly likely that you will experience lackluster results if you simply prioritize the keywords with the highest cost.
This is true whether you utilize Google Ads, Yahoo! Search Marketing, or Microsoft adCenter.
If you find yourself needing to lower the amount that you spend on keyword bids, you have a few options available. One of the most prominent is choosing to aim for the third or fourth position on Google search results instead of the first position.
Interestingly, many people tend to forget that bids under the first search results position still have the potential to provide them with the results that they want.
Overall Level of Competition
As it becomes more and more competitive to bid on certain keywords, they become more expensive. Unfortunately, dealing with competition is something that you will have to manage no matter what industry you operate within.
This can also result in certain keywords having a variable value depending on the season, recent trends, etc.
You can expect to see a sharp increase in bid price as certain keywords become more popular. Whether or not it is worth it for your company to allocate money toward them will depend on your intended results.
As previously mentioned, it’s highly recommended that you consider choosing a keyword that is not ranked at the very top of Google. These will likely be far less competitive yet still be able to reach sufficient levels of performance.
Miscellaneous Factors
There’s a handful of miscellaneous factors that you’ll need to consider. Interestingly, the price for certain keywords will often increase towards the end of the month.
This is due to the fact that many workers have already paid most of their bills for the month and they are also receiving their second monthly paycheck around this time.
More disposable income means more demand for certain products. This directly translates into a higher bid price for relevant keywords.
In general, people also often purchase goods reactively instead of proactively. This means that sweeping changes (such as new laws or regulations) can cause a similar effect.
Staying on top of local and national events, and industry trends, and using a bit of common sense can go a long way when it comes to getting the best price for your PPC keywords.
So, How Much Does PPC Advertising Cost?
As you might guess, the answer to this question is entirely subjective. It will depend on the above factors, your intended results, your budget, etc.
So, there isn’t a definitive cost for any given PPC campaign.
However, working with professional PPC management will help ensure that you spend as little money as possible while still achieving the results that you are after. Keep this in mind when moving forward when looking for ways to maximize your performance and hit your target metrics.
Understanding PPC Cost Might Seem Complicated
The above information, however, will ensure that you are able to calculate PPC costs as accurately as possible. From here, your digital advertising campaign will become far more effective.
Want to learn more useful info? Be sure to check out the rest of our blog.
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