PPC (Pay-Per-Click) is a digital advertising model where advertisers pay a fee each time someone clicks on one of their ads. The most common form is paid search, where adverts appear at the top of Google or Bing search results for queries the advertiser has bid on. Done well, PPC delivers buyers to a website on day one of a campaign.
How PPC actually works
An advertiser identifies search queries their customers use, writes ads targeting those queries, sets a maximum bid per click, and lets the platform run a real-time auction every time someone searches. The advertiser only pays when a user actually clicks. The platform decides which advert to show based on a combination of bid amount, ad relevance, and a quality score reflecting historical click-through rate and landing page experience.
The biggest PPC platform by spend is Google Ads. Microsoft Advertising (Bing) is meaningfully smaller but often cheaper per click and increasingly relevant since Bing also powers ChatGPT search. Meta Ads (Facebook and Instagram) and LinkedIn use the same pay-per-click model on social feeds rather than search results.
The main forms of PPC
- Search ads. Text adverts that appear above and below the organic search results when someone searches for a relevant query. The classic and still highest-intent format.
- Display ads. Image or banner adverts that appear across the Google Display Network on millions of partner websites. Lower intent, broader reach.
- Shopping ads. Product-image adverts in search results, fed from a product feed. Critical for ecommerce.
- Video ads. Skippable and unskippable adverts on YouTube and across the wider video network.
- Performance Max. Google’s automated multi-channel campaign that uses AI to mix all of the above based on what is converting.
- Local Services Ads. A separate Google product for trades and local services that uses pay-per-lead rather than pay-per-click.
Why use PPC alongside SEO
SEO is a long game. PPC is a short one. SEO earns you the future. PPC gets you in front of buyers today. Most businesses that rely solely on either are leaving money on the table.
The strongest combinations: PPC fills the gap while SEO builds. PPC tests which keywords actually convert, so you know which ones to target organically. SEO captures the demand PPC creates by training people to search for your brand. The two work in concert when run by the same team with shared visibility into the data.
What good PPC looks like
- Tight match between query, ad, and landing page. The user searched for X, your ad mentions X, your landing page is about X. Quality scores reward this.
- Conversion tracking that actually works. If you cannot tell which keywords drove which sales, you are guessing.
- Negative keywords. The unprofitable searches you actively block from triggering your ads. Almost as important as the keywords you target.
- Regular bid management. Either by a person reviewing weekly or via well-configured automated bidding strategies.
- Realistic budget. Below a sensible threshold per month, the data is too noisy to optimise effectively. Most categories need at least £1,500 per month for the data to be actionable.
Frequently asked questions
How much does PPC cost?
It depends entirely on the competition for your keywords. Average cost per click ranges from £0.50 in low-competition niches to £30+ in saturated industries like legal and insurance. Most small businesses see meaningful results from monthly budgets between £1,500 and £8,000. Below £1,000 a month, the data tends to be too sparse to optimise reliably.
Is PPC better than SEO?
They serve different purposes. PPC delivers leads quickly and predictably but stops the moment you stop paying. SEO takes months to build but produces compounding traffic at near-zero marginal cost. The honest answer for most businesses is to run both, with the mix shifting over time as SEO gains traction.
What is a good PPC conversion rate?
Across all industries, the average PPC search conversion rate is around 4 to 5%. Local service businesses often hit 8 to 15% on well-targeted campaigns. Ecommerce typically converts at 1 to 3%. Your benchmark is your own historical performance, not someone else’s spreadsheet, and the goal is steady improvement rather than hitting an arbitrary average.
Can PPC hurt my SEO rankings?
No. Google has stated repeatedly that paid spending does not influence organic rankings. Buying ads doesn’t lift you organically, and pausing ads doesn’t penalise you. The two systems are separate. Where they interact is on the user experience side: a well-converting landing page improves both PPC quality scores and SEO performance through metrics like time on page and bounce rate.
Take this further
Knowing what something means is the start. Putting it to work is where the value sits. See how our Google Ads work work is structured, or book a 30-minute discovery call and we will tell you straight whether this is what your site needs next.