To bolster their online presence, many companies invest huge amounts of money in digital marketing. It offers them a high rate of conversion. However, as there are numerous such platforms available online, choosing the right platform can become a challenge.  

You can contact a reputable agency that offers PPC services in India and seek their advice regarding which platform is best suited for your company’s needs. However, if you want to do some research of your own, then this article will help you. Here you will learn about the top 5 PPC platforms which can give a huge boost to your online sales. 

Most Popular PPC Platforms and Their Features 

Here is a list of the top five PPC platforms, their features, and the price package they offer. 

1). Google Ads 

When we talk about the top PPC platforms in terms of their reach and popularity, then Google ads come to the very top. This ubiquitous platform is leveraged by businesses all over the globe to reach out to their target audience and improve their brand awareness. The popularity of this platform can be gauged from the fact that it generates nearly 1.2 trillion search queries each year. 

Ad Formats You Can Use 

• Image ads. 
• Text ads. 
• Video ads. 
• Product shopping ads. 
• Responsive ads. 
• App promotion ads. 
• Call only adds. 
• Showcase shopping ads. 

The Placement of the Ads 

• The ads you bid for will appear in the Google search engine result pages and other such sites on Google. 
• Those websites are partners of Google’s Display Network. 

Bidding Strategy 

The various bidding strategies available for Google ads include the following: 

• Manual CPC. 
• Enhanced CPC. 
• Maximize conversions. 
• Maximize clicks. 
• Target Cost per acquisition. 
• Maximize conversion value. 
• Target impression share. 
• Cost per thousand impressions (CPM). 
• Viewable CPM. 
• Target CPM. 

Pricing 

The ad cost is dependent upon details like bids, keywords, and targeting. It also takes into account the performance in the Google ad auction. 

An estimate of and cost of the Google ads is: 

• The minimum ad for big campaigns can range between $ 9000-$ 10,000 per month. 
• The average cost per click ranges between $ 1-$ 2. 
• Google Ads Management is equal to 12% to 30% of ad spend every month. 
• PPC Management tools cost between $ 15-$ 800 per month. 

Advantages of Using Google Ads 

As Google is the largest Internet search engine, it gives you great exposure and can bring a huge amount of traffic to your website. 

2). Meta Ads (Earlier Known as Facebook ads) 

Facebook Ads, unlike Google ads, target audiences based on their behavior, interests, actions, or demographics. When you choose the meta-ads platform, then you can access more than 2.1 billion users. Research has shown that nearly 77% of Internet users are associated with at least one Meta platform. Your PPC ad when posted in the Meta-Ads is shown to specific target audiences which helps in increasing your conversion rate. 

Ad Formats Available 

The Meta Ads allows you to use multiple visual assets with primary text, a title, a description, and a call-to-action button. You can choose different types of ad formats that offer you the best results. 

• Single video ads. 
• Single image ads. 
• Slideshow ads. 
• Stories ads. 
• Facebook Messenger ads 
• Carousel ads. 
• Playable ads. 
• Event ads. 
• Collection ads. 
• Instant experience ads. 
• Lead gen ads. 
• Dynamic ads. 
• Dynamic Product Ads. 

Bidding Strategies 

The Meta ads contain a blend of automated and manual bidding strategies. Whether you are using the campaign budget optimization or budgeting at the ad set level would lead you to one of these bidding strategies. 

• The bidding strategies have recently changed and they include the following. 
• Highest volume or value. 
• Cost per result goal. 
• Bid cap. 

Average price 

Just like Google ads, the pricing depends upon how much a company wants to spend. 

• