It has been said in recent years that pay-per-click (PPC) advertising isn’t as important as it once was. After all, the vast majority of all search engine traffic to websites is generated by organic searches. Yet companies continue pouring tons of money into PPC. Does it still matter in 2023?
Rather than answer the question with and unequivocal ‘yes’ or ‘no’, let us look at the evidence. Let’s see what is happening throughout the digital space and use it as a basis for determination. Ultimately, every company must decide for itself whether to put money into PPC advertising.
Google Ads Smart Bidding
As we so often do when trying to understand SEO and digital marketing strategies, we turn to Google first. It is a no-brainer. Google dominates the internet in more ways than one. They certainly dominate the PPC advertising space and Google Ads is clearly the king of the hill. So what is their take on PPC?
Google has spent a ton of money and time trying to improve Google Ads. Recently, a lot of their effort has gone into combining their traditional ad platform with artificial intelligence and machine learning. Both are expensive propositions. It makes no sense that Google would invest so much in PPC if they didn’t think the financial return would be there.
The latest iteration of Google’s efforts is something known as Smart Bidding. With Smart Bidding, advertisers design ads, plug in some parameters, and then let Google’s platform take care of the bidding. Google Ads relies on machine learning to analyze bids, advertisements, and the competition before automatically bidding on the advertiser’s behalf. It is simple, streamlined, and lets advertisers take advantage of Google Ads without having to manually handle the bidding process.
PPC Advertising on Amazon
Do you know who the two biggest online advertisers are? If you guessed Google and Facebook, you are absolutely correct. But guess what? Amazon isn’t all that far behind. Amazon’s foray into off-site advertising was touch-and-go when the retail giant first started, but it is no more. Amazon is now the third largest digital advertiser online.
The company took in some $31 billion in digital ad revenue back in 2021. Based on quarterly sales numbers, their year-on-year revenue for Q3 was 25 percent higher in 2022. But that’s not all. Amazon has also ventured into TV advertising and other non-digital platforms – including in-store advertisements at physical retail locations.
It is clear that Amazon is raking in a ton of money from its digital ad efforts. The question is whether the retailers spending that money are enjoying significant return from it. You could make a case that Google and Facebook ads don’t provide a high enough return. But it’s different with Amazon.
People that respond to Amazon ads do so for a reason. They are specifically looking to buy something. The intent is already there, which may not be the case with Google and Facebook ads. So for Amazon, PPC advertising should offer a pretty strong return.
Social Continues to Perform Well
Amazon may have yet to catch Facebook, but Facebook is still working to catch Google. It is a fine horse race by any measure. The one thing Facebook has going for it is the undying thirst for social media among internet users. Social continues to perform very well around the world.
At the end of 2021, more than 4.26 billion people used social media regularly. That accounts for more than half the world’s population. If current estimates prove true, that 4.26 billion could be as high as 6 billion just five years from now.
Like Amazon, Facebook has an advantage up its sleeve: consistency. People may not necessarily visit Google multiple times per day, every day. Indeed, people can go days on end without using Google. Most of the people who use social media visit their pages daily. That gives social media the edge for exposure.
What does this have to do with PPC advertising? First of all, Google Ads isn’t the only game in town. No doubt plenty of advertisers prefer Google’s platform, but there is no shortage of advertisers using multiple platforms. There are others that focus exclusively on social media.
The fact that social continues to perform well means it is also a rock-solid platform for advertising. Whenever you have so many people assembled in a single digital space, you also have opportunities to advertise to them.
Audience Targeting Remains Relevant
Social media’s ability to target particular audiences has been a strong point for digital advertising. So much so that Google has also put time and effort into improving its targeting capabilities. Regardless of the digital platform an advertiser chooses, targeting is one of the main benefits of PPC. Being able to target means spending advertising dollars more wisely.
Audience targeting is not new by any stretch. It has been routine in direct mail marketing for decades. Likewise, certain types of businesses used to advertise in newspapers in the past based on the demographic breakdown of their subscribers.
What makes targeting different in the digital age is the ability to be a lot more specific. In short, we have a ton more data to take advantage of. The more data advertisers have, the better their targeting tends to be. You certainly cannot target with legacy advertising to the same degree you can with digital. And in the digital realm, you get the best targeting with PPC advertising.
PPC Advertising is Still Important
We have looked at four pieces of evidence seemingly in support of PPC advertising. Is there any evidence against? Certainly. The potential for PPC ad fraud is a definite strike against this form of advertising. But by and large, the evidence supports putting money into PPC if a company’s marketing budget allows.
In short, PPC advertising is still important in 2023. If you would like to know more about it or how Webtek Digital Marketing can assist you with it, do not hesitate to contact us. PPC advertising is one of the many digital marketing services we offer.
