By Pay-per-click (PPC) advertising is a digital marketing strategy that gives companies prominent placement in search engine results and social media feeds. When you offer PPC management for small business, you help clients zero in on audiences that are most likely to become customers.
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Businesses are only charged when users click on a PPC ad, making it a cost-effective option. However, strategies need to be well executed to generate a return from those clicks. In this post, we take a closer look at the factors to consider when crafting pay-per-click campaigns for small businesses and how agencies can provide the most value to SMBs with budget constraints.
Special considerations when offering PPC management for small business
Whether you’re providing PPC management to clients in-house or through digital advertising white-label services, it’s important to know the realities SMBs face so you can best serve them. Below, we look at factors influencing how small businesses approach digital advertising.
1. Budget constraints
Many small businesses are funded through owner investments or loans and focused on day-to-day operations. A good advertising campaign can deliver customers, but companies with tight budgets often struggle to allocate resources to marketing.
Pay-per-click is a budget-friendly marketing strategy because you only pay for users who click on the ad. The challenge is that you can rack up a high volume of clicks from people who don’t convert if you target the wrong audience or have poorly optimized landing pages. Knowing that every marketing dollar counts, SMBs will look to agencies to run tight campaigns and maximize the return on their PPC spending.
2. Local focus
Small businesses such as restaurants, retail shops, mechanics, landscapers, and plumbers use PPC to highlight services for local clientele and draw traffic to brick-and-mortar locations. Agencies that provide PPC management for small businesses lean heavily on techniques to target customers within a specific geographic area.
Location-based PPC campaigns often use tactics such as:
- Geotargeting. Ads display to customers according to country, state, city, zip code, or radius from a location. Geographic targeting ensures you limit ad spend on customers who are most relevant to a business.
- Ad extensions. You can add detail to a Google Search ad to highlight proximity and convenience. Extensions are used to display business hours, locations, and distance each location is from the user’s current whereabouts.
- Location-based keywords. Search terms that incorporate a geographic location help to capture local queries, such as ”wedding photographer in Seattle.”
- Language nuances. Make your ad relevant to audiences by allowing for regional differences, such as the use of “pop” versus “soda” or “sneakers” versus “runners.” You might also incorporate informal language used by locals to describe their area, such as "Tri-Cities."
3. Narrower target audience
PPC management for small business is most successful when you clearly define an audience segment. In addition to narrowing your audience by geography, you can target customers by age, gender, income, parental status, and other demographics.
For example, a hair salon could set an ad to display to only women, and a music school can target parents for a toddler class. It also helps if you have insight into customer behavior. If audiences are more likely to search for a business when they’re on the go or within a certain radius—think a coffee shop—target people by device and increase your bid for users within a few minutes driving distance.
Negative keywords
A small business can also target audiences by excluding keywords. If your client’s sporting goods store sells football and hockey equipment, but not baseball gear, exclude those keywords, so you don’t end up paying for clicks from customers who won’t make a purchase.
4. Limited marketing resources
Marketing in general is time-consuming, and 86% of small business owners are inclined to spend their working hours on other aspects of their business (Search Engine Journal). Companies that do invest in marketing may do it ad hoc when they have time or have a generalist handle everything from print advertising to social media.
Paid digital advertising is a specialty niche that requires knowledge of keywords, audience, and bidding to execute well. Since few can afford the luxury of an in-house PPC specialist, small businesses benefit from outsourcing to an agency. A managed service provider that adds white-label PPC management to its offerings could be an attractive option for small business owners.
5. Local competition
Businesses with local customers tend to have nearby competitors, making it easier to identify the companies vying for the same audience. Small business PPC management requires competitive analyses to determine ways to capture market share.
Look for unique selling propositions. A veterinary practice that’s the only one offering after-hours emergency care can highlight this service in an ad run late at night. Businesses can set themselves apart with Google ad extensions that provide star ratings or a link to testimonials. A savvy agency can even serve ads to customers searching for competitors by name to provide an alternative.
6. Revenue-driven business goals
While larger companies may have complex marketing goals related to audience engagement or loyalty, restraints on small businesses mean their focus is often on bottom-line results.
Local business PPC management services typically revolve around goals with more immediate return such as lead generation through website traffic or conversions through discounts and promotions. Strategies need to center on well-defined audience segments and clear calls to action to achieve these goals.
