AI and SEO: Everything You Need to Know

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ve probably heard of artificial intelligence. This new technology promises to “revolutionize the marketing landscape” (ChatGPT’s words, not ours). In reality, it can be difficult to determine the best uses for AI in marketing—or how this technology impacts your ability to rank in search.

To help, let’s take a deep dive into AI and SEO with the aim to dispel any myths, discuss tangible impacts of large language models, and provide insight into how to rank in Google’s AI overviews. 

What is AI and SEO?

Before we dive into the specifics, let’s make sure we’re all on the same page about what artificial intelligence and SEO are. While there are many types of AI, the one we’re discussing today is large language models (LLMs). 

These LLMs generate content on demand and include tools like ChatGPT, Claude, and Google’s Gemini. A study by Amazon Web Services found that a “shocking amount” of web content is generated by these LLMs, and it’s been less than four years since ChatGPT’s release.

But content being generated and published doesn’t mean readers are finding it. For a piece of content to be found, it has to show up in search results. Enter: search engine optimization (SEO). SEO is the process of “optimizing” content so that it shows up higher in search results. 

When you publish new content, whether it’s a blog or a stagnant page of your website, Google crawls the content and indexes what it’s about, the content quality, and how useful it may be to readers. Based on Google’s conclusions, your content shows up higher or lower in search results. This is a bit of an oversimplification, but the definition works for the purposes of this discussion.

How Does AI Content Ranks in Search Results? 

So we’ve established that AI content is being created at a shockingly high rate, but are people reading it? Yes, and no.

There’s a myth that Google ranks search results based on content quality. And AI is infamous for creating low quality content. 

While Google’s E-E-A-T (expertise, experience, authoritativeness, trustworthiness) principles do exist and influence search results, they aren’t the be-all, end-all. In fact, the Google algorithm constantly changes how it ranks content, and some lower quality AI results are starting to rank higher.

Originality.AI reports that in June 2023 about 7.12% of content appearing first in Google search was AI-generated. In June 2024, that amount rose to 13.95%. The amount of AI content ranking high doubled in less than twelve months, which is impressive.

But 14% is still a small piece of the pie. Plus, readers tend to be more frustrated by AI-generated content than articles written by humans. A 2024 study suggests this is because, given AI’s current capabilities, LLMs are unable to navigate language, emotions, and empathy with the same skill as professionally trained writers. 

Nevertheless, AI content is ranking more often and might continue to do so. This doesn’t, however, mean you should “hire” LLMs over human writers. When we talk about SEO, it’s important to note that it only works if human readers resonate with your content once they find it—and most of us prefer human-authored content to AI-generated.

Are People Searching With Google Less?

Some marketers have claimed that LLMs are the death of search engines. It’s true that some people are asking ChatGPT or Gemini questions instead of turning to Google. When someone turns to a LLM over Google, it does eat up a fraction of Google’s search monopoly. But a fraction is the keyword. 

SEMRush reports that Google searches account for 91.54% of the search market. Plus, that other 9% or so isn’t all going to LLMs; social media and Google competitors like Bing also are eating up some of the search market. Despite this trend, Google is still king in 2024.

What shows up on Google has changed

While readers are still Googling, what comes up first in search has changed. Gone are the days of nine websites with a meta description and title coming up for a Google query. Instead, Google has started to add AI overviews to many search results. These overviews allegedly pull from sources on the internet and link to articles and blogs where a reader can learn more. 

SEO Roundtable compiled a few of these new AI overviews, including this one on SEO character limit. 

Google AI Search Results

The feedback on these AI overviews has been dismal. MIT has pointed out that these overviews have recommended eating one small rock a day for health and adding glue to pizza (we don’t recommend either). Plus, many people are frustrated by the incorrect information and how AI words its answers.

Despite this feedback, Google is committed to improving and rolling out more AI overviews. In the SEO world, that means marketing agencies and teams are now competing to be one of the three links in the AI overviews for relevant keywords, as opposed to the nine search results on Google’s first page.

Even when Google decides to not push an AI overview, they are replacing some of the first page real estate with an overview from one source and a People Also Ask section, as demonstrated by the result for this search on “how can I eat better?”

Bottom line, you will notice some impact to your SEO traffic and probably have been the last few months. Some sites have seen drops in traffic because the AI content is ranking ahead of other results before AI results were implemented. It's important to track any changes since these types of results started rolling out - around May 2024.

Best SEO Practices in 2024

Given AI’s impact on both content creation and what shows up in search results, SEO is a changed game. Keyword stuffing will no longer have as big of an impact as it used to. If you want to beat AI-generated content (which isn’t preferred by readers), create less, but higher quality content.

Other good SEO practices for 2024 include:

While these are the best practices right now, SEO is evolving faster than ever before. To keep up, consider hiring an in-house SEO expert or a marketing agency who focuses on implementing the best SEO strategies for today (not two years ago).
At Two Wheels Marketing, our SEO specialists optimize SEO strategies and produce content that works for the current AI and SEO landscape. Plus, we’re staying up-to-date on SEO trends and best practices so you don’t have to. Learn more about how we can help you rank higher in search.

Two Wheels Marketing has been named a 2024 Google Premier Partner

Columbus Ohio based digital marketing agency Two Wheels Marketing has achieved 2024 Premier Partner status in the Google Partners program.

Two Wheels Marketing’s team of experts provides PPC, SEO, and Paid Social Media Advertising for clients in Columbus and across the country and world.

"We are extremely honored to be included as a Premier Google Ads Partner for 2024, as it continues to show our expertise and dedication to furthering our growth as a PPC agency and our commitment to providing best in class digital marketing services to assist our clients in meeting their business goals", said Mark Subel, Principal of Two Wheels Marketing

About Google Partners

In February, Google recognized the achievements of top-performing digital marketing partners across the globe by awarding Premier Partner status as part of the Google Partners program. Two Wheels Marketing has been named a 2024 Premier Partner, which means:

The Google Partners program is designed for advertising agencies and third parties that manage Google Ads accounts on behalf of other brands or businesses. Its mission is to empower companies by providing them with innovative tools, resources, and support to help their clients succeed and grow online. 

Google Ads Campaign & Keyword Settings Affecting Your PPC Results

Why are my ads not showing for the keywords I specified?

Maximize your PPC results with our guide on Google Ads campaign and keyword match settings. Learn what campaign settings to watch out for and how to use match types to reduce wasted clicks and drive conversions. 

