Small to medium-sized businesses (SMBs) sometimes feel that they’re at a disadvantage compared to their larger competitors. While it’s true that smaller companies don’t have as much budget to work with, digital marketing levels the playing field. Rather than your small company vying for attention, you can create highly targeted ads that reach your niche audience. Pay-per-click (PPC) is a great tool to help you reach your target audience at a moment when they’re ready to convert.

10 Benefits of Pay-Per-Click for SMBs

Let’s explore 10 benefits to using PPC for your SMB. When you better understand these advantages, you can make a decision as to whether or not you want to add pay-per-click to your digital marketing strategy.
1. Fast Results
PPC is probably the fastest way to run a marketing campaign and get immediate results. It takes time for organic traffic to come through, and you may not have time to wait. If you want local customers to know of a sidewalk sale you’re having, you can’t wait for organic traffic to get the memo. It will be too late. Instead, you can create an AdWords account, set up your ads, run them in Google Network and start seeing the traffic you need to increase sales.
2. Measurable Results
Another benefit to PPC is that you can track and measure every detail of your campaign. When setting up an AdWords account, you will be able to view everything related to your campaign, including clicks, visits, profits, costs and more. As you view this information, you can determine if you’re generating a profit or a loss. If you find that your campaign is not working, you can adjust it to see better results.
3. No Algorithms to Please
With organic traffic, you have to constantly pay attention to SEO and algorithm changes. Both SEO and the search algorithms weigh heavily on where your website ranks and who sees your content. With PPC, however, none of this matters. You run your campaign, and that’s it. Algorithmic changes won’t affect you.
4. Highly Targeted
When running any type of PPC ad, you have the utmost control over who sees your ads. You can choose people in certain locations, age groups, time zones, etc. You can target customers who have interests in pets, traveling or food. You can even segment your various audiences so that people living in a certain region see your ads a particular time. With highly targeted options, you can basically hand deliver your ads to the people you want.
5. Easy Implementation
PPC allows you to act fast. Let’s say one of your competitors is experiencing technical difficulties and customers can’t sign onto their accounts. This would be the perfect opportunity to create an ad and target customers of your competitor’s. Customers would be angry, so they may be open to another business. This is only possible with PPC because it offers immediate results and is quick to set up.
6. Brand Exposure
As an SMB, it’s important to get all the exposure possible. PPC lets you target keywords related to your industry so that people searching for those keywords will see your ads. Even though general keywords probably won’t earn you more sales, showing ads for these keywords helps consumers recognize your brand and the services you offer.
7. Enhance Local Strategy
If you’re a local business, pay-per-click is especially important. People use their mobile devices to search for local businesses, and you can show these customers your ads to get them acquainted with your company. If your ads are missing from local search, you risk losing customers to your competitors. 
8. Affordable
Pay-per-click has no budget restrictions, which means you can spend as much or as little as you’re comfortable with. When running a campaign, you set your budget according to your wishes. You can spread out your budget over the course of a few days, or you can put a cap on your spending. With so many ways to spend your budget, it’s possible to run successful campaigns each and every time.
9. Test Other Strategies
If you want to test your other marketing strategies without spending a lot of money, PPC can help you do this. Let’s say that you have two headlines you are considering for your products and you’re not sure which one to use. You can set up different ads in AdWords, run them both for a few weeks and see which one received better results. The winner should be the headline you use for the best results.
10. Simple Reporting
One last benefit to discuss is that PPC comes with the tools needed to analyze your data and report your findings. This is an important benefit because it prevents you from having to swim with your eyes closed. You can determine the right tools to use to run your campaigns, and share your research with your coworkers. This way, you find what works best for your business.
Conclusion
Pay-per-click remains an important part of a small business’ digital marketing strategy. Using PPC offers the freedom and flexibility to optimize your campaigns and see what works for your audience. For the best results, combine your SEO strategy and PPC strategy. To learn more about further optimizing your campaigns, call WSI Net Advantage or fill out our contact form and someone will reach out to you shortly!