7. Agility and adaptability
We’ve talked at length about the limited resources of small businesses, but there are advantages to having a lean infrastructure. With decision-making in the hands of fewer people, companies can respond quickly to developments and adapt strategies on the fly.
Paid campaigns require constant monitoring and adjustments to achieve optimal results. When your data suggests you can achieve better results with a change in tactics, you’re likely to get fast approval from a small business owner. These approvals could lead you to test new ideas, overhaul a landing page, or direct more ad spend to a promising platform.
8. Personalized approach
Local businesses have an advantage over ecommerce stores: the ability to build customer relationships through personal connections. Use PPC ads to emphasize the benefits of dealing with a community-based business and invite customers to drop by a showroom, get expert advice, or take advantage of in-store pickup.
You can also personalize ads by considering the intent behind a customer’s query. Are they looking for affordability, quality, or selection? Craft ad copy that meets the user’s needs, or offer discounts for local residents. The right messaging can deliver quality leads to your client.
9. Local SEO integration
With 78% of local searches resulting in offline conversions (Safari Digital), an internet presence is essential for small businesses. Even if they’re shopping locally, customers turn to Google to find the most convenient location, confirm addresses or store hours, compare reviews, or check a website for pricing or services.
While PPC advertising can lift a business to the top of search results, companies still need search engine optimization (SEO) to ensure they have online visibility when paid campaigns have wrapped up. An agency that offers SEO and PPC services can optimize Google Business Profiles to appear in maps and local searches. They can also help web pages rank higher, which impacts organic traffic. Most clicks occur on the first page of search engine results—the average click-through rate for the second page of search results is less than 1% (Search Engine Journal).
10. ROI focus
Small businesses that have less to spend than larger companies are often under pressure to choose between marketing channels and ensure budgets are spent effectively. Clients will be looking to hit lead generation and sales goals with quick results from their paid advertising campaigns.
Businesses rely on your marketing specialists or white-label Google Ads management service to deliver impeccably crafted campaigns. It’s not an option to simply choose keywords you think will work when running ads. Keyword selection, audience targeting, ad copy, and landing pages all require careful management, with campaigns tracked and optimized for maximum effectiveness and return on investment (ROI).
10 Tips for PPC management for small businesses
Now that you understand why PPC is important for small businesses and what’s needed to make these campaigns successful, use the following tips to build a thriving, client-focused PPC reselling business.
1. Tailor your approach
The goal of pay-per-click advertising is to give your client visibility with their customers, so a templated campaign won’t measure up. Shape each client’s strategy to their audience and goals, and choose tactics within their budget.
You’ll need to understand what success looks like for them, differentiate them from their competitors, and craft copy that appeals to the search intent of their customers. If you don’t have the in-house resources to execute campaigns at this level of detail, consider white-label PPC services that ensure your clients get top-notch digital ad management under your brand.
2. Demonstrate local expertise
Small business owners want to know that their ad campaigns are in good hands. To best serve your clients, get to know the competitive landscape each one is working in and apply PPC best practices to their unique situation.
This involves building your acumen of the market. Analyze the headlines, offers, and landing pages used by competitors to understand trends and help your client capture attention. Show your authority by removing some mystery from PPC—explain why you’re choosing these tactics and the results you hope to generate. Your depth of knowledge, combined with an openness and willingness to share information, will build valuable trust.
3. Dedicate time to onboarding
Spend time listening to your client to understand their business and goals. Prepare questions ahead of time and systematically work through your list to gather information about their:
- Key products and services
- Brand differentiation
- Main competitors
- Target audience
- Market challenges
- Budget and goals
Do they want to generate leads, send traffic to a physical location, or promote an online store? It’s also helpful to learn how PPC fits into their overall digital marketing efforts so you get a sense of their online presence and the traffic they already generate. You can then synthesize this information into an effective campaign targeted to their goals.
4. Emphasize ROI-driven results
While you know you can deliver stellar results to your clients, small business owners who are focused on their day-to-day operations won’t always invest time to understand the nuances of keyword research and ad bidding. What they’re most concerned about is the return for the money they spend.