Keyword match types and campaign settings are the backbone of how Google Ads interpret the keywords and audiences you target in your campaigns. They directly influence your online visibility and the performance of your ads.

But have you ever found that, after hours of keyword and competitive research to pick out the perfect keywords, your search terms report reveals that your ads are appearing for searches you never bid on in the first place? 

google search terms report for PPC
Google Ads Search Terms Report

In this guide, we'll cover keyword match types and Google Ads campaign settings so you can maximize your spending on keywords and minimize wasted clicks. 

What Are Keyword Match Types For Google Ads?

Keyword match types are settings to control which search queries (the searches people actually do) trigger your PPC (pay-per-click) ads to appear. These settings help define the relationship between your targeted keywords and the myriad of searches people conduct every day. 

Broad Match Keywords 

Broad match types—the default match type setting in Google Ads—are designed to attract more visitors with less effort in building keyword lists. While broad match enables your ads to appear for a wide range of search queries, this extensive reach can sometimes lead to less high-quality leads.

Google defines broad match as "A keyword match type allows your ad to show on searches that are related to the meaning of your keyword, which can include searches that don’t contain the keyword terms."

Meaning, your ads could appear for a wide myriad of terms that "are related" to the actual keywords you started with, not your actual keywords.

Phrase Match Keywords 

Phrase match allows your ad to appear for searches that include your keyword or close variations. So if your keyword is "organic coffee beans," your ad could appear for "buy organic coffee beans online" but not for "coffee beans organic." *Note - Google Ads is very loose on “close variations” for both Phrase Match, Broad Match and even Exact Match. So your ads may display for keywords that you did not exactly bid on. 

Exact Match Keywords 

(In theory), When you use exact match types, your ads will only show when the search query exactly matches your keyword or very close variations with the same meaning. However, relying solely on exact terms could mean missing opportunities to discover new, relevant search queries that could drive conversions. *Note - Google Ads is very loose on “close variations” for Exact Match. So you may show ads for keywords that you did not exactly bid on. 

Negative Phrase Match Keywords

Using negative keyword match types is one of the most potent settings to optimize your campaign. Specifying a negative keyword list means you can prevent your ads from showing for searches that are irrelevant to your offerings. This is particularly important as Google's algorithms have become more lenient in interpreting search queries as mentioned above. Negative keywords are more important than they ever were in today’s Google Ads landscape. 

Campaign Settings Affecting Your Google Ads Keyword Results

Beyond your keyword match types, there are several relevant campaign settings that can also have a significant impact on your results. Campaign settings work in tandem with your chosen keyword match types to refine and direct your advertising efforts more effectively. 

Here are a few common keyword match settings that could be negatively influencing your search campaign results.

Location Settings

If the campaign locations are set too broadly or inaccurately, Google Ads might interpret this as a license to display your ads to users outside your intended target area. This will dilute the focus of your campaign, attracting clicks from users who are unlikely to convert

Advanced location settings also allow for targeting potential customers interested in your location based on search activities—not just those who are physically present in your location. Beware—utilizing this setting could lead your ad to appear for searches which might not always be your target. This setting is called: Presence or interest: People in, regularly in, or who've shown interest in your targeted locations (recommended). And you can see that Google Ads recommends it by default. 

Google Ads PPC - Location Settings

For instance, if a landscaping company in Austin, Texas sets the target to presence or interest, its ads could be shown to users living in NYC not necessarily near Austin, leading to potentially irrelevant clicks and wasted budget. If you have the setting “Presence or interest”, you’re putting trust in Google to know for sure that this searcher has an interest in services in your location. We’d recommend erring on the side of caution, and just selecting the "presence" setting in most cases. There are exceptions for sure.

This also explains why your ad might appear for users located in other cities, states, or countries. If Google thinks someone in a different location is planning to travel or purchase services or products in your targeted area, your ad may appear even though they aren't located near you.

Again, we'd err on the side of caution as you're putting a lot of faith in Google to have enough information to know that the searcher is actually interested in landscaping services in Austin, even while being located in NYC. 

Perceived User Search Intent

Google's algorithm may link your keywords with a user's search intent, even if it includes a competitor's name—especially if your ad and landing page content closely relate to the query. 

So you might be bidding on "dental implants," but your ad could appear for "fix my teeth" searches due to Google's interpretation of search intent and relevance. 

Ads Serving for Competitors?

Google may even go as far as to show your ads for competitor searches even though you’re bidding on keywords for your services. If you're a senior living community bidding on  a “senior living community” keyword, your ads may show for a competitor search instead! For example, someone searching for “Del Boca Vista Senior Living” may show your brands’ ad even if you’re not Del Boca Vista (Anyone a Seinfeld fan?)

In the below example, Google Ads is saying that the keyword "kenwood towers retirement" (Competitor) is a "close variant" to our keyword "senior independent living"! While that may be a senior living community, Google Ads is taking the liberty to show our ads for a competitor, when the person searching for Kenwood may just be interested in finding out where Kenwood Towers is located or need a phone number. Be wary of how Google Ads matches your keywords, and make sure to check your search query reports frequently to minimize wasted ad spend!

competitor search terms Google Ads ppc

Device and Time Adjustments 

Keyword match settings allow for bid adjustments based on factors such as device type and time of day or week—be sure to use them. 

For example, if you notice that your ads perform better on mobile devices or during specific hours of the day or week, you can increase your bids for those conditions to capitalize on higher conversion rates. Conversely, you can decrease bids in scenarios where your ads perform poorly.

Ad Scheduling in Google Ads PPC

We'll Handle Your Next PPC Campaign, You Handle Business

Considering that more than 80% of all search traffic in the United States originates from Google, it's no wonder so many businesses turn to PPC experts! We specialize in crafting tailored Google Ads strategies that maximize ad spend efficiency, minimize wasted clicks, and drive conversions. 

With our expertise, you can focus on what you do best—running your business—while we ensure your PPC campaigns are optimized for success. Reach out today to see how we can transform your Google Ads results.

Small Business SEO Services: The Ultimate Beginner's Guide

If you're a small business owner, you're likely inundated with unsolicited emails from SEO agencies around the globe every day. Each one makes claims more grandiose than the last, promising incredible results in no time flat (red flag!) 

The truth of the matter is that not all small business SEO services are created equal. So, rather than wasting precious marketing dollars on the wrong SEO agency, here's everything you need to know before you invest in SEO for your small business. 

What is SEO For Small Businesses? 

SEO stands for search engine optimization, which includes a set of best practices and strategies designed to improve your search rankings. 

