What is PPC in Marketing for B2B and How Does it Work?

PPC (pay per click) is an internet marketing tool that works with advertisers to monetize a certain fee each time their advertisement gets a click. It works to do many things for businesses and business owners. This includes the virtual space of the internet as well as tangible success. Detailed below is a more in-depth analysis of what exactly PPC is. This includes PPC’s potential benefits and who should use PPC. Other various things to consider are the cost factors associated with PPC and the types of PPC strategies that work for B2B (business to business). 

As previously mentioned, PPC stands for pay-per-click and is a model of internet marketing where advertisers pay a fee each time one of their ads is clicked on. It is a way of buying visits to a site, rather than having to go through the arduous process of “earning” visits organically.

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How Does PPC Work?

One of the most popular and important forms of PPC comes from search engine advertising. This allows advertisers to propose bids for ad placement on a search engine’s sponsored link when a keyword related to their business offering is searched. Every time an ad gets a click, whether accidental or purposeful, the click sends that visitor to a website. When this happens, the website must pay the search engine a small fee. It has been reported that, on average, businesses expect to pay anywhere between $1-$2 per click (on Google search network). 

To put this in a monthly perspective, the average small and medium-sized online or other businesses usually report spending somewhere between $9,000 and $10,000 alone on PPC. To put it into the big picture, this comes out to an annual expenditure of approximately $108,000 to $120,000. Although that $1-$2 fee may seem trivial, research has shown that one visit to the website is worth exponentially more than what is paid for it. For example, if you are a business owner, you certainly wouldn’t mind paying $1 for a click that could potentially lead to your website and translate into a $100 sale. 

Benefits of PPC

Overall, the main benefits of using a PPC strategy is that it can boost or increase traffic to your website. PPC has been proven to increase sales. It helps control advertising costs because it lets you pay as you go (you can change or stop at any time), you only end up paying for clicks. PPC allows analysis of ad performance in real-time. PPC has the potential to increase brand recognition, remarketing (a tool that shows a site visitor relevant ad on other similar web pages), and PPC advertising is easy to create and produce.

What Businesses Benefit from PPC?

Perhaps among the industries that stand to benefit the most from PPC are those with what is called high customer lifetime values. These are industries that can afford to spend more on acquiring new customers. For them and their industries, the lifetime value of a new client is higher than average. Businesses such as dentists and doctors where either a dentist or doctor acquires new clients, those clients can potentially be worth anywhere from thousands to tens of thousands of dollars throughout their lives. Even more so if they go on to refer more clients and generate even more business. Dental and doctoral marketing certainly pay off in the long run.

Colleges and online degree programs are another form of business that greatly benefits from PPC. There’s a good reason so many universities spend a lot on PPC. That is because new students are worth a lot, considering how long an education lasts and how much tuition costs. A traditional university will draw in a customer for 4 years. Longer than that if you consider various alumni programs and donations if they become uber-successful, and roughly $30,000 to $40,000. This same train of thought applies to other types of training or even vocational programs.

Cable, Internet providers, and utility companies. Specifically where their customer base tends to stay loyal to one provider of phone, cable, or Internet service, and they charge monthly bills for extended periods. The fact that it is a recurring service (subscription-based software, for example) makes it an easy cash cow. Any new potential customer just adds to this model perfectly.

Short-term PPC Benefits

Some other professions to consider that may not directly benefit from PPC via longevity, but rather, other facets of this customer retention strategy are lawyers. Lawyers make good money off single cases, resulting in keywords like “personal injury lawyer” being pricey. Although that client may only need your services for one lawsuit, it’s likely a great payday to follow. 

Another one is repair jobs like those for home repairs. It’s common knowledge that things like roof repair, new pipes, structural damage can be incredibly expensive work, so that makes a customer that needs these types of repairs incredibly valuable to any business owner. People sell products like computer equipment, home appliances, cars, hard-to-find or specialty products. As well as online shops that sell a diverse array of products, and seasonal or event-based sellers all the time. PPC helps these businesses generate revenue.

How Does PPC Different for B2B Businesses?

B2B is a type of transaction conducted between two businesses, such as one between a distributor and a manufacturer, or a retailer and a manufacturer. B2B refers to the business conducted between two companies. This is different than what happens between a company or organization and an individual consumer or customer. Business to Business, or B2B, contrasts with something called B2C (business-to-consumer) and B2G (business-to-government) transactions. B2B transactions usually take place somewhere within a specific supply chain. This can take form in the transaction process. When one company or business purchases raw materials from another company or business, and it is then sent somewhere within their manufacturing process. 

B2B transactions are incredibly important within the business infrastructure. They are vital in the success and well-being of cash flow markets everywhere. B2B is most common in businesses and industries such as auto industry companies, industrial cleanup companies, property management, and housekeeping. 

PPC for B2B can help immensely in B2B transactions. It can come in the form of call recording, audience targeting, remarketing and customer match, dynamic search ads, and bumper ads. So, if you are a business owner looking to maximize your B2B transactions, request a FREE business consultation today at GoingClear.