The simplest answer to this question is pay-per-click costs as much as you want it to. I realize this is a very vague answer to the question, but it’s also a the reality of the situation. To explain this a little further, we’ll have to take a look at the costs of traditional advertising vs online marketing and look at what online advertising brings that traditional advertising can’t.
Traditional Advertising vs PPC Cost
When we talk about traditional advertising here, I’m making reference to print, television, radio, and billboard ads. The print ads could be in a newspaper, magazine, a flyer, etc. First, we need to take a look at what it takes to create the traditional advertising. There is typically long lead time and high production costs. It will take time to develop the content of the ad, time to print or record the ad, and then time to distribute it. Then you wait; wait some more; and then wait some more. After its run, you get to, guess what? Wait some more for your potential customers to contact you. That’s IF they remember your contact information once they get a chance to give you a call.
With traditional advertising, you can certainly target certain markets, for example, target baby boomers by having your radio ad run on a radio station targeting that demographic, but you can’t specifically target baby boomers who are currently in need of your product or service specifically. “Well, doesn’t everyone need my product?” We’d all like to think that is the case, but the truth is that not every person listening to the radio or watching television wants or needs what your business offers.
How do we make sure our advertising dollars are being spent on the right people?
This is where pay-per-click advertising shines – TARGETING. Targeting with PPC is way more specific and precise. You can choose not only locations to target, but also target a specific age range or interest. You can set your ads to run during certain hours of the day, you can set your ads to run at a little higher price during certain times of the day if you know that most people are going to buy at say 6 am. However, the best part is that by using PPC to target search terms, your advertising money is being spent to serve ads to people who are already LOOKING for your product or service. By using targeting to display your ads for certain search terms that you can choose, your conversion rate (leads turning into paying customers) is going to be considerably higher than your traditional advertising conversion rate, meaning you just spent less money for acquiring that lead or customer. Basically, PPC is a more efficient way to spend your advertising dollars and get the results your business needs.
A small to medium business may be a little leery of venturing out into the digital marketing world, and worried about how much this is going to cost the company. They often think they are going to have to hire an employee who is an expert in online marketing. But, you don’t have to be a large company to use PPC. In fact, many search engine marketing agencies specifically cater to the small to medium business since PPC is so useful but also so specialized and ever-changing. This is where the small to medium business really thrives using PPC. Because small to medium businesses are not necessarily serving the entire world and don’t necessarily have the largest budget, an agency can help the business pick and choose who sees their ads and when and in what context. The leads to a much more effective advertising effort, as their money is better spent on actually getting new customers/sales/leads, etc. Using a SEM agency can provide prime results and expert guidance with a nominal cost.
PPC is great because you set your budget and you pay only for the people who click on your ads. Money is more wisely spent. Your budget doesn’t have to be thousands, and you can still reach the people that will convert. It costs what you want it to cost. You have control over your monthly budget, even with an outsourced PPC agency.
What Does PPC Cost? Here’s The Bottom Line:
Your budget can be as little as $50/month or $500,000/month. Really, your budget is customized to your business and can be as high or low as you’d like it to be. You’ll need to take a close look at your capability to handle more leads as well as the amount of money you are willing to spend. If you have lots of money for your budget, but have a limit as to how many leads you can successfully provide a service or product to, you’ll need to figure out the best amount for your business balance.
Worried about investing time and money into PPC? Do yourself a favor and hire a qualified search engine marketing agency. They’ll work hard to make you, their customer, happy with the results you are getting.
If you are considering what to do about online marketing, contact us at Full Circle SEM. We are happy to assist you with all of your online marketing needs.