For small businesses, SEO is more than just a buzzword; it's a crucial strategy to enhance online presence, attract organic traffic, and improve organic search engine rankings. 

SEO is one of the most cost-effective forms of marketing. 

For small businesses operating on limited budgets, SEO is a no-brainer. 

Unlike paid advertising, which requires ongoing financial investment to maintain visibility, SEO is the gift that keeps giving. One exceptional, high-ranking piece of content can drive targeted traffic to a website for months or years after publishing. 

Small Business SEO Leads

SEO brings real financial value to your marketing spend

While SEO can take some time before seeing results, when good SEO campaigns come to fruition, the return on your investment can be substantial and ongoing. If your business thrives on more leads, and your SEO campaigns help you drive more targeted traffic to your site that generates more leads, then that brings real tangible bottom line revenue for your business. 

And good ongoing SEO campaigns can last for years, helping your business to generate leads every month. 

You can reach the precisely right audience. 

What good is website traffic if it never converts? 

SEO helps small businesses attract the right niche audience. Meticulous keyword research will reveal the specific informational and commercial queries your dream customers are using to find your product or service. 

Benefits of Professional Digital Marketing Agencies 

Hiring your own in-house SEO team is expensive and unrealistic for many small businesses. That's where agencies can be a lifesaver—they have all the expertise and hands on deck you need to scale your content strategy at an affordable price. 

Here are just a few of the many advantages that come with hiring a digital marketing agency to manage your small business SEO strategy. 

Save time and maximize marketing spend. 

Hiring a professional digital marketing agency allows you to save time and make the most of your marketing budget. 

They offer time efficiency by handling SEO tasks from content creation to keyword optimization and performance monitoring, freeing up your time to focus on core business activities.

Moreover, their expertise in cost-effective resource allocation ensures that your marketing budget is directed toward strategies and channels that yield the highest returns. 

No more wasted ad spend figuring out what works and what doesn't—agencies already know what works. 

Get content creation expertise. 

Creating compelling content is the cornerstone of any digital marketing strategy. However, the process of researching, producing, and optimizing website and blog content is incredibly time-consuming. 

This often poses a challenge for small businesses, making it difficult to consistently meet the demand for fresh content.

Professional agencies offer a solution to this content bottleneck issue. They streamline and simplify your content strategy, allowing you to concentrate on managing your business. 

Additionally, agencies possess a deep understanding of SEO best practices that facilitate the ranking of new content—it's a win-win. 

Key Components of an Effective SEO Campaign

Whether you decide to DIY your small business SEO or want to save time by hiring an agency, there are a few best practices and critical components to keep in mind. 

Be sure your SEO strategy includes the following: 

Understand your target customer. 

Before you create an effective SEO strategy, perform a deep dive on your audience. 

Start by creating detailed buyer personas and comprehending their needs, preferences, and online behavior. This will help you better understand the user intent behind each query—a factor as important (if not more) than keyword research. 

Perform an SEO audit of your website. 

Initiate your optimization efforts with an SEO audit, which involves assessing search term rankings, technical issues like broken links and page speed, and optimizing on-page elements like content, meta tags, and internal linking.

Conduct comprehensive competitor and keyword research. 

The foundation of a successful SEO campaign lies in understanding your competitors and the keyword gaps that exist between you. 

Analyze competitors' strengths and weaknesses, content, and backlink profiles, and formulate a keyword strategy aligned with the opportunities you discover. 

Create a content strategy. 

High-quality, helpful content is pivotal for SEO success. Establish a content strategy that produces informative, engaging, and well-researched content while effectively forming clusters of target keywords. 

Develop an off-page SEO strategy. 

It's not just about what you do on your website—what you do off your website matters, too. 

Enhancing your website's authority and credibility is achieved through off-page SEO activities, which include leveraging social media for content promotion and implementing a robust link-building strategy to acquire quality backlinks.

Use local SEO tactics. 

For businesses with a local presence, adopting local SEO tactics is imperative. 

Optimize your Google My Business or Google Business Profile to ensure accurate information, garner positive customer reviews, and boost visibility in local search results. 

This makes your business easily discoverable on Google Maps to cater to local customers seeking your physical location.

Finding the Right SEO Agency For Small Businesses

Startups and early small businesses can technically try to manage their own SEO—for a while. Once it becomes too much of a demand on your time and resources, you can turn to a digital marketing agency to take things over for you. 

Here are a few of the most important factors to consider while you search for the perfect fit. 

Explore several different SEO packages. 

Different SEO agencies offer packages ranging from basic plans for small businesses to more comprehensive solutions for larger enterprises. When evaluating SEO agencies, assess several package offerings to determine which one best aligns with your goals and budget. 

Analyze case studies. 

Any digital marketing agency worth its salt will have case studies to support its methods. Be sure to vet your potential agency partner by closely examining their case studies and asking whether they could replicate the results for your business. 

Ask about customization. 

Cookie-cutter SEO strategies can only get you so far. Seek agencies that provide customizable packages, as one-size-fits-all solutions may not effectively address your specific challenges as a small business. 

Request an SEO audit. 

Reputable agencies should offer comprehensive SEO audits as part of their services. An SEO audit is a fundamental step in the optimization process, and many agencies will provide them along with recommendations for improvement. 

This audit thoroughly examines your website's performance, identifying strengths, weaknesses, and areas for improvement. Ensure the agency analyzes your website's technical aspects, on-page elements, backlink profile, and overall SEO health.

Seek affordable SEO services. 

While budget constraints are a reality for most small businesses, finding an agency that offers affordable SEO services without compromising on quality is essential. You get what you pay for—but you don't have to break the bank doing it. 

Look for agencies that provide transparent pricing structures, ensuring you know exactly what you're paying for. 

Ready To Level Up With Small Business SEO Services?

For small business owners in Columbus, OH, Two Wheels Marketing can help you start targeting the right audience with a comprehensive SEO approach. 

Our SEO specialists will expertly optimize your SEO strategy, ensuring every dollar contributes to tangible growth and customer engagement. Help customers find you right now—get started with SEO services for small businesses today.

PPC Lead Generation Quality

You're getting leads, but are your leads quality?

When running PPC campaigns to generate more leads for your business on Google Ads, Microsoft Bing Advertising, or even paid social platforms like Facebook Ads, TikTok Ads, and etc., one of the challenges can be making sure as many of the leads are as quality as possible.

