Social distancing guidelines and shelter at home orders by state and local governments to slow the spread of the COVID-19 and minimize the risk of viral transmission means that millions of Americans are spending more time at home.

This has led to an exponential surge in internet usage as more people work from home, find ways to entertain themselves, and connect with one another online.

However, the disruption of the steady free flow of money, people, goods, and services has had a catastrophic impact on the country’s economy causing great concerns for many people.

We do not know for sure what the economic recovery might look like and we cannot tell for sure what will happen as time goes on. What we do know is that businesses that sail through these trying times will do so using well thought out digital marketing strategies such as paid Ads to reach customers in a more customized and targeted way.

Here, I will discuss what paid search advertising is, and the top reasons why you should invest in paid search advertising during the COVID-19 crisis.

What Is Paid Search Advertising?

Paid search advertising, commonly known as Pay-Per-Click (PPC) or Cost Per Click (CPC) advertising, is a form of digital advertising whereby search engines like Google, Bing, and yahoo allow marketers to place Ads on a prominent position in the search engine result page or other advertising platforms.

Paid search advertising allows you to reach consumers in a more customized and targeted way and drive unique web traffic to your website.

However, several key factors such as the context of a user search, competition of an auction, quality of your landing page & Ad text, etc. affect your Ad’s position and rank on the result page.

There are many benefits of paid search advertising for marketers who want to maximize their marketing budget. If done properly a paid search advertising campaign will enable you to target potential customers who are specifically looking for your services and it can pay for itself many times over.

Benefits of investing in Paid Search Advertising to thrive your Business Sales During the crisis

Here are some of the benefits of investing in paid search advertising to thrive in your business sales during the current health crisis

• PPC helps you to generate more qualified web traffic

Qualified traffic refers to web visitors that are genuinely interested in your products & services and are most likely to convert to customers or leads after their interaction with your online business.

The power of Paid search advertisements is that it allows you to strategically target and display ads to consumers who are most likely to be interested in your business offerings.

A website that receives a small volume of qualified traffic is more valuable than another that receives a higher volume of unqualified traffic. This is because qualified traffic consists of visitors that really care about purchasing your products or using your services. Unlike a high volume of unqualified traffic consisting of web visitors who have no interest whatsoever in your brand.

• Paid Search Advertising Provides Instantaneous Results

Marketing your business through organic channels takes time. There is always a wait-period. For instance, though matter how you optimize your website for search engines, you will not start to see results immediately. It is a long-term process.  On the other hand, the speed of results for building your business using paid channels is almost instantaneous. There is no waiting time for your efforts and ad spend to start paying off or yielding results. In short, you can start to generate new leads and business requests using paid ad channels within a couple of hours after the launch of your campaign. During this crisis, your focus will be on trying to stay afloat. This means that you cannot afford to wait for a long period of time to start receiving business requests. But by using Paid search advertising, you can instantly attract qualified traffic to your website.

• Paid Search advertising is budget-friendly

A lot of marketers think that since paid search is on a pay-per-click (PPC) or pay-per-impression (PPM) basis they need a lot of money for their campaigns. But, in practice, paid search advertising can still be run even on a low or modest Ad budget.

A 2020 pay per click statistics has shown that businesses make an average of $2 in income for every $1 they spend in Google Ads. It may not be free, but it is still a cost-effective way to instantly serve Ads to high-value prospects, attract qualified traffic, improve conversion rates, and generate sales for your business. This makes it an ideal marketing method for small businesses that are on a tight or limited budget to still participate & enjoy the benefits.

With paid search advertising you are able to target specific types of customers, set a budget, set your maximum cost-per-click bid, run your Ads, only pay when a web user clicks on your ad, and analyze key performance indicators for your campaign. By so doing, you can optimize your budget to generate reasonable returns on every dollar you spend.

• Paid Search Advertising provides measurable results

The various channels for paid search advertising typically provide marketers with relevant metrics and analytics on the performance of their paid ad campaigns.

As a marketer, you can track and analyze several key performance indicators (KPIs) such as clicks, click-through rate (CTR), cost per click (CPC), cost per conversion/acquisition (CPA), conversion rate, impression share and lots more.

Measuring and gauging the results of each key performance indicator (KPI) prevents you from investing your time, efforts, and resources blindly. The measurable results of paid search Ads give you an insight into what’s working and what’s not. This allows for quick modifications or adjustments to prevent wasteful ad spend and better optimization of your ad campaign.

It is important to note that even though paid search advertisements provide you with measurable results, they can be quite confusing to understand. This is because not all the key performance indicators are straightforward. That is why you should consider teaming up with a PPC marketing agency.

These agencies typically have in-depth knowledge and understanding of valuable metrics to identify and how to analyze them. This way they can run an audit of your paid search advertising efforts to refine or modify it for better results and higher returns on Ad spend.

• Paid search advertising helps to improve brand recognition

Paid search advertising can be an effective channel to generate brand awareness and increase brand affinity

Other than driving sales, the goal of your paid advertising campaigns can also be for brand awareness purposes or increasing visibility instantly.

Of course, to achieve this feat you need to determine your target audience and the various channels where they are most likely to be found, to determine your brand awareness campaign strategy.

With paid search advertising, not every web user is going to click on your business sponsored links.

But as they continue to search for your industry related keywords, while your paid campaigns are still up & running, so will their level of exposure to your sponsored business links and brand information.

Over time this will help to improve your brand recognition and most likely result in a sale, conversion, or lead generation.

• Paid Search Advertising is incredible for local search

According to a recent Google study, four in five consumers use search engines to find local information about businesses and want Ads customized to their city, zip code, or immediate surroundings.

This means that a clear majority of consumers are increasingly using local search to find businesses that are near them.

That is why focusing on location-based advertisement is of utmost importance especially if your business has brick & mortar stores or specifically serves consumers that are within your locale.

The beauty of paid search advertising is that it is a great way for you to market your business at a local level and target local traffic. For instance, with Google Ads, you can identify industry-related keywords and use them to target consumers within your local area.

If you are a local business this can help you to attract and gain more consumers from your own community. This is of key importance because searches with local intent have a high chance of leading to in-store visits and sales.

Conclusion

Depending on the paid search advertising model you use, the search engine or internet publisher hosting your Ads charges your business a set fee either on a click basis (traffic)-PPC, impression basis (eyesight)-CPM, (sales/lead) action. That is why it is important that there is proper planning, execution, and effective management of your paid search advertising campaigns. This task requires a high level of experience, expertise, and knowledge on the subject which you or your in-house marketing team may be lacking. That is why you should consider partnering with a pay-per-click (PPC) marketing agency to help create and manage your paid campaigns to get you the best results.

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