‘Pay To Win’ 101: Beginner’s Guide To Pay Per Click For Franchises
Welcome to the ultimate beginner’s guide to pay per click for franchises! Read on to learn PPC fundamentals, what benefits it offers over traditional SEO, and whether it’s right for your franchise.
What Is PPC?
PPC stands for pay-per-click, a model of internet marketing in which the advertiser pays to put their ads on top of the search engine results page (SERP). As the name suggests, the advertiser is charged for every click the ad earns while displayed in this highly visible spot–you literally “pay per click.”
Thus, PPC is about buying visits to your website, which generates traffic and impressions faster and easier than earning them organically. When a PPC campaign is properly managed, the pay-per-click fee is trivial, because the visit is worth more than it costs–you might pay $2 for a click, but the click results in a franchise sale for huge profit.
Google Ads (formerly known as Google AdWords) is the number-one PPC advertising system, and the one you’ll probably end up using. Users bid on keywords and pay for each ad click. Every time a potential customer searches for your chosen keywords, Google digs into the pool of ads and chooses a set of “winners.” These winners appear at the top of the SERP. They’re chosen based on a combination of factors, including the quality and relevance of the keywords and ad campaigns (expressed as their Ad Rank metric), as well as the amount they invested in their keyword bids.
Advantages Of Pay Per Click For Franchises
- Immediate results. PPC advertising delivers rapid results. In fact, the moment your campaign is approved, your ad becomes visible to millions of web users. If you need to quickly get the word out about a product launch, seasonal promotion, or upcoming event your franchise is hosting, PPC is a great tool.
- Comprehensive tracking. Everything about pay per click for franchises is measurable, from the amount you pay to the number of people bouncing off (or being converted by) your landing page. These valuable insights can help you pinpoint problems in the sales cycle (e.g. ineffective landing page copy), compare the effectiveness of different campaign styles or strategies, and learn more about your target audience.
- Grow the brand and improve exposure. PPC ads are usually posted at the top of the SERP, which means that they’ll always make an impression, even if they don’t win the click. This is great for branding purposes, as you’re able to associate your company with specific keywords and customer queries. They don’t pay unless they click, but brand awareness builds either way!
- Control costs. As mentioned above, properly managed PPC campaigns don’t cost a penny, since sales earn you many times what you spent on a click. If your campaign isn’t working as well as you hope, you still save money, since you only pay for clicks. Additionally, it’s easy to set bid limits so that you never exceed your spending allowances.
- PPC is a great SEO supplement (or alternative). If you aren’t too keen on SEO, and don’t want to invest in ongoing SEO services, PPC is a decent alternative. Granted, SEO is essential for your brand’s long-term success in the Digital Age, but PPC gives you a way to run profitable short-term campaigns at the touch of a button. It also allows you to circumvent any potential SEO issues your website might have by generating traffic exclusively through PPC. Of course, PPC works best in conjunction with SEO, giving you the best of both worlds–short-term, rapid results and long-term staying power.
Should I Invest In Pay Per Click For Franchises?
PPC sounds as easy as 1-2-3–you spend a little on ad placement, guaranteeing it gets in front of your intended audience, then rake in the profits, right? Wrong.
There’s more to building a winning PPC campaign than meets the eye. To be successful, you must research and select the right keywords, organize those keywords into high-performance campaigns and ad groups, and create effective PPC landing pages that are optimized for conversions. Not only will this make your campaign more effective, but Google will actually reward advertisers who create smart and relevant campaigns by charging them less for ad clicks.
Additionally, there are some very specific concerns that franchises must address when using PPC in order to avoid redundancies, wasted money, and subpar results.
With that in mind, let’s dig into some best practices when using pay per click for franchises. Implement these tips into your PPC campaign for winning results, or go straight to the horse’s mouth and book a talk with our PPC experts!
PAY TO WIN: Top-3 Best Practices For Pay Per Click For Franchises
- Minimize intra-franchise competition. Sometimes franchises must advertise in overlapping geographic areas, or even using overlapping keywords. In these cases, there are some tactics you can implement to minimize internal competition.First, it can be helpful to include the names of smaller townships and local communities, rather than using the name of the city or state as a whole. For instance, if you’re advertising two franchises in Texas, you could structure the first ad as [keyword] + Denton, then the second ad as [keyword] + El Paso. El Paso and Denton are very close, nearly overlapping parts of Texas, but this minor adjustment keeps their search traffic distinct and reduces the odds of intra-franchise competition.
Another tip is to schedule ads from overlapping locations at different times or days.
- Leverage automation. For franchises with too many locations for individual monitoring, setting up automated rules can be a huge help. Automatically up or cap bids, identify struggling locations, and take fast action to keep your campaign on track!
- Create custom landing pages. If your PPC campaign is directing users to your main franchise website, it’s not going to convert very well. While all your website assets (e.g. navigation, videos) work great for organic users, they really just distract the PPC lead from the call to action. Instead, create focused landing pages with simple call-to-action instructions for your user, such as “Enter your email address to download a free franchise opportunity guide.” Keep the page entirely focused on that end-goal, eliminating all other distractions. Anything you add should work to funnel the user towards this simple call to action–there should be nothing else for them to do on that landing page except complete the action or close the window! Creating custom landing pages for every location also gives you another way to avoid intra-franchise competition.
Ask The Experts About Pay Per Click For Franchises
Still have some questions about how to optimize PPC? No problem–ClickTecs representatives are standing by to answer your questions and explain how your brand can leverage this valuable advertising tool for big results.
Call 866-311-7189 or fill out the simple contact form on the ClickTecs Contact Page to book your free consultation.
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