Typically, digital marketing agencies will run campaigns to generate what are called "conversions" which is just an all encompassing word that means they're trying to drive action once people get to your site (phone calls, form submissions, live chats, etc). Typically those are grouped into conversions, and campaigns are run to generate the most conversions at the best cost per conversion (CPA or CPL - cost per acquisition or cost per lead). 

Take an example of a typical PPC agency report you might review:

PPC Lead Gen Report - Google Ads
PPC Lead Gen Report - Google Ads

Conversions (leads) are great, but if you're not getting quality leads, then you're probably not turning those leads into clients or customers. And if you're PPC agency is not tracking the quality of your leads, then they could be sending you hundreds of "conversions" that don't really mean much to your bottom line. 

Tracking Quality Leads in PPC

So how can you not only drive leads to your site through digital marketing platforms, but drive QUALITY leads as well? The answer is that you need to track the leads that are being delivered and have a system for rating the leads as well as tracking revenue from those leads. 

When Two Wheels Marketing is tracking leads for clients, we set them up with a system where their sales intake person(s) receive automated emails when leads come in from our digital marketing efforts. Since they engaged with these new prospects, they will have the best feel for whether this lead is a good one or not. And they can simply mark these leads as such with a simple yes/no designation. Yes = Good leads, No = Bad Lead

PPC lead quality
Good & Bad PPC Leads (Yes or No)

Additional PPC Lead Gen Intelligence

In addition to marking leads quality or not, your system for tracking leads should have important campaign information assigned to each lead, so you know where these leads came from.

PPC Leads Intelligence
PPC Lead Information

All of this information is very valuable data to continue to help improve and maximize your campaign performance. If you know that Google Ads is sending 90% of your "quality" leads and you are only spending 50% of your digital budget there, you now know you can reallocate more funds there. This type of analysis and management helps to make your campaigns more efficient and profitable and saves valuable ad budgets. 

PPC Leads by source
PPC Leads by Source

Tracking ROI from PPC Lead Gen Campaigns

To take it one step further, you should also be tracking the actual revenue that these leads generate for your business. By tracking revenue, you are able to better analyze the most profitable digital marketing channels to acquire leads for your business.

This takes some assistance from your sales team to be vigilant by going back into the leads and assigning the actual "value" (or sales) that those leads eventually generated for your business. By tracking these numbers over a period of time, you'll have much more valuable information for making digital marketing decisions.

If you want to get even more granular, your team can track "quote value" or the quotes that your sales people provided to customers, and then the final "sales value" to get a feel for how many of these digital leads are converting (conversion rate) from quotes to actual final sales. Over time, you can track this to see how your team is converting them into final sales...

PPC leads - Quotes and Sales Value
PPC leads - Quotes and Sales Value

Quality Leads vs. Conversions

At the end of the month, would you rather have a report like this that reports on the actual "good" (quotable) leads you got from your PPC campaigns:

Good Leads for PPC campaigns
Quotable Leads for PPC Campaigns

Or the report below, which only shows you how many people contacted you from your PPC campaigns, without taking into consideration the "quality" of those leads?

I think you can see the advantages of the former and why we drill home the importance of tracking the quality of leads from any of our paid digital campaigns. You'd much rather pay for more quality PPC leads than a higher quantity of "conversions" without knowing how many of them are actually good leads. 

PPC Lead Gen Report - Google Ads
PPC Conversion Report - Google Ads

Lead Quality + Smart Bidding = Better PPC Leads

Another advantage to having more quality lead data, is that you can now attract more quality leads with your PPC lead gen campaigns, by providing Google and Facebook Ads with more accurate data. On Google you can import your leads into the platform and then optimize for those leads to attract more leads like those. But you need to give Google (and Facebook for that matter) the best quality of leads in order to attract more of those leads in your campaigns.

For example, if you are using "Maximize Conversions" (where Google optimizes your campaigns to generate more conversions (leads) with your spend, would you rather have 100 low quality leads to give them or 50 quality leads? The latter is obviously preferred as it will help them to attract and convert more leads that are quality.

And you can do the same thing with Facebook Ads, provide them with information from your quality leads, which then can be used to create "lookalike" audiences for Facebook to find similar audiences to target.

The value of tracking your lead quality is immensely powerful both for your own internal purposes, but also for your outgoing digital marketing campaigns.

May the quality leads be with you!

Difference Between Keywords & Search Queries In PPC

When it comes to PPC (Pay Per Click) advertising, the key to success is maximizing your efficiency and understanding exactly how keywords and search queries can work together. Before you dive into the world of pay-per-click, it's important to understand the differences between keywords and search queries. Here is a break down of the main distinctions between these two tools and how you can use them in your marketing strategy.

What Are Keywords?

Keywords are the terms or phrases that you want to your ad to show up for in the search engines. When someone searches for a keyword that you've targeted, your ad has the chance to appear. These are the actual keywords you put into Google Ads to tell them the keywords you want to show up for when someone is searching Google. 

Targeting the right keywords is essential for any successful PPC campaign. But it's not enough to just target keywords - you also need to make sure that your ads are relevant to the searcher's query. If your ad isn't relevant, it won't matter how good your keywords are - you're not going to get clicks or conversions.

What are Search Queries?

Search queries are the actual terms that people type into search engines when they are looking for something. A search query is what a user types into a search engine and keywords are the phrases you have selected to have your ads shown for in the search engine results pages (SERPs).

Keyword Targeting

Targeting the right keywords is essential for any pay-per-click (PPC) campaign, but it is only part of the puzzle. Once you have targeted a group of keywords, you need to make sure that your ads and landing pages are relevant to those keywords. Otherwise, you will end up paying for clicks that don't lead to conversions.

To ensure that your ads and landing pages are relevant to your keywords, you need to perform keyword research. This research will help you understand how people are searching for your products or services and what kinds of keywords they are using. With this information, you can then create ads and landing pages that are tailored to their needs.

Keyword research can be performed using a variety of tools, including Google Ads Keyword Planner and Google Trends. There are also a number of third-party tools available that can help with this process. Once you have gathered a list of relevant keywords, you can then start creating your ad groups and targeting these keywords.

Difference between Keywords and Search Queries

When it comes to online marketing, the terms “keywords” and “search queries” are often used interchangeably. However, there is a big difference between keywords and search queries that you need to understand in order to create an effective PPC campaign.

Keywords are the foundation of your PPC campaign and should be given careful consideration. Keywords are the terms or phrases that you want your ad to show up for when someone searches on Google or another search engine.

