Do you get what you pay for? Usually.
Google Ads, formerly AdWords, is a pay-per-click (PPC) advertising platform that, at first glance, appears to be a win-win. You pay only if a potential customer or client clicks your online ad. What’s not to like?
Keywords are also an integral part of an online advertising campaign. You choose keywords that will match search terms. Keywords are chosen for their likelihood of being searched and their relevance to your advertising campaign. Your search engine optimization (SEO) keywords are free and should appear naturally in the content. That makes them “organic.”
Google Ads Basics
With 8.5 billion searches every day, Google Ads is surprisingly not the only PPC advertising game in town. LinkedIn is striving (and failing) to compete with Google Ads. Bing, Instagram, Pinterest, Twitter, and YouTube also want your PPC dollars.
The PPC platform to watch in 2025 is Amazon, of course.
To knowledgeably examine Google PPC ads for your business, you need to know the meanings of these words:
Ad extensions – A way to include more free information
AdRank – Where your ad will appear in rank/placement
Bidding – Determines your rank/placement (more $ = higher rank)
CPC – cost-per-click
CPE – cost-per-engagement
CPM – cost-per-mile
Campaign type – Ad campaign category
App
Display
Performance Max
Search
Shopping
Smart
Video
Click-Through Rate – number of clicks vs. impressions
Conversion rate – total clicks leading to landing pages
Display network – display ad options
Impression – Frequency of your add appearing in a search (not necessarily clicked)
Keywords – Words aligning with searches
PPC – pay-per-click
Quality score – measures CTR performance
How They Work
Here are the working steps of Google Ads:
You bid on keywords
Customers search using your keyword(s)
Search generates advertisers in order of ranking
Customer clicks one of the ads (hopefully, yours)
Ad rank is considered the most important factor, but geography is critical. (You’re in Tomball; you don’t want St. Louis SEO.) In order of importance, following ad rank and location are headline/description and ad extensions.
Organic Keywords
Anything free is worth what you pay for it. -Robert Heinlein
Organic keywords aren’t optional. They are critical to your SEO strategy. You may or may not choose to pay for Google Ads, but if you don’t maximize the use of organic keywords on your website and within your advertising campaign, you’re toast.
You don’t need to be a James Patterson to find the right organic keywords for your business. You can pay an agency to provide the best free keywords for your content. Or you can use several free sources to help you write the right words:
DataForSEO
Google Analytics 4 & Google Search Console
Improve
Marketing 360
ProRankTracker
SE Ranking
Semrush
Serpstat
Siteimprove
Wordtune
Just as any advertising campaign requires a strategy, organic keyword placement is a strategy.
The Best Strategy: Google Ads or Organic Keywords?
Google Ads aren’t “better” than organic keywords or vice versa. If you had to choose one, and only one, you must opt to develop and employ organic keywords. But integrating those keywords into your Google Ads is the magic formula for advertising success.
$100+ per month is an average budget for small business PPC campaigns. Some companies’ budgets are as high as $10,000/month.
High CTRs can get you higher ad positions at lower costs.
The CPC for pay-per-click will be between $.11-$.50+ in 2025.
The CPM per 1,000 will be between $.51-$.100+ in 2025.
Professional SEM
What’s the cost of professional search engine marketing guidance?
We could say it doesn’t matter; the results are “priceless!” But it does matter.
Our marketing pros will first work to understand what you do and what drives your business. Then we’ll strategize ways to accomplish what you want at a price you can afford. It’s a complex and intensive process that we will make simple.
Contact Modern Marketing & Media to learn more.
FAQs
Two of the frequently asked questions we receive about search engine optimization are:
PPC ads can be located on Facebook, Twitter, and other social media sites; third-party websites; and the most profitable sites, search engines. Google and Bing are the most common search engines, but many businesses also place PPC ads on Ask.com, Baidu, DuckDuckGo, Ecosia, Yahoo, and Yandex.
You should! Here are some do-it-yourself action items:
Create alternate text for every image on your website.
Design a link-building plan.
Develop or reevaluate a content strategy for your website.
If your business doesn’t have one or more social media pages, create them now. If they aren’t active and generating interaction, evaluate the pages and improve them.
Then:Make a list of keywords that relate to every landing page on your website.
Make a list of keywords that relate to your business.
