Imagine if, for every dollar you invested in advertising, you received two dollars in return?
According to Google’s Economic Impact Report, that’s exactly what Google Ads can do for a business.
Sure, this is just an average. But it illustrates the game-changing power of Pay Per Click (PPC) advertising.
When done right, with focused targeting, optimization, and relevant expertise, pay-per-click (PPC) campaigns can quickly scale a business right in front of your eyes.
Of course, it’s not simple to achieve these results. For every PPC success story, there is a business that has burned through months and months of their budget without any notable PPC results and a big gap in their business objectives!
That’s exactly what draws businesses to our Agency. We find out clients are chasing accelerated sales growth through paid acquisition, but they REALLY need Growth PPC expertise to get there.
Perhaps the biggest question on any business owner’s mind is about PPC results. How quickly can we get them the outcome they desire?
Before anyone (including us) can answer that question, we first need to determine precisely what you consider a positive result.
What does your Business consider a positive PPC result?
Here’s the thing: Every client we bring on is going to be slightly different in their objectives and expectations. During the prospecting and sales process, it’s up to us to identify and clearly define what success looks like. Because without a definition of success there is a strong likelihood that you will have unmet expectations at some point.
We might be training for a marathon, but you want to enter the long jump. Sure, we’re both vying for the Olympic team, but the training and preparation for achieving both of these ambitions are significantly different.
The same goes for PPC. If you’re entering the relationship with an expectation of closing sales, yet we focus all of our energy on attaining clicks or booking appointments, then there will be a gap between the reality and the expectation. Give it three months, and you may have booked hundreds of appointments – something you perceive as a successful campaign.
But at the end of the day if you haven’t closed any of those appointments into sales, then we have a distinct gap.
So, then, the single most important leading indicator for PPC results is creating a shared definition of what success looks like. If you can express what you want from the relationship, it becomes easier to pursue that end game for us, we can optimize the campaign accordingly, and report back to you on the results.
“The single most important leading indicator for PPC results is creating a shared definition of what success looks like.”
Three common PPC outcomes to look for
To help with this conversation, here are three (3) common PPC outcomes that our clients look for:
- Brand exposure or website traffic – determined by Clicks, Click-Through-Rate, and Cost-Per-Click.
- Leads, Calls, or Meetings Booked – determined by Lead Conversions and Conversion Rate.
- Sales or ROI – determined by Revenue, Lead-to-Sale Conversion Rate, and ROI calculation.
Once you have a clear definition of what you consider a “result,” then we can estimate how long it will take to achieve.
How long does it take to get PPC results?
Ok great, so you have a well-defined destination that you are striving to reach for now.
In almost all instances, the very next words out of our client’s mouth will be… How long will it take to reach that milestone?
For inexperienced PPC agencies, this question is a huge stumbling block. We’ve found inexperienced PPC agencies have a natural tendency to over-promise in an attempt to close the deal.
Not us.
The key is to make an educated estimate of how long it will take to reach your goals based on our experience, and then quoting you a timeframe of two or three months longer than we expect.
This way, we create a bit of breathing space during the onboarding period of the engagement with you, and we set ourselves up to not only beat but to exceed expectations.
With this approach, and a good understanding of what our clients consider a positive payback from the campaign, here are some guidelines for the speed at which you can achieve PPC results:
Result 1: Brand Exposure or Website Traffic (Clicks)
If you are motivated by brand exposure and website traffic, the good news is you will start seeing results almost immediately once the campaign launches.
The problem with clicks and click-through-rate as results-based metrics is that it’s easy to get clicks without necessarily closing sales. So, while we’ve found many clients tell us that this is what they want, we typically are pushing back on this objective to ensure there isn’t an underlying sales-driven goal that goes unspoken.
In saying that, clicks form the basis for any successful PPC campaign because they determine how receptive the audience is to your messaging. So while they may not always be a stated desire of our client, they are still a valuable discussion point when determining how to optimize campaign performance.
Result 2: Leads, Calls, or Meetings/Appointments Booked
The vital reporting metrics for Leads, Calls, or Meetings, are the conversion metrics. These are a much more common outcome we are held accountable to than clicks because they have a direct influence on the revenue and sales growth of our client’s business.
Managing expectations can be hard when it comes to how fast a client will see results like this.
There are a number of variables that affect the speed and volume of lead acquisition, such as:
- Budget
- Campaign offer
- Industry
- Keywords
- Search volume
- Location
- and much more.
We found as our agency matured and built up tons of data, knowledge, and experience we have been easily able to make more educated estimations to set expectations with our clients.
At the most basic level, however, one month is a fairly safe time frame for seeing results.
Result 3: Sales and ROI
Without even talking to you, it’s pretty safe to assume that you want to increase sales from your PPC campaign.
The key difference between “Sales” and “Leads” is that, as a Marketing agency, we have (almost) complete influence over lead generation.
There are variables, however, in the sales process that you have no control or power over.
We can provide informed estimates and data-backed hypotheses to help manage your expectations, but we don’t want to be accountable to a metric you can’t control.
We’ve found sales cycles vary significantly depending on the industry, location, insurances accepted, your offers and internal follow-up processes. They could be anywhere from a day to months or even a year in length.
Conclusion and wrap up
Setting results-based expectations with our clients is a crucial determinant for the long-term prosperity of our relationship.
Our goals are always to:
- Get our clients to clearly articulate exactly what it is they want, and;
- For us as an agency to provide an estimation, based on data and experience, for how long it will take you to reach that destination.
This has led to a list of happy, successful, and long-standing clients.
Contact us if you’d like help with your PPC campaigns.