When choosing keywords, you should think about what potential customers might search for when looking for a business like yours. For example, pet store owners may target keywords like “dog toys”, “cat food”, and “reptile supplies”.  

Once you have chosen your keywords, you need to create ads that are relevant to those keywords and include them in your ad text. Your ads will only show up when someone searches for one of your keywords, so it’s important to choose keywords that are closely related to what you offer.

Search queries are the actual terms that people type into the search engine when they are looking for something. Search queries can be very specific, long-tail keyword phrases that include multiple words (e.g., “where to buy dog food online”) or they can be more general single-word terms (e.g., “pets”). They do need to relate to your keywords, but can vary more widely than your keywords.

Examples of Keywords and Search Queries

Here are some examples of keyword match types you can utilize in your PPC campaigns and how they are used:

Make the Most of Your PPC Campaigns by Understanding How to Effectively Use These Terms

There is a distinct difference between keywords and search queries in PPC. Keywords are the terms that advertisers use to target their ads while search queries are the words or phrases used by users when searching online. Understanding and utilizing both of these components is key to developing effective targeted campaigns in PPC marketing.

PPC Landing Page Best Practices

For Increased Conversion Rates

Picture your current PPC or Paid Social landing page with a conversion rate twice as high, going from the industry average of 2.35% to an impressive 4.7% performance. That's double the number of leads going to your business. Alternatively, you could get the same number of leads with half the ad cost.

In this blog post, we'll discuss some of the most effective PPC landing page best practices we've seen after working on hundreds of landing pages and spending millions of dollars in advertising. These strategies cover the critical few things we've found that can make a big improvement on almost any PPC landing page.

Have a Clear Call-to-Action

If you only do one thing right with your landing page, make it abundantly clear what you want the visitor to do. Call, email, chat, buy, etc. One way to accomplish this is by having a form or phone number right at the top of the page. Don't force your visitors to have to scroll in order to find a contact form - have the form or phone number higher up on the page so it's clear how they can get in touch with you.

Clear call to action on PPC landing page
Clear Call to Action

Also consider making the button and phone number a completely different color to help it stand out. Again, make it as easy as possible for a new visitor to contact you and find your main call to action. You'd be surprised how many client landing pages will have the phone number at the bottom of the page or not mobile "click to call" friendly. You're working hard to get people to your site, make it VERY easy for them to contact you!

PPC landing page phone number and CTA
Phone # and CTA in Different Colors

Don't concern yourself with using something different from your "brand colors". That's the whole point. If your brand is blue, having your button colors as orange, red or green will stand out and get someone's attention.

Don't obsess over what color it needs to be, as we've found there's no one universal recommendation. As long as it sticks out from the rest of the colors, you're good!

Clear Call to Action for PPC Landing pages
Clear Call to Action

Clean, Not Cluttered

One of the main reasons PPC landing pages work so much better than the main website or service pages for clients, is that landing pages have a more stripped down and simple design that focuses the user on the main goal you want them to accomplish when they visit the site.

Too often, homepages and other pages of a website have too many distractions: news stories, blog posts, menu links to less important pages, and many other distractions that take the user away from your main goal - for them to contact you or buy something.

Think of a well-designed landing pages as a "one-pager" of your business that helps sell your products or services in a concise and clean design. They shouldn't have to go anywhere else except that single page to learn enough about your business, and why they should work with you.

Take a look at LiveChat's.com homepage. Clean, uncluttered, lots of white space, easy to read headlines and text, call to action buttons that stand out, and more. This page just makes me want to sign up for their service. Is your landing page this clean and uncluttered?

Live Chat Landing Page
Live Chat's Clean and Uncluttered Home Page

Chat Boxes

Speaking of chat, having a chat box is a great way to increase conversions. Visitors each have their own preferred way of communicating. Some people prefer calling. Some prefer emailing. And some like to use a chat box to get their quick 1-2 questions answered. In fact, 73% of customers find live chat the most satisfactory form of communication with a company.

PPC Landing Page Chat Box
PPC Landing Page Chat Box

 

Use Chat Automation

You may be thinking... "but we don't have internal resources to chat with visitors all day." No problem! Chat software is very sophisticated these days. You can automate and answer a lot of frequently asked questions with a bot. Then, if their question doesn't get answered, they can chat with a human. Or you could send them to an email form. Or you could outsource chat entirely.

For example, if you're a lawyer, there are a few law-specific chat services where they have people on-staff that can answer basic law questions.

No doubt about it, if you are able to find a way to have a chat box, it gives you a competitive advantage and helps increase conversion rates.

Have an Enticing Offer

After having a call-to-action that's easy to find, having a great offer is the next thing to make a huge different in conversion rates. Think about it... if your offer was to give out $1,000 to the next 50 people that submitted the form, your conversion rate would go way up! But it doesn't have to be that extreme.

Discount Offer eCommerce PPC
Discount Offer for an eCommerce Site

Lead Gen Offer

On the lead gen side of things, it doesn't have to be a cash offer, but think about what would help compel your prospective client to enter their information. Would it be a free consultation, a call with an expert, or perhaps even a free whitepaper to help them in their initial decision making?

We've even found there can be a dramatic difference between having just a regular "schedule consultation" vs. a "schedule a 15-minute call with an (insert industry name) expert". The latter is more inviting for a prospective customer and provides them the confirmation that someone is there to help them. Help visitors understand what actually is going to happen next if they give you their email and phone number.

15 minute call CTA
Schedule Consultation PPC Lead Form

Social Proof

Anyone can set up a website and claim they offer products and services. What differentiates established businesses is the fact they have credentials and (hopefully) have had happy customers.

Badges

Having social proof increases trust and boosts credibility. Social proof includes things like "badges" that confirm you are a legit business. This could be a BBB A+ rated business, a 5-Star rated business on Google My Business, a Chamber of Commerce member, a member of X Industry organizations, or even "as featured on..." If your client has been featured on TV, the news, or other major publications, these are all great things to feature on your PPC landing page. All those "social proof" badges and indicators let clients know that you are a legit, credible business and help instill trust.

Landing page badges social proof
Landing Page Badges Social Proof

Trust Signals for PPC Landing Pages
Trust Signals for PPC Landing Pages

Trust seals for PPC Landing pages
Logos from Major Companies - Social Proof

Reviews

Another form of "social proof" are testimonials or reviews of your business online from either Google My Business, Facebook Reviews, Yelp or other areas where clients regularly review your work. People can have skepticism with reviews, so make sure you utilize several reviews and find reviews that are more detailed oriented and specific to the work you assisted with. This will go a long way to establishing trust in your brand, when your prospective clients read detailed oriented reviews.

