A team of digital marketers

Hotly contested debates remain the norm between marketers as they discuss whether inbound or outbound marketing is more effective. However, that doesn’t change the fact that PPC campaigns enable businesses and marketers to reach their target audience. 

For starters, PPC campaigns are extremely important for businesses and marketers aiming for instant results. In contrast, SEO efforts require three to six months before providing results. Proven results appear after six to twelve months of regular SEO activities.

While SEO can be useful for generating leads and acquiring new customers, it’s also time-consuming. Businesses must devise ways to acquire customers quickly, and that’s where PPC campaigns become crucial.

PPC campaigns can be conducted on several platforms. Google Ads remain the most popular, considering Google’s significant reach and market share. Statistics show that 90 percent of internet users see Google display ads. In addition, over 8.5 billion Google searches are performed daily, meaning people already use the search engine regularly. 

However, that doesn’t mean Google Ads is the only platform for reaching customers. Most social media websites have become increasingly popular options for businesses and marketers. 

Research shows that digital ad spending accounted for nearly 60 percent of the global ad revenue in 2022, meaning businesses and marketers continue to opt for PPC campaigns. Statistics also show that investment in PPC advertisements exceeded $10.1 billion in 2018 and has continued upward since. 

Social media platforms like LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, and others have contributed to the rise of digital ad spending. According to Statista, social media ad spending is projected to reach $226 billion this year. It’ll also continue to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 11.24 percent until 2027.  

The PPC landscape is extremely competitive. As a result, many marketers and businesses often don’t get the results they desire. Tracking metrics is crucial because it allows you to evaluate your PPC campaigns’ performance.

Developing a marketing strategy

Key PPC Metrics Every Marketer Should Track

Here are some key metrics every marketer should track:

Clicks

Tracking clicks is beneficial because it allows you to gauge the audience’s interest. As a result, they’re also a better tracking metric than impressions. There’s no point in running PPC campaigns if people view your ad but don’t click on it. It means people aren’t relating to your message; therefore, you’re not generating any engagement. 

It’s important to note that clicks don’t tell the complete story. You cannot solely rely on them to determine if a PPC campaign is successful. But they can be useful when used with other metrics.

Cost-Per-Clicks

Cost-per-click measures how much it costs when someone interacts with your advertisement. It allows you to measure the return on investment for your PPC campaigns. Businesses must track their cost-per-click because it helps them learn how much they’re paying for traffic. In addition, it also assists them in evaluating if they’re attracting relevant and quality traffic.

You can calculate cost-per-click by dividing the total cost by the number of clicks.

Clickthrough Rate

Clickthrough rate is one of the most relevant metrics for marketers. It helps them understand how many impressions result in clicks. For instance, your PPC campaign might receive 100,000 impressions but only 1000 clicks. This situation demonstrates that your advertisement isn’t relevant enough for users to click. 

Marketers want high clickthrough rates because it shows their ads are helpful and relevant to the targeted keywords. PPC campaigns with low clickthrough rates indicate an underlying problem you must address. You’re likely trying to reach the incorrect audience or wasting your budget on incorrect keywords. Alternatively, it could indicate that your ads aren’t appealing enough to capture your target audience’s interest.

It’s important to remember that clickthrough rates differ by industry and keywords. You’ll want to look at the benchmark CTR for various industries to determine if your advertisements have a good clickthrough rate.

Impression Shares

Most marketers don’t like to track impressions, but they’re useful because they allow you to see how many people viewed your ads. Impression share determines how many impressions your ad could have generated.

Tracking impression shares allows you to measure potential opportunities. It lets you discover areas where you can acquire more impressions, helping you obtain more optimization possibilities.

Marketers can track impression shares by dividing impressions by total possible impressions.   

Conversion Rate

Every PPC campaign has a goal. For instance, an E-commerce website will want to redirect users to its website to make purchases. Marketers devise marketing strategies and campaigns with a specific action in mind. A fitness studio running a PPC campaign will want to increase membership by persuading its target audience to sign up for a subscription.  

Conversion rate measures how many users performed the actions you wanted them to take. Conversion rate is a crucial metric to track because it affects your revenue and profit margin. Additionally, many marketers focus on conversion rate optimization if their conversion rates are too low. 

A digital marketer focusing on conversions

Conversion Cost

Conversion cost is also commonly referred to as cost per acquisition, and it’s the most important figure marketers must track. Conversion cost allows you to assess how effectively you’ve utilized your marketing budget. In addition, it also lets you determine your budget’s implications.

For instance, let’s assume you sell a product for $30, but it only costs you $20 to produce it. You spend $10,000 on a PPC campaign to generate leads. However, you only get 1000 conversions. Based on this example, you’ll be spending $10 for every lead generated via PPC campaigns. Your company is unlikely to profit because your conversion cost is excessively high.  

High conversion costs mean you must assess every part of your PPC campaign, from the copy to the keywords. 

Calculating conversion costs requires dividing the total campaign cost by the number of conversions.  

Return on Ad Spend

Return on Ad Spend (ROAS) is another important metric marketers must track. It measures how much revenue was generated per dollar spent on a PPC campaign. Tracking ROAS allows you to determine profitability.

Calculating ROAS is straightforward. You’ll want to divide the revenue attributable to PPC advertisements by their cost. 

A marketer running Facebook advertisements

Get Started with Dekaf Digital

Dekaf Digital is a minority- and woman-owned agency. We pride ourselves on providing data-driven marketing solutions, helping bridge the gap between businesses and consumers.

Moreover, our data-driven solutions help us generate effective results for your brand. We’re a global social media marketing agency with locations across the United States and Asia.

If you’re looking for assistance in reaching your target audience, consider getting our pay-per-click management services.

We also provide other services, like Facebook ad management and landing page design services. Check out our website for more information. Alternatively, contact us to get started.