More and more marketers and businesses are taking advantage of the benefits of PPC advertising and Google Ads in order to reach new audiences, build brand awareness, and increase revenue. At the same time, there are still some marketers who think, “Why would I pay to appear on Google when I can get my site to show up for free?” The answer is that it is not as easy to appear in the SRPs (Search Results Pages) via an organic search as you might think. It often takes a lot of time, work and yes, spending on SEO, to achieve high organic rankings on Google for the keywords you want to rank for.
Don’t know much about Google Ads, PPC or aren’t entirely convinced of their value? How about this, from a fairly trusted source; the American Marketing Association?
“If you are an aspiring marketer, perhaps you think you don’t need to know about PPC using Google Ads. Well, we have some news for you. Every marketer needs to know the importance of PPC using Google Ads. Google Ads PPC marketing is an effective, quick, and cost-effective way to spread awareness about a brand and sell products quickly.”
What, exactly, is Pay-Per-Click (PPC)?
PPC advertising is a messaging model where advertisers pay only for actual clicks on their digital ads, with the added perk that ad impressions come at no cost. This grants your bank a listing prominently on search engine results pages, and you only pay for the ad placement when your ad generates a click.
With PPC ads, your community bank can quickly deliver high impact results that are both measurable and cost-effective. Here are just a few of the objectives you can accomplish:
- Sell products and services
- Educate current and potential customers
- Reinforce your brand image
- Increase foot traffic to branch offices
- Target customers and prospects of competitors
- Increase mobile app usage
- Cross/Up-sell existing customers to other products and services
- Target individuals in untapped geographic markets
- Promote new branch openings
- Promote community event participation, in short…
- Make better use of your marketing dollars
How, exactly, does it work?
Google Ads allows you to take advantage of the benefits of online advertising, presenting the right message to the right people, in the right place, at the right time. Here are a few specifics.
- Target your ads
With Google Ads, you have different targeting options, such as:
- Keywords: Words and phrases, relevant to your products and services, that consumers might use to search for them.
- Ad location: Show your ads on Google SRPs and websites that are part of the Google Search and Display Networks.
- Age and location: Choose the age and geographic location of your target individuals.
- Days, times, and frequency: Show your ads during certain hours or days of the week and determine how often your ads appear.
- Devices: Your ads can appear on all types of devices, and you can fine-tune which devices your ads appear on and when.
- Manage your budget
Google Ads gives you control over how you spend your money. You have total flexibility. There’s no minimum, and you can choose how much you spend per month, per day, and per ad. And, you can change that expenditure anytime you want. Plus, remember. You’ll only pay when someone clicks your ad.
- Measure your success
With Google Ads, if someone clicks your ad, you know. If they clicked your ad and then took an additional step, i.e., visited your website and viewed a page dedicated to, say, auto financing, you can track that, too. By seeing which ads get clicks and which ones don’t, you’ll also quickly see where to invest in your campaign. That, in turn, can boost the return on your investment.
You can get other valuable data, including how much it costs you, on average, for advertising that leads to a purchase. And you can also use analytical tools to learn about your customer’s shopping habits -- how long, for instance, they tend to research your product before they buy.
- Manage your ad campaigns easily, from almost anywhere
Google offers tools to easily manage and monitor accounts. If you have more than one account, for example, a My Client Center (MCC) manager account is an amazing tool that saves you time by enabling you to easily view and manage all of your Google Ads accounts from a single location.
You can also manage your Google Ads account offline with Google Ads Editor, a free, downloadable desktop application that allows you to quickly and conveniently make changes to your account. You can use the Editor to manage, edit, and view multiple accounts at the same time, copy or move items between ad groups and campaigns, and undo and redo multiple changes while editing campaigns.
Fast and easy to run, measure and track
Once you learn how to create and optimize a pay-per-click campaign, it is fairly simple to get a campaign up and running. Google makes it easy to see how your PPC campaigns are performing.
Cast a wider net for new customers
Email and social media marketing tend to target people who are already aware of your brand. These strategies work better to nurture existing customers. But with PPC ads, which can be highly targeted based on age, gender, location, and more, you have the opportunity to cast a wider net to find new potential customers.
About Bank Marketing Center
Here at bankmarketingcenter.com, our goal is to help you with that topical, compelling communication with customers; the messaging — developed by banking industry marketing professionals, well trained in the thinking behind effective marketing communication — that will help you build trust, relationships, and revenue.
To view our marketing creative, both print and digital – ranging from product and brand ads to social media and in branch signage – visit bankmarketingcenter.com. You can also contact me directly by phone at 678-528-6688 or via email at nreynolds@bankmarketingcenter.com. As always, I welcome your thoughts.