PPC Can Be a Powerful Tool for Online Lead Generation
Throughout the past few years, we’ve leaned into a variety of forms of advertising for our clients, but one that we come back to time and time again is Google Pay-per-Click (or PPC). PPC advertising has immense upside for businesses in all industries, but that’s especially true for those in service-based businesses with a brick-and-mortar location or defined service area. Today, we’re overviewing lead generation through Google PPC advertising, including why it’s such a dependable source of leads (and revenue) for our clients and whether it would be a good fit for your business in 2025 and beyond.
Google PPC Advertising: What Is It?
Google PPC advertising, specifically through Google Ads (formerly known as Google AdWords), involves creating ads that appear on Google’s search engine results pages (SERPs) or on websites within Google’s Display Network, depending on the configuration of the ad campaigns. Advertisers bid on keywords that are relevant to their products or services, and when users search for those terms, the ads appear within the top few results, depending on how much they’re willing to bid.
Speaking of bidding, Google uses an auction system to determine which ads are shown, factoring in the bid amount, the quality and relevance of the ad, and the advertiser’s Quality Score. Google Ads also offers targeting options such as location, device, time of day, and demographics to help advertisers reach the right audience.
The goal of PPC ads is to drive high-quality traffic to a website, with the potential for conversions, like sales or lead generation.
Where Does the Pay-Per-Click Name Come From?
Pay-per-click advertising is exactly what it sounds like: the advertiser is only charged once a user clicks on one of their advertisements. This is one of the key differences when comparing PPC advertising to other advertising mediums, like paid social ads, where the advertiser is charged for placements no matter if anyone clicks on the ads or not.
The pay-per-click model essentially offers free visibility—if users don’t click on any of an advertiser’s listings, the advertiser is still getting awareness out of the campaign free of charge.
Why Google PPC Advertising Is Effective at Lead Generation
The number one reason that pay-per-click advertising is so effective at lead generation is because advertisers are able to meet users where they’re at—in a Google search where they’re already showing intent. Whether they’re looking for a local plumber, medical care, or even an office supply store, they’ve already made their decision to act and are looking for solutions that are both immediately available and nearby.
This is also why PPC advertising is such an important tool for service-based businesses like roofers, plumbers, and HVAC companies. This rationale is also applicable to medical practices and urgent care facilities, shutter and window companies, and even financial advisors.
If your business has a local presence and provides a service that users can act on immediately, PPC advertising should be on your radar.
Other Benefits of PPC Advertising
Google’s PPC advertising comes with several benefits. It’s easy to get started on their platform and it’s possible to get ads up and running quickly, assuming you have a solid strategy behind them and you’ve done your homework on keywords and demographics.
Beyond that, the biggest advantage that advertising within Google’s search network grants is visibility. As mentioned above, Google only charges advertisers once an ad is clicked upon. This means that the impressions (that is, every time an ad shows within search results) are free visibility for your business. This is a major step toward top-of-mind awareness for local businesses, and that’s especially true when an ad campaign is built to own all search results for their (or a competitor’s) brand name.
Outside of ease of use and visibility, Google’s PPC advertising has some of the best tracking capabilities among online advertising platforms, making it easy to gauge the effectiveness of campaigns, and there are no minimum ad spends. Many advertisers also see a boost in organic traffic when using PPC advertising.
How To Get Started
To get started running pay-per-click ads for your business, the first thing you absolutely need to do is make sure that you have Google Analytics installed on your website. This is what is going to enable you to track the effectiveness of ad campaigns, and at a base level, understand where your traffic is coming from, how long users stay on your site, and what they do on it while they’re there.
After you’re sure that Google Analytics is installed and tracking, it’s time to do some research. What do you want to drive traffic for? Do you know how much search volume is out there for those terms? How much can you expect to pay for clicks on those terms? There are a few third party tools out there that can help give you an idea of what to expect, both cost and demand-wise. After that, it’s time to get started on the Google Ads Platform.
Running pay-per-click ads on your own is doable, but it does come with a learning curve. The good news is that we’re here to help! We specialize in managing ad campaigns that are cost-effective, backed by data, and ultimately, drive results. If you have any questions about Google PPC, where ads fit in an overall marketing strategy, or if they’d be a good lead generation tool for your business, drop us a line here. We’d love to chat.