The Role of PPC Advertising in Customer Acquisition

PPC or pay-per-click advertising is an online advertising model wherein the advertiser pays each time their ad is clicked. The goal is to drive traffic to your company’s website, growing your visitors and opening up opportunities to bring in more revenue. 

Is it effective?

Yes.

Let’s get things straight: PPC ranks highly among all digital marketing channels, with 20% of marketers worldwide claiming it delivers the highest return on investment (ROI). But is it as effective in acquiring new customers?

In this article, we’ll discuss the role of PPC advertising in customer acquisition and why you might need a PPC advertising agency Sydney to help you plan and execute an effective strategy for it. 

Common Types of PPC Ads

Search Ads

Perhaps the most common type of PPC ads, search ads are text-based advertisements that can appear at the top and bottom of the search engine results pages (SERPs) on Google. When creating an ad copy via Google Ads, you’ll need to choose what keywords you want to target. 

Search ads tend to reach prospects who are already in the market for a specific product or service, and therefore have a high success rate.

Display Ads

Unlike search ads, display ads can include an image and they appear on Google’s partner websites. These are banner, image or text ads that target users who have visited websites of companies in the same industry as you, which indicates that they may be interested in what you have to offer. 

Display ads have a lower click-through rate than search ads and they work best for increasing awareness of a brand or their product or service.

Social Ads

As the name implies, social ads appear in social media feeds. On average, a person spends 2 hours and 25 minutes per day on social media. If you want to give your social media content an extra push, social ads are certainly the way to go. 

By December 2021, the most popular social media platforms in Australia by number of unique monthly visitors are Facebook, YouTube, WhatsApp, Instagram and LinkedIn. With social ads, you can target your campaigns by defining your target audience based on their specific interests and demographics.

Remarketing Ads

On some occasions, users may visit your website and look into your products or services but decide for whatever reason to discontinue. They may have failed to convert, but all is not lost. This is when pay-per-click agencies in Australia use remarketing ads.

Remarketing ads focus on specific products or services prospects viewed recently. You want them to engage with your business again in the hopes of converting this time around. Because the users have already expressed interest in your brand, remarketing ads often have high success rates. Examples of these prospects include users who have:

• signed up to your newsletter,

• abandoned carts,

• watched your videos,

• spent some time on your site but didn’t purchase anything and

• previously purchased from your site

Instream ads

Have you ever noticed those ads at the start or in the middle of a video content on YouTube or Facebook? Those are instream ads. These PPC ads may appear as a full-screen ad, non-skippable ad or sidebar ad.

Google Shopping Ads

Google shopping ads appear in carousel format at the top part of the SERP, allowing prospects to view similar products from different brands. This way, they can compare prices and get a glimpse of features before they decide to click the ad and visit your website. As such, Google shopping ads may also have a high success rate.

Gmail-Sponsored Ads

Reach prospects right in their inbox with Gmail-sponsored ads. Placed at the top of a user’s inbox, these PPC ads are like regular emails except that the subject line is often bolded and they come with the “ad” tag on the email. Like Google search, shopping and display ads, Gmail-sponsored ads can be created within Google Ads.

What Is Customer Acquisition?

Customer acquisition is the process of bringing in new customers to your business. It involves convincing people to purchase your products or services. If you’re looking to expand your business or extend your market reach, you need to have a good customer acquisition strategy in place.

Why Should You Use PPC Advertising to Acquire New Customers?

PPC advertising typically targets users who are likely in the market to find specific solutions to a problem. Ads are shown around the time they do their search, which means that with PPC ads, you can see results faster than other digital marketing channels.

The purpose of PPC advertising is to help increase brand awareness, generate leads and boost sales. In the next section, we’ll trace the journey a user goes through as they progress from visitor to customer, effectively becoming one of PPC’s success stories.

Key Stages of the Customer Acquisition Funnel

There are many versions of the customer acquisition funnel, all defining not only what the customer goes through but also the specific strategies companies use to acquire them. Here is an example: 

1. Awareness – Raise awareness to your brand by creating ads that educate your audience. A good way to bring them to your website is by creating ads for a broader but relevant audience and using non-branded keywords for the copies.

2. Interest – At this point, you’ve already pulled the user into the funnel. They’ve expressed interest, so you want to create more relevant ads to sustain that interest. Keep in mind that the user is now actively searching for a product or service, so you want to stay top-of-mind.

3. Consideration – Now is the time to talk about the benefits of what you have to offer. These are the things that make a user want to purchase. You can then create and place your ads in front of specific audiences based on:

• How they interacted with your website – Did they watch one of your videos? Create instream ads.

• What they’ve shown interest in – Did they abandon a cart? Remarketing ads are the answer.

1. Action – Finally, the user takes action and makes a conversion (i.e., purchases your product or service). You can seal the deal by creating ads that draw high-intent users. For example, you can optimise your Google shopping ads to target people that will most probably convert based on branded and more specific keywords.

Why You Might Need a PPC Advertising Agency to Acquire New Customers

When creating a PPC advertising strategy for the purpose of acquiring new customers, you want to partner with an agency with a proven track record of identifying opportunities and masterfully making customers out of regular visitors and prospects. 

G Squared is one such company. We have years of experience in paid media and have earned the trust of reputable organisations because of our consultative approach and the results we deliver. If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out to us.