Contextual advertising (PPC) is the promotion of your business in search engines and partner websites. Typically, such advertisements are displayed above and below search results and within the content of partner websites. The display of ads depends on user queries and interests.
PPC, pay per click, or contextual advertising is commonly used when quick customer acquisition results are desired.
The main objective is to achieve fast sales or test a business hypothesis.
The number of paid advertisements placed in search engines is continuously growing, indicating the popularity and effectiveness of this promotional method.
Advantages of PPC:
Today, this method of user acquisition is becoming increasingly popular, primarily due to the rapid achievement of desired results. When properly set up, you can start experiencing the benefits of contextual advertising within the first day, which is appealing to many business owners and marketers.
The key is to fine-tune your campaign and work on relevant keywords that will bring you users already interested in your product or service. For those lacking sufficient marketing experience who decide to set up the campaign themselves, it can turn out to be significantly more expensive.
PPC is ideal for seasonal projects or when you need to promote your own brand within a short timeframe. Research shows that contextual advertising can increase brand recognition by 80%, which is why even giants like Facebook and Amazon continue to utilize it.
It's important not to forget that contextual advertising is not limited to search engines alone. The largest social networks and portals consistently expand their set of marketing tools, and ignoring such an opportunity would not be wise.
Remarketing aims to encourage users to take further action. For example, a user visits your website, selects a computer mouse, proceeds to the payment stage, and then suddenly closes the tab. Through remarketing, they will see advertisements for your store on other websites within Google or Yandex advertising networks. This will stimulate them to take the desired action, such as completing the purchase or reading an article.
Google Shopping and other price comparison platforms are also effective tools for promoting online stores. Additionally, within these services, classic optimization is not possible, making ad purchase the only option.
The effectiveness of banner advertising (CMS) depends directly on how well it aligns with the website's theme and the quality of the advertising materials.
For optimal results, it is advisable to entrust the setup of contextual advertising to professionals. Yes, it requires payment, but it is much less than if you were to fully rely on trial and error and choose between SEO and PPC on your own.
Contextual advertising is the perfect tool for testing the demand for your product in new niches, and here its advantage over SEO is undeniable. You don't have to wait for months to see results; visible outcomes can appear within a week.
An optimal illustration of the effectiveness of PPC is a situation where you need to quickly assess the impact of design changes or other significant modifications. If you have limited organic traffic, it may take you several months to evaluate the effects. However, contextual advertising allows you to determine which variant contributes to conversion improvement in just a few days.
Lastly, contextual advertising helps you reach your target audience regardless of the devices they use. This is particularly important as the number of mobile device users continues to grow annually, with smartphones being the sole means of accessing the internet in some regions.
If you are targeting mobile traffic, you simply cannot do without contextual advertising. Firstly, in search results, users are initially presented with ads. Secondly, while 3 out of 4 PC users do not go beyond the second page of Google, smartphone users generally rarely go below the third position on the first page. This is an area where the differences between SEO and PPC are most strongly felt.
When you need instant results. When you need a predictable level of sales. When you need an audience with very precise characteristics.
You choose keywords, fine-tune your campaign, click the "Publish" button, and magically your website appears above search results. Moreover, you can choose an incredibly flexible configuration — you can even specify the house number, targeting residents who are your potential customers. If you need such a level of targeting, then PPC has no equal.
First and foremost, it's worth mentioning brand protection in this context. As we have already mentioned, search engine optimization and contextual advertising are used simultaneously even by industry giants. However, they don't rely on blind luck; they rely on research data from the US, which states that 89% of commercial traffic cannot be obtained through organic search results.
As you may have guessed, people pay more attention to advertisements than regular search results. And if you give them a branded context, they become a powerful promotional tool.
Secondly, if identical keywords are used for both SEO and PPC, there is a high probability that your website will appear in search results twice: once as an advertisement and once in an organic form. Why is this necessary? Some users click on ads without hesitation, while others do not trust them and prefer organic results. But when links are present in both areas, you increase your target audience reach and the chance to engage with potential customers.
If you have a budget, there is no need to choose between SEO and Google AdWords. It is much more advantageous to use both methods simultaneously and also explore other forms of contextual advertising, such as placing ads on social media.