Trying to stand out to online customers and get your piece of the digital apple pie can be a daunting task, especially with today’s level of competition. You’ve taken the time to create a slick website, but how do you get your visitors to take a scroll through your pages and purchase your products or services? Pay Per Click marketing.

One method to increase website traffic is SEO (search engine optimisation), which relies on various on and off the page tactics to improve SERP rankings organically (unpaid). The other method is through PPCs or pay-per-click marketing (paid). Here you would pay for your advert, which could be text based or a combination of images and text known as a banner advert, to be published on a search engine, a website, or a network of websites’ pages. When a visitor to those sites clicks on your advert they are redirected to your site of choice (website, landing page or social media pages). Thus, increasing your website’s traffic, and driving up brand awareness and sales. In turn, you are charged by the publisher each time your advert is clicked on.

You can choose to manage your own pay-per-click marketing or employ the services of an agency. Let’s look at each method’s pros and cons:

Holding onto the reins

If you’ve spent a lot of time setting up your business and managing its marketing and design, you may not be ready to let go of the reins just yet.

PROS. By tackling your own pay-per-click advertising you can benefit from your industry and business expertise. You know who your target market is, what your business goals are, and you know exactly how you want to tailor your message. Should you decide to change your strategy at 2am in the morning, you can quickly implement changes and head back to sleep. Also, if you’re a start-up and find your cash is tied up in other areas of your business, managing your own pay-per-click campaigns can save you from the management costs charged by an agency.

CONS. By being a jack-of-all-trades, you are taking yourself away from running other aspects of your business. When you should be working on product development or customer relations you might find yourself tied up in the nitty-gritty of creating and optimising your pay-per-click campaigns. You will also miss out on the digital marketing expertise that an agency has to offer.

Letting an agency take the pay per click wheel

If you find yourself getting bogged down with campaign technicalities and lose sight of other aspects of running your business, you may choose to let an agency take over your pay-per-click campaigns.

PROS. Agencies are made up of experts from various departments. They can look at the technical aspects of the campaign, such as where the campaign is being posted and how often it appears, as well as the design and copywriting details. They have the added benefit of being able to see trends quicker. They’re up-to-date on industry standards. Have better relationships with Google and Facebook through regular dealings. Bigger ad spend due to their multiple clients, which in turn leads to better technical support, and they know all the shortcuts. Agencies are also more comfortable with the analytics programmes that provide feedback for how well your advert is faring on the various sites. They can then take the necessary steps to adjust your campaign accordingly.

CONS. With all that expert knowledge and design skills comes a price tag, but that is hopefully offset by the successful handling of the campaign. You may not be able to make the changes you want to make to your advert at 2am, but many agencies have dedicated departments to address your issues as soon as possible.

Take home

Investopedia lists poor internet presence and marketing as one of the reasons more than half of new businesses fail during their first year. A company’s online presence is critical in effectively reaching its target audience so that it can provide its product or service.

Should you wish to take your company to the next level, contact us. Our team at Radical Cloud Solutions has all the knowledge to boost your website’s traffic and improve your ROI.