PPC landing page testimonials
PPC Landing Page Testimonials

 

If you've had a lot of customers, don't be bashful. Let people know about it!

PPC landing page social proof

Call Out Your Core Benefits

There are at least 2-3 core reasons why you're a better option than competitors. Many landing pages fail because they give too many reasons, or go way too in-depth about why their special, their company background, etc.

If someone asked you to tell them in 10 seconds or less what makes your business stand out from the competition, make sure your landing page does that quickly and towards the top of the landing page. You want people to instantly understand why you are a better business than your competitors - because your prospective customers are likely checking out multiple businesses to see which ones resonate best with them.

PPC Landing Page Core Benefits
PPC Landing Page Core Benefits

Most times, we'll help clients put those core benefits at the top of the landing page next to the contact form in the form of bullet points that are easy to read and quickly digestible.

Mobile Friendly

In today's digital landscape, having a mobile-friendly website is no longer a luxury—it's a necessity. With the majority of users accessing the internet via smartphones and tablets, it's crucial to optimize your landing pages for mobile devices to maximize conversion rates.

When visitors encounter a site that's not optimized for mobile, they're more likely to bounce due to difficulties navigating or viewing content. By ensuring your landing pages are responsive and easy to navigate on mobile devices, you can keep users engaged, increasing the likelihood they'll convert.

One mobile-specific strategy to consider is having a "sticky nav". That's where you have a top or bottom section that's locked into place as you scroll. This is a great place to have an offer or a phone number always there...

mobile sticky nav for ppc landing pages
Mobile Sticky Nav

 

As someone is reading through the mobile site, as they scroll down the page, the header "sticks" to the top and allows them to read the rest of the page - but also allows them to call or contact you easily - no matter what section of the page they are on.

This is an extension of our #1 tip to have a clear call to action. If, for example, a phone number button is following you around everywhere you navigate to on the page, it should be pretty obvious that you're wanting them to call you.

Imagery & Video

People are visual creatures and "seeing" what and how you do things, can really help close the deal for a prospective customer. Using both images and videos can help to improve your PPC landing page conversion rates.

Use Real Photos

If possible, use real professional photos of your business instead of stock photos. People want to see real legitimate imagery of the company they may be investing in. It provides a more personal touch and helps people connect with the company behind the landing page.

Use images that show what a person receives after using your product or service. If you're a landscaping company, show the brilliant green yard the user will get after using your service. If you're a dentist, show the perfectly white teeth that a person will have after becoming a regular patient. If you're a law firm, show the relief that someone will feel after they've utilized your professional services.

Working with PPC Clients
A "Real" Two Wheels "in action" Photo - So Exciting!

Videos

Videos really help a person connect with your business, especially if the videos show your company in action or your product or services in action. Words and imagery can only provide so much context, a video really helps someone see how you work and why they should work with you.

In fact..."marketers who incorporate video into their campaigns experience 34% higher conversion rates (Aberdeen Group)." (source)

In the video below, this painting company has a 45 seconds long video that quickly shows the work they can do on an exterior house painting job. This really helps a user "see" what type of service and professionalism they will receive. Bonus tip - Add a testimonial like they do, near the video:

Videos for PPC Landing Pages
Video for PPC Landing Pages

Exit Popup

Having a popup right as someone is about to leave the page is an almost guaranteed way of increasing conversions. An "exit popup" is a form that "pops up" as your about to leave the page or hit your back button. This works effectively because sometimes people just need another nudge or another reminder to contact you.

Add An Asset

A best practice for exit pop-ups would be to provide the user something of value as they are leaving like an eBook, Whitepaper or other "asset". In the example below, the person trying to contact this PPC Agency may not be ready to contact them for a free quote, but a useful guide on saving money on Google Ads would be useful to them immediately, and provides this agency with the ability to follow up with that interested party later.

PPC Landing Page Exit Pop-Up Example
PPC Landing Page "Exit Pop-Up" Example

Use Pop-Up Triggers

Many popup tools have lots of advanced features on when they'll show up, so you can reduce the "annoyance factor" to suit your preference. These are called "triggers" and provides you the ability to customize "when" a person will see the pop-up.

ppc landing page exit popup options
Exit Pop-Up Triggers

Minimize Form Fields

One of the most common PPC landing page mistakes we see are contact forms that are WAY too long, that require a person to enter more information than is absolutely required. We know that the sales teams out there are cringing, because they want a lead to come in already pre-qualified and ready to go, but if you are paying for traffic or working hard with your website to generate traffic - the HARDEST thing to accomplish is getting a new lead. The LAST thing you want to do is scare them away with a contact form that is way too long.

We know there are reasons where you may need to require a few more fields to weed out low quality leads, and that's totally fine. There's always a balance between too many fields and not enough. The point is to experiment and find the right amount based on your particular business.

Landing Page Contact Form Examples

In the below examples, if you were looking for a quote from a company, which form would you rather fill out? Note that these two forms are actually 2 different companies in the exact same industry.

This one?

Long PPC Landing Page Form
Long PPC Landing Page Form

Or this one?

Short Contact Form Submission for PPC Landing Page
Short PPC Contact Form Submission

Conclusion on PPC Landing Pages

There are certainly additional tweaks and improvements you can make to your PPC landing page that aren't listed here, but we've gone over the most important ones that we've seen improve PPC conversion rates. There is not a one-sized fits all approach to landing pages, as it depends on your industry, your goals, and your individual business limitations.

Ideally, you would want to work with a PPC Agency that can help you to navigate both a successful PPC campaign and the associated landing page strategies to help meet your business goals.

The bottom line is, if you're going to pay to acquire targeted traffic to your website, ensure you have a strategy to capitalize and maximize the number of leads or sales you get from those campaigns. This in turn will help provide a positive return on your PPC investment.

Other PPC Landing Page Best Practice Resources

Why Don't My PPC Ads Convert?

A successful PPC campaign requires a number of different elements to make it successful; whether you need more leads, sales, or brand exposure. In this discussion, we'll talk specifically about PPC "lead gen" campaigns which are designed to capture someone's email address or encourage a phone call to your business.

One of the biggest challenges when it comes to generating leads is converting those visitors once they land on your website. Hopefully your PPC ad campaign was set up effectively and targets the right keywords, the correct locations, and uses ads that accurately reflect your business. Let's say you have all of these things in place and you're getting great search traffic that is landing on your website for your desired keywords, yet the majority of your traffic isn't converting.

