Some websites might benefit from using paid advertisements online in order to complement their SEO campaign and pull in a higher quantity of traffic. There are many different forms of paid advertising on the Web, such as Cost-Per-Click (CPC), Pay-Per-Call (PPC), and Content Targeting. People who choose to use paid advertising set up a budget for their account, and each time someone clicks on their ad the cost for that click is deducted. This can be very worthwhile if users are easily converted into a customer upon reaching the site.
Cost-Per-Click:
Cost-Per-Click is one of the fastest ways to achieve visibility on the Web. Once you have chosen your keywords, Google Adwords will place your ads next to the search results for those key terms. This automatically puts your ads on the 1st page of Google for a certain period of time throughout the day, giving your site an advantage over those that are not ranking very highly. Another advantage of CPC is that it provides the capability of targeting a particular region for those businesses that are locally owned so that their advertisements reach the people searching in their area.
Pay-Per-Call:
With Pay-Per-Call, advertisements are set up across various online networks, such as YellowPages.com. This works much like Adwords, except instead of bringing them to your website, the goal of these advertisements is to get customers to call in. The advertisements are set up with a phone number, so that each time someone calls the number the cost is deducted from their budget. Many people find that it is much easier to convert a customer that calls in as opposed to someone who browses through the website, so in that respect PPC can be very beneficial for some companies.
Content Targeting:
The goal of content targeting is to allow a website to better reach their intended audience by placing their ads on relevant sites. For example, a website that focuses their Adwords campaign on key terms such as peanut-free snacks or nut-free candy will have ads show up on sites related to allergen-free foods. The main idea is that websites will be able to expand their Adwords campaign beyond the search engines and into the sites that their potential customers are using. Those that are browsing sites related to allergen-free foods have a much higher chance of needing allergen-free products, therefore there is a higher probability that they will convert once they’ve reached the site.
Disadvantages:
Of course, there are some disadvantages to each of these methods of advertising. For example, paying for clicks and calls can get pretty costly, especially if those clicks aren’t turning into sales. Another disadvantage is that these advertisements are only set up for certain times of the day, so you may be missing out on potential customers. This is why it is very beneficial to execute an SEO campaign along with your other advertising efforts. While the results may not be as immediate as the methods above, they are cheaper and will provide your website online visibility 24/7. Implementing an SEO campaign into your advertising strategies can be an investment that will benefit your site much more in the long run.
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