Does PPC work?

PPC is short for Paid Per Click.  It's the paid advertising model of internet / web marketing. Businesses are considered advertisers. It involves the use of certain platforms like Google Ads and Facebook for Business to create ads and publish these ads to a huge online network. These are intelligent advertising platforms. Each time an ad is clicked, the advertiser pays the platform. The average cost per click (CPC) varies per advertiser. The combination of bid amount and quality of the ad (as well as the user experience on the landing page) are the biggest factors in costs per click.  

Does PPC work? The short answer is YES. Of course it does. Companies like Google and Facebook heavily invest in the technologies used in their advertising platforms that they allow advertisers to push the ads to people who are looking and even those most ready to buy. 

The long answer is - well not so easily. There are many factors that interplay. Assuming that the bid is competitive, the ad quality is great and the landing page is intuitive, the next factors to consider are: product pricing, competitor action and the checkout process.  Then, we look into landing page offer, page speed, ease of contact / customer support and more!

The ever-changing user behaviour and customer expectations keep the advertisers on their toes. The actual delivery (including packaging), quality of the end product (once received), return policy and also the customer service interaction determine whether the new customer will buy again or even refer the business to his friends and family.

While it all sounds complicated, these interacting factors make the challenge of running an online business one of the most rewarding experiences.  The general guide is to keep experimenting.  It's important to also keep engaging with customers directly. Truly listen to customer concerns and then look at your data.  Look at industry trends, digital marketing trends and macro trends.

Data is a powerful tool to measure your performance and one of the fundamental elements of digital marketing.