Why PPC Advertising Is Crucial for Manufacturing Marketing

Pay per click advertising: Advertising where you pay to have your ads shown to buyers (usually on Google). You only pay when the ad is clicked. Thus, "pay per click."

PPC ads appear at the top and bottom of search results. Here's an example:

PPC ads are the first thing a searcher will see. This is an incredibly powerful sales and marketing tool, if used correctly. Don't know how to do PPC correctly? Here's a checklist on PPC best practices.

Manufacturers are in the perfect position to profit from PPC advertising for three big reasons. Let's take a look.

1.  Lifetime Value vs. Customer Acquisition Cost

Related: How to Increase ROI with Inbound Marketing

Most businesses turn away from PPC advertising due to the upfront costs. But they're missing the most important piece of the puzzle: how much is one of their customers worth?

Consumers might make a single $50 purchase and never buy again. B2B buyers are different. B2B buyers make multi-thousand dollar purchases over and over again.

Say you invest $1,000 a month into PPC advertising, or $12,000 per year. Does that number make you cringe? Let's put it in perspective.

If you acquire even a single customer from your PPC efforts, you suddenly have a return on your investment. One manufacturing buyer can easily spend $100,000 (even $1 million) in a single purchase.

Assuming PPC nets one customer per year, you're only paying $12,000 to acquire a $100k contract. If you can grab four or five $100,000 customers, that's about $2,500 per contract. Then, on top of that, they make multiple purchases because they like your style.

Does the cost of PPC seem reasonable now?

2.  PPC Advertising Targets Late Buying Stages

Try asking someone if they click on the ads in Google results. Most people will say "No, I never click those ads!"

Those people are big fat liars.

Research has shown that PPC ads account for 64.6% of clicks when the search has high commercial intent. So, when searchers are interested in products or services, they're more likely to click on paid ads than organic results. (Once I was aware of this, I noticed how often I actually click on paid ads. Funny how that works.)

What does the buyer's journey have to do with this? By definition, searches with commercial intent fall into the decision stage of the journey. In layman's terms?

The searcher is ready to buy, and they're looking for a vendor. Let's make that statement look as exciting as it sounds:

Are you pumped? You should be.

This is the time and place to push your products and services. This is the time to sell. PPC advertising exempts you from the traditional dance of educating → converting leads → nurturing leads → selling. It's all selling, all the time.

This is perfect for manufacturers who work primarily with purchasers concerned with cost, or engineers who already know what they want.

3.  Immediate Results

Internet marketing doesn't bring results right away. It takes time to build SEO juice, build a following on social, build an email marketing list... and so on.

Unless you're working with PPC advertising.

PPC doesn't need time to sit. It just works. For those of us who are impatient and want results now, PPC is a gift from above. If you do it right, your ads will be showing on the first page of Google within the hour. 

It's also a great tool for manufacturers who experience feast-or-famine buying cycles. The immediacy of results helps you break downturns quickly. Additionally, PPC advertising keeps your services in front of buyers constantly. This can decrease (or eliminate) instances and lengths of famines.

The only trick is making sure your campaigns are optimized. Unfamiliar with PPC best practices? Here are a few great resources:

Blog: 15-Minute-or-Less PPC Tricks

Blog: Small Business PPC Success Stories

Premium Offer: Free PPC Checklist

Manufacturing Marketing Needs PPC Advertising

If you're not doing PPC, it's time to get started.

1. The lifetime value of your customers blows away the initial cost of PPC. 
2. PPC helps you reach people who are at the end of their buying process - people who are ready to buy.
3. PPC brings immediate results.

While you're waiting for long-term marketing strategies to take off, PPC gets your revenues flowing.

Feeling overwhelmed? We're pretty good at PPC. Let us know if you have any questions or concerns.