Why does this happen?

It's normal !

Please read and memorize this: A MAJORITY OF VISITORS FROM PPC CAMPAIGNS WILL NOT CONVERT! In fact, a 1 in 4 conversion rate (25%) is extremely good in most industries and cases.

Leading campaign landing page company Unbounce (who specializes in providing landing pages that convert at better levels than your normal site) reported that of their clients, a 12% conversion rate was better than 90% of competitors' conversion rates. In fact, in the eCommerce industry, the average conversion rate is historically between 2-4% of all traffic.

So, before you begin freaking out that 9 out of 10 visitors do not "convert" for your lead gen PPC campaign, know that it is normal and you may see this type of data.

Now, some campaigns we run have much better conversion rates -- 25% or more -- and some have been worse than that -- under 10%. And it certainly varies by industry and client.

Average Lead Gen PPC Conversion Rates by Industry

Average PPC Convesion Rates by industry from Unbounce.com
Average Lead Gen Conversion Rates by Industry - via Unbounce.com

This study (conducted in 2017) and graphic courtesy of Unbounce.com.

If you are a university, your average PPC conversion rate is 2.6%, with "best" conversion rates in the 11.5% range. Granted, you have to remember here that this report is done by a lead gen landing page company, so the pages that campaigns are being sent to are already better than the average website or page a person sends their campaign traffic to.

If you are in the legal field, the average conversion rate is 3.2%, with the "best" conversion rates in the 15% range.

Other Average PPC Conversion Rates by Industry:

Reasons Why Your Campaigns Aren't Converting

Just because most people don't convert from PPC to leads, it doesn't mean that you (or your PPC firm) can use this as an excuse for having low conversion rates. We've worked with many clients in different industries and are always working to help them improve the landing page experience to convert more users -- especially if they are paying for the traffic. Below are some reasons why you may not be converting, and considerations for improvement.

Here are some common reasons why your PPC campaigns may not be converting well:

1. You're sending traffic to your homepage vs. a dedicated landing page. Most companies don't realize how cluttered and unfocused their homepage is. It can have many items on it that distract a user from doing what you want them to do: contact you! A dedicated landing page helps to reduce clutter, simplifies the messaging, and provides an easy way to contact your company via a mobile click-to-call, or an easy form for them to fill out. This simple landing page makes it a breeze for potential clients to contact this attorney:PPC landing page - family law attorney2. Your website is not mobile friendly. This is a huge one. Many companies assume that most of their traffic comes from those searching on their desktop or laptop computers. In some cases, this may be correct, but when it comes to many service-oriented businesses (especially locally), most people will conduct their searches using a mobile device. You need to ensure that your website is mobile-optimized, easy to read and navigate, mobile click-to-call functionality works, and the website contact form works well on a mobile device. Is your website mobile-friendly? Google has a free tool you can use to check the friendliness of your website or landing page.

mobile friendly landing page test - google
Mobile Friendly Test - Google

3. Your website takes forever to load. Many people don't have the patience to wait for a slow webpage to load. In fact, if they get frustrated with the load time, they will simply click back to the search results page, then click on the next best result because they don't have time to wait around.

Don't just take our word for it. Make sure your website and mobile version of your website or landing page loads as quickly as possible. Every millisecond in delay can have a negative impact on your conversion rates.

4. Your Adwords campaigns are not set up correctly or are targeting the wrong things. Half the battle is converting someone when they get to your site, but the other half is actually driving qualified traffic to the site in the first place from your PPC campaigns. There are a ton of default settings on your Adwords or Bing Ads' accounts that may not be ideal for your campaign. This could be another blog post in itself, but some examples of incorrect settings could be:

There are many additional settings and considerations within the campaign setup for your PPC campaigns, so you may just be getting a lot of un-targeted traffic that would have never converted in the first place!

Google Adwords - Ad Scheduling
Adwords Ad Scheduling

 

5. Lack of Branding. Why do Fortune 500 companies invest so much into branding? Because they know how much branding influences purchase decisions. For a company doing PPC marketing, having a well-established brand makes it easier to convert those visitors into leads or customers, because branding influences how you think of that brand. You likely trust them more just because you have heard of them. A virtually unknown brand (in any industry) will have a harder time converting a new visitor simply because the person hasn't heard of them before. When shopping for car insurance, do you inherently trust Progressive Insurance more than Quote Wizard?

Industry SEO/PPC thought leader MOZ indicated that lack of branding is the #1 reason Paid ads on search or social fail.

6. External factors. A searcher may just simply be in "research" mode and not ready to contact someone. When someone conducts a search on Google, there are varying levels of search intent. Someone searching for a "Subaru Forester 2018" may just be starting their journey on looking for a new car, and subsequently, visiting a lot of different websites in their initial "discovery" stage of search. So, they may not convert right away.

A person searching for "best price for 2018 Subaru Forester" is a much different person. They are actively looking for the dealership that will give them the best price on a car they have already done research on and likely test-driven.

The point is, depending on your campaign or keyword, many people are just "kicking the tires" and are in research mode. They may not be ready to contact someone or add their name to a mailing list. That's not necessarily a bad thing, it just means they aren't ready yet. At the very least, this person now knows about your company.

7. Other external factors, like their kid spilled milk on their keyboard. This is not really a joke, but the point is, any time someone conducts a search online via their computer or their phone, they may get distracted during the process.

How many times has it happened to you? You are doing research on something, you click through on this site, you click through on that site, you go back to the site you were at three pages before, and then your dog barks and you have to take them out for a walk. You totally forget where you were or what you were doing, much less the website you were on. This happens all the time and so if someone clicks through and doesn't convert, they may have just been distracted. That's just part of the cost of advertising.

Conclusion on Non-Converting PPC Campaigns

It's a simple fact that most PPC campaigns have conversion rates at or below 10%, with many outliers in either direction. And that makes sense, not every person is ready to commit to contacting you for your services at that time and there may be a number of other website-centric issues at play as mentioned above.

However, this is not an excuse for settling for low conversion rates. You or your PPC firm should always be looking for ways to improve conversion rates -- whether it's through improved campaign optimizations, a better landing page, or better offer.

Another strategy (and another article for later) we use to increase conversion rates collectively are "remarketing" campaigns, where we remarket to people who have visited your site  -- while they are visiting sites other than yours -- with ads directing them back to your website. Clients like to call these ads "the ads that follow you around."

