If your company is involved in digital marketing to bring attention to a product or service and has used the Internet and social media websites to do so, you are most likely familiar with PPC marketing, even if you did not know what the acronym stood for. PPC, or Pay-Per-Click marketing is a way that companies can advertise on a multitude of websites or search engines and only pay if there ad is clicked and a visitor arrives at their website.
If a consumer does not actually click on their banner, sidebar ad or paid search keyword ad, then they don’t have to pay a dime. This method is very targeted and can provide cost savings to the original marketing method that was popular on the Internet years ago, which was CPM. CPM advertising is basically paying one cost for 1,000 impressions whether the ads are clicked on or not. Ads in the form of banners were also hard coded onto websites and generated a monthly fee purely because they were featured on the website as opposed to charging per click.
PPC Marketing Landscape has Become Increasingly Complex
Now companies can place their ads all over the Internet, expanding their demographic and making themselves known to people all over the world. The key to successful pay per click marketing now, is to know your target market and personalize each marketing campaign for the variety of consumer segments/personas you are targeting. If the consumer feels the ad or product relates to them or their needs and clicks the ad to learn more, the company can acquire new business or create brand awareness and will pay for that click. If not, the company will have another chance on the next impression.
If managing this type of marketing effort from a dollars and cents perspective, seems daunting, it does not have to be. Several companies on the market offer enterprise PPC campaign management tools to help you keep track of where your ads are located, what channels they are being promoted from and how much money they spend or garner (how many clicks or conversions they may receive). These tools allow you to do a thorough market analysis with ease, all from one dashboard. You can determine where you advertising dollars are best spent by looking at a variety of performance metrics across a variety of channels. They also allow you to make changes quickly and efficiently without having to log in and out of several different platforms. Enterprise PPC campaign tools can make clear the sometimes confusing matrix that is Internet marketing.
Do you Need this Kind of Power, Data and Automation at your Fingertips?
Not all companies need enterprise PPC campaign management tools. Some are just not doing the kind of volume that requires large-scale implementation like that. Likewise, the size of the organization and the manpower that will have to be dedicated to monitoring, deciphering the metrics, writing original ad copy, and making decision based on what the trends are is something to consider. If your company is small there may not be a budget for bringing on the staff that would be required for monitoring a large-scale enterprise PPC campaign or acquiring enterprise PPC campaign management platforms.
For companies that are either just starting out with the concept of PPC, Google AdWords is a versatile tool. Indeed, the advertising budgets of your clients is smaller and has less than 1,000,000 keywords total, than Google AdWords should still be sufficient to suit your needs. There are metrics tools in the systems and the user interface is clear and simple to navigate. Streamlined reports that are comprehensive and intelligible can be run and presented to management for strategy and decision-making purposes. Google Adwords, in and of itself, is a comprehensive PPC advertising tool for small businesses and represents the perfect starting point for companies making their initial foray into paid digital media. I must also add that the platform gets more enhanced every year and there is a lot that can now be automated or constructed to improve efficiency through the Google Adwords API.
However, if your company has a larger advertising budget and plans to market on 3 or more different paid media platforms, enterprise PPC campaign management tools are probably the way to go. The diagnostics and organizational properties these tools can provide will make managing your campaign easier and will free you up to do other things. Managing site links, social media, retargeting, keyword lists, bidding, bid rules – all these things can be streamlined managed efficiently by some a majority of the enterprise PPC tools. This makes your employees more efficient and the marketing effort more precise.
The Top Advantages of Entreprise PPC Management Platforms:
· Increased Workflow Efficiency.
· Increased Productivity.
· Increased ROI and Performance Metrics for large scale Marketing Campaigns.
· Automated Reporting with Advanced Insights across Multiple Media Channels.
· Advanced Scalability that Easily Allows you to Start Running Campaigns Across a Variety of Multi-Channel Media Platforms such as Social, Product Listing ads, Display Networks, Retargeting Networks, Paid Search, Bing, Yahoo, Contextual Advertising, Local, and More.
Some of the PPC Management Companies to Choose from in the Marketplace:
Acquisio – This PPC management tool helps businesses track their day-to-day advertising needs in many ways, including via mobile app.
Adobe Media Optimizer – This cross channel advertisement management tool helps you forecast your needs.
DoubleClick Search – With real-time buying, bidding, ad serving, and search management as their calling cards, DoubleClick Search by Google expands your reach in the marketplace.
ESV Digital – has provided digital marketing solutions internationally since 2004.
Ignition One – offers a comprehensive digital marketing suite and marketing automation.
Inside Vault – provides Saas tools for online marketers.
Kenshoo – offers international advertising made available by cloud-based marketing solution.
Marin Software – offers a simple, easy to use platform for all of your online marketing and PPC needs.
Mojo EM – has a proprietary paid search management tool.
Searchforce – offers an adaptable and versatile product that allows companies to tailor it to their business needs.
Webtrends Ads – has a patent pending algorithm that is said to increase how well paid search campaigns perform.
If you have a need for a marketing tool that will simplify your day-to-day workload, streamline your marketing effort, and have a desire for scalability, investing in an enterprise PPC campaign management tool is something to seriously consider. Enterprise PPC Management Systems typically charge clients a small percentage of their monthly advertising spend. Think about 1 – 5%, but when your advertising budget is in the millions these fees are really not that small, so this is truly an investment you should put some research time into. Some platforms may also charge additional fees for platform set-up, integration and agency staff training. This list above will help you get started in your research and help you figure out what platform is right for you and your clients to improve efficiency, productivity and ROI.