For many small businesses, paid advertising, especially pay per click (PPC), feels like strange territory. Many are hesitant to take the plunge into PPC because of the cost or their lack of experience.

But the right strategies can help anyone, including those with a limited budget and online marketing know-how, ease into this brave new world of paid advertising.

Here are seven of them.

7 Small Business PPC Tips That Can Make a Difference

One of the best ways to compete online is by running PPC ads. These copies, links, and visuals are specially crafted to capture clicks and conversions. While they cost money, they also provide excellent returns—if you do it right.

Here is how you do it even if you are a small business faced with multiple marketing challenges, such as a limited budget and technical know-how.

1. Set Realistic and Measurable Goals

While earning $500,000 a month from a single PPC campaign is nice to have, it might be achievable if you are bootstrapping. On average, companies spend almost $20,000 every 30 days.

According to Digital Authority Partners (DAP), what you can do is develop realistic, measurable goals that can be your foundation for success and scalability later:

• Know your audience and tailor your campaigns according to their unmet needs, problems or challenges, interests, demographics, and location.
• Increase the advertising budget as you gain more traction and conversions.
• Track the performance and returns of campaigns, so you know which ones are worth pursuing further or revising.

2. Know What Your Competition Is Doing

The fastest way to jumpstart a PPC campaign is to study what your competitors are doing. This way, you can:

• Find out the most effective and popular ad copies, visuals, and links they are using.
• Discover where your target audience is spending their time online
• Gather data on keyword searches, bids, and budget allocations.
• Identify which locations, demographics, or webpages yield the best results for their campaigns

In other words, determine how they run PPC and do it better.

3. Automate the Process

Automation is your best friend when you do not have the time and expertise to run a small business PPC campaign. Some of the many tasks you can set to autopilot include:

• Bidding. Automated bidding keeps your campaigns within the budget, maximizes returns, and helps you reach more customers quickly.
• Ad creation and optimization. Dynamic ads, for example, allow search engines to display the best copies according to your target audience’s online activities or behavior.
• Analytics. It keeps track of the performance of campaigns and makes necessary adjustments for better results.
• Content creation. Many platforms can already generate ads, visuals, and titles for you through prompts.

4. Work with a PPC Marketing Agency

If you want to get it right from the start, you need an experienced partner or agency behind you.

A PPC marketing agency can help with:

• Picking the most profitable keywords for campaigns and bid levels
• Developing superior ad copies, links and visuals
• Tracking the performance of campaigns in real-time
• Creating remarketing campaigns
• Analyzing data and numbers for better decision-making

Will it cost you? Yes. But it is often a small price to pay for a better chance of succeeding with small business PPC.

5. Use Negative Keywords

Negative keywords are a type of keyword match that you do not want your ads to appear on. It is extremely helpful if you are into B2B.

For instance, if you are a health supplement manufacturer, include “free” and “cheap” in your negative keyword list because your target market is less likely to buy right away. Instead, opt for terms and phrases, such as “free demo,” “trial offer,” and “free consultation,” to attract leads.

Determine your negative keywords by:

• Conducting research on what your competitors are not doing
• Studying customer reviews of your products, services, or website
• Sifting through the search query report
• Using the information provided by keyword analysis tools

6. Optimize Your Landing Pages

Your ads and landing page are like two sides of the same coin. If you do not optimize the latter, your PPC campaign will not yield good results no matter how much money and effort you allocate to it.

Make these webpages work with these tips:

• Keep the content short and straightforward Include visuals, such as images and videos.

• Incorporate customer reviews or feedback.
• Include clear call-to-action (CTA) buttons.
• Test different versions to know which one resonates with your target audience.
• Improve the user experience with a faster page load time and simple navigation.
• Create engaging, compelling, helpful content to show your expertise.

7. Monitor Your Campaigns Regularly

PPC is a dynamic environment. It can change instantly, and all your efforts in your campaigns may go to waste if you do not pay close attention to what is happening.

That is why monitoring is a vital step for any advertising plan. It:

• Helps spot opportunities, trends, and problems immediately
• Allows you to make necessary adjustments for the better performance of ads
• Identifies areas where you can save time and money
• Tells you if your efforts still align with your marketing objectives

If you are working with a digital marketing firm, you save yourself the hassle of adjusting campaigns on your own. Otherwise, you can consider using free and paid analytics platforms to give you real-time data for reference and decision-making.

Summing Up

Small business PPC allows you to attract more leads, conversions, and revenues. Taking advantage of this marketing technique requires time, resources, and expertise—all of which may not be available if you run a small business.

Thankfully, you can now find ways to make your campaigns successful without breaking the bank or overworking yourself and your team. One good example is hiring a PPC marketing agency for more efficient strategies and results.

At the end of the day, you must remember that PPC heavily relies on analysis and testing. Be prepared to make mistakes, but also be quick to learn from them. This is a surefire way to make your campaigns succeed in the long run.