Pay-per-click and paid search advertising

Pay-per-click (PPC) advertising can be a cost effective way to drive traffic to your website. There are a number of benefits and challenges to consider.

Advantages of pay-per-click advertising

The benefits of running PPC advertising include:

• Cost effective - because you only pay when a user reaches your website, it can be good value for money. You can choose to spend as much or as little as you like.
• Targeted - you can choose your audience according to demographics like location, language and device.
• Measurable - PPC campaigns can be set up to measure effectiveness carefully. You can determine exactly how much your return on investment is.
• Customisable - as you run your campaigns, you can make many small adjustments to improve based on what works best.
• Training resources - there are many (often free) online courses and training materials to help you develop your skills.
• Fast - you will see the impact of your PPC efforts almost immediately. Organic search engine optimisation (SEO) tactics can take months to make a difference.

Disadvantages of pay-per-click advertising

Some of the challenges of PPC advertising include:

• Time investment - you can't just set up and leave your PPC campaigns. You need to invest time into optimising and improving to get the best results.
• Skills required - it can take some practise to set up effective campaigns. Many businesses choose to use a specialist agency.
• Costs can quickly add up - if you aren't monitoring and optimising your campaigns to ensure you get a return on investment, money could be wasted. You will need to allocate budget for PPC campaigns, unlike SEO tactics where the investment is time and skills.
• Clicks and visits don't always lead to sales - you will need to convince the user to 'convert' once they reach your website.