Clearly explain to clients in advance how you will show results: detailed reports on impressions and clicks, comparisons of costs per click and return on investment, and comparisons by platform. Most importantly, indicate that these aren’t simply a collection of numbers but a way to gauge how well your strategies are working. Your clients need to know that you’ll use this information to improve their ROI and ensure they’re getting value for their spending.
5. Continuous optimization
Once a campaign is complete, parse the data for ways to improve future ads. Compare the performance based on audience, ad design, platform, keyword, and time of day.
If click-through rates are low, review keyword strategies, ad copy, and calls to action. Low conversions may mean you need to optimize landing pages and align them to your ad copy so they better satisfy user expectations. You can also segment your audience further and ensure the ad copy is meeting search intent. Test ads and tweak them so you get better results each time.
6. Robust conversion tracking
The best way to assure clients of the value of your small business PPC services—and to encourage them to continue investing in it—is to demonstrate a return. While platforms such as Google, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube have their own analytics reports, you’ll want an efficient way to track multiple campaigns and tie individual ads to conversions.
Take advantage of ad reporting software such as Advertising Intelligence that compiles key metrics in one place, including ad spend, impressions, clicks, conversions, click-through rate, and cost per click. You can generate accurate, detailed reports to compare platforms and show clients which ones are performing the best, and use the insights to adjust and optimize your campaigns for stellar results. This robust software can also be used for precise reporting for clients with multiple locations.
7. Provide responsive support
Satisfied clients are more likely to stick around, so spend as much time on customer service as you do in designing and implementing campaigns. Communicate clearly so clients always know the status of a campaign, and be available to answer questions or troubleshoot problems.
8. Recommend value-added services
Pay-per-click is only one part of a cohesive digital marketing strategy. Clients need a user-friendly website to capture traffic from ads and to rank well in search to ensure customers can easily find a business when ads aren’t running.
Instead of referring your client to another agency or provider, consider offering complementary services that grow your revenue streams and provide one-stop digital management. You can bundle PPC services with:
- Website design. Make the most of traffic generated from PPC campaigns with appealing, user-friendly websites that keep visitors exploring and help spark conversions.
- Search engine optimization. Implement changes that help search bots crawl and index websites so they rank well in search engines and drive organic traffic.
- Local search optimization. Take advantage of opportunities to highlight local businesses on Google. Local SEO gives a business credibility and visibility in places such as maps, the Business Profile panel, Google 3-packs, and search results pages.
- Social media. Small businesses need to be found on social networking platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn, depending on where their audiences are.
9. Provide case studies and testimonials
Small businesses often take a leap of faith when working with marketing agencies, hoping they accomplish what they promise. Reassure them of your knowledge and expertise with case studies that demonstrate real-world results you’ve delivered to clients.
Persuasive case studies outline the solutions provided to other clients using actual data. Explain the challenges faced by the business and the tactics you selected. List your successes, such as increases in conversion rates, ROI, or sales, and decreases in cost per clicks or cost per acquisition. Case studies let you show off your track record with testimonials from happy clients and are an excellent form of social proof. Aim to have a case study for each vertical you've worked with so you can demonstrate expertise in a potential new client’s niche.
10. Practice Continuous Learning
Clients come to you for marketing savvy and trust you to guide them toward success. Keep tabs on new technologies, what your competitors are doing, and trends in customer behaviors.
It's easy to stick with tried and true techniques but by monitoring blogs, respected news sites, and thought leaders, you can keep a fresh perspective on PPC and ensure your processes evolve with industry best practices.
Frequently asked questions
How can small businesses benefit from PPC advertising?
Pay-per-click advertising offers small businesses an opportunity to display ads to a targeted audience in search engine result pages and social media feeds. Advertisers pay when someone clicks on the ad, making it a cost-effective option, although highly sought-after audiences can be more expensive to reach. One of the advantages of PPC is that ads will boost online visibility relatively quickly, as SEO campaigns can take longer to build traction.
What are the key elements of a successful PPC campaign for small businesses?
A PPC campaign requires a precise understanding of the target audience you’re trying to reach, including demographics and location. You also need to perform keyword research to understand the search terms customers use when trying to find information on a business. Ads should be optimized to match search intent to encourage click-throughs, and landing pages must be crafted to meet the user’s needs and drive conversions.