Because of all the reasons above, you want to ensure that you set up and run "remarketing" campaigns to remind people of your brand and website and encourage them to come back. Who knows, their child may have just spilled milk on their keyboard while they were on your website!

 

Why Aren't My PPC Ads Showing?

Why Aren't My PPC Ads Showing?You've spent hours and hours to conduct keyword research to identify the keywords you want your ads to show for. Then you had to spend several more hours constructing your highly-organized campaigns with tight geotargeting and awesome ad extension variations. And finally you've activated your PPC campaigns to start driving that targeted traffic to your site. Only now you aren't seeing your PPC ads at the top of Google for the keywords you bid on. But, why?

We'll discuss some of the main reasons why you might NOT see your PPC ads at the top of the search results once you push your campaigns live.

1. Geotargeting

Your ads might not be showing because you are searching from outside the geographic area you are targeting. Let's say you are a local dentist who is looking for new patients within your area, so you set up some campaigns to target "Dentist in (Cityname)" and related keywords. But perhaps you are visiting a vendor or running an errand and do a search to see how your ads look, but you are outside the targeting area that you set for your ads to run in. Your ads would not show when you did a search for your keywords, because you are outside that area.

Google Adwords uses a few ways to determine a user's location: the IP Address of the device a user is searching on, or a user's location settings (GPS, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth).

Google Adwords Geotargeting Locations Settings
Location Settings

2. Your Bid is Too Low

PPC campaigns are a search auction, so you are likely competing for ad space with a number of other companies for the same keywords. One of the main factors in determining where your ads are listed on the page is your keyword "bid." This is the maximum amount that you are willing to pay for a click for a given keyword. If your bids are too low, your ads may not show at the top of the search results or even on the first page of search results. If this is the case, you will need to raise your bids, or improve the "quality score" of the keywords you are bidding on. You can read more about quality score here.

Google Adwords Below First Page Bid - Dentist

3. Ad-Scheduling

When setting up your PPC campaigns,  you have the option to define and set your "ad schedule." The ad schedule is basically the days and times you would like your ads to run during a given week. For many service-based businesses (like dentists), this is a wise strategy, because you likely have certain days and times your office is open where you or your staff can answer phone calls. Running ads during off-hours without a call center or someone to answer the phones directly can lead to some wasted clicks. If someone clicks to call you or dials your number, they usually want to speak to someone directly, and may not leave a message on your answering service.

If you searched for your ads outside the times you set for your ad schedule, you would not see your PPC ads showing.

Google Adwords - Ad Scheduling

4. Budget Constraints

This is a big one as we see this happen quite a bit with small businesses that don't have large budgets. Let's say you are a (that's right, dentist) and you only have a budget set for $25 per day on your campaigns. With PPC campaigns, you are charged a CPC "cost per click" (each time someone clicks on your ad). If your budget is $25 for the day, and an average CPC is $5 (which is not uncommon for dentists by the way), then your budget for the day would allow for around 5 total clicks to your website or calls to your phone number. ($25 budget divided by $5 cost per click = 5 clicks)

If it's a Monday and there is a lot of demand for people looking for dentists, you may get those 5 clicks in the first hour or two of the day. That means, the rest of the day, your ads will not show because you have exhausted your total budget for the day.

5. Platform Bidding

On Google, you can choose to advertise to people on particular platforms they are using: desktops/laptops, mobile phones, or tablets. In some cases, you may have set up the campaign to target just desktop or just mobile searchers and have excluded the other variation. Depending on your targeting, you may not see your ads show because of your platform targeting settings.

Another slight variation to this would be if you use "bid adjustments" on those targeting methods. You can actually bid up or down based on the platform someone is using when they search. Let's say that you see much better performance from individuals that search on mobile phones. You can bid up (perhaps increase your bid by 25%) when someone searches on their mobile phones. Subsequently, you can bid down on platforms that don't perform as well. If your bid adjustments are lowered too much, your ads may not show up or on the first page of results.

6. Disapproved Ads

Google has a number of advertising policies which you need to adhere to, or your ads will be "disapproved" and won't show. This might range from incorrect punctuation, to offensive or inappropriate content. If your PPC ads are not showing, check your ad statuses within the account to see if any of your ads are disapproved.

7. Negative Keywords

In Adwords campaigns, you can use negative keywords to ensure that your ads don't show for keywords you know you don't want to show ads for. Negative keywords basically tell Google not to show your ads any time someone searches with a particular word.

If your ads aren't showing for certain keywords, make sure to check your negative keyword lists both at the campaign and ad group level, and in the "shared library" where some people may keep negative keyword lists to apply to multiple campaigns.

Google Adwords - Negative Keywords in Campaign

8. Billing

Make sure to set alerts or check the billing/payments section if your ads are not showing. Sometimes there can be issues with your credit card or payment method, which can prompt Google to stop your ads from running.

9. Your Campaigns Just Started

If you just pushed your campaigns live and you are not seeing your ads, you may just have to wait! It takes some time for Google to approve ads, keywords and other variables within your campaigns. Most campaigns when pushed live, will start fairly quickly, but practice patience give Google time to approve your campaigns.

Other Reasons Your Ads Are Not Showing on Adwords

The above 9 items are some of the main reasons your ads may not show for a given search on Google, even though you may be bidding on those keywords. There are a few other reasons such as having disapproved keywords, or inadvertently having a paused ad group or campaign that you didn't notice originally. If your ads aren't showing, run through this list and check your settings. Likely it's not showing for one of these reasons.

PPC Advertising for Lead Generation vs. Other Advertising Channels

Lead generation is a key business goal for many companies, especially in the professional services industry or home services industry. Referrals, word-of-mouth, emails, web forms and even traditional marketing tactics like direct mail or radio ads are all tried-and-true ways to generate leads. But, for us and many of our clients, there’s nothing quite so powerful as a well executed PPC campaign for lead generation.These types of ads can help even the smallest businesses with the smallest budgets generate qualified leads to grow their business. 

What is PPC Advertising?

PPC stands for pay-per-click, a type of internet marketing used on search engines where advertisers pay each time their ad is clicked by a user. These ads can be highly targeted toward users and potential customers who are searching for particular products and services. They can also be extremely effective in driving the right people at the right time to your website or store.

When you perform a search on a search engine, PPC ads are the first few results on the page, just above the “map pack” and before organic results. This prime placement makes PPC ads coveted real estate for business owners. For example, your service business could be the first listed result on Google with a well targeted PPC ad. (more…)