Paid advertising will get you the highest and most consistent return on your investment as long as the ad in question is live. There’s no doubt that this is an excellent form of digital marketing to invest in but with so many options available, how do you choose which is right for you? Let’s look closer at pay-per-click (PPC) vs social ads.
A Quick Overview
Before we examine the pros and cons, here’s a quick overview of PPC and social ads.
What Are PPC Ads?
Pay per click or PPC ads are a type of digital marketing strategy where the advertisers pay a fee each time their advert is clicked on. This means that you only pay for successful leads and your website traffic will increase considerably, leading to more conversions!
What Are Social Ads?
Social ads are a quick and effective form of paid advertising that will boost a marketing campaign and connections with consumers. Platforms such as Facebook, Instagram and Twitter allow advertisers to ‘hyper-target’ their target market, meaning that your ads are going to be seen by the people most likely to buy your products or enlist your services.
Paid Advertising – The Pros And Cons Of PPC And Social Ads
Assessing the pros and cons of PPC and social ads will let you decide which is best for you.
PPC Pros
Fast – You will see the impact almost immediately!
Results Tracking – You can see exactly how well your ad performs. Based on this information you can fine-tune the ads to achieve the best results possible. You can also use the data to further refine your digital marketing strategy.
Budget Control – You do not have to worry about overspending, we will help you to set a budget that will give your ad a strict limit.
Targeting – Make sure that your ad is seen by the most suitable people.
PPC Cons
Longevity – Whilst these ads will be immediately effective, the impact will not last. As soon as your ad is taken down, you will stop seeing results. Combining paid advertising with Paid Advertising is advisable because whilst SEO takes a while to produce results, the benefits are long-term.
Time And Skill – Creating an effective PPC campaign isn’t the easiest thing to do and is likely to require some practice, you also need to invest time in optimising and improving them whilst they’re live. That’s why so many people hand theirs over to specialist agencies like us.
Bidding Wars – All companies want to be the first seen on Google, this can lead to bidding wars over keywords. Don’t blow your budget on getting the first keyword you think of, we’ll do the research to find alternatives that offer great results without breaking the bank.
Cost – Whilst you only pay per successful click, the price for this kind of paid advertising can quickly add up.
Social Ads Pros
Fast – Like PPC campaigns, you will see results as soon as the ads go live, however, they too are short-lived effects and should be combined with SEO.
Flexible Budget – You can set your budget to be whatever you want, of course, more money will mean more positive results, but we can help you to budget effectively.
Highly Targetted – The targeting available for social ads is truly impressive, consumers won’t need to search for you when you are giving them exactly what they want with no effort on their part.
Social Ads Cons
Disruptive – Whilst this kind of paid advertising will reach the perfect target audience, they may find it disruptive. Having your loved ones’ posts broken up by sponsored posts can be annoying and deter people from choosing your brand. You can avoid this by making sure that your design and content are eye-catching and captivating.
Choosing The Right Platform – You will need to investigate which platforms your audience uses and tailor the ads to suit the platform, getting this wrong will lead to poor results. Of course, we can advise on this too.
Establishing KPIs – You can receive lots of information about how your ad is performing but you need to establish your KPIs to understand these stats in a meaningful way. Will it be click-through rate, likes, comments, shares or other variables? It’s important to decide on these so you can tailor the ad to perform at its best.
Invest In Paid Advertising
After reading through the pros and cons of each, have you decided which type of ad will work best for you? If not, we can help! Contact us on 01926 814547 for advice. Alternatively, you could book a marketing workshop and leave with a complete marketing plan for the next 12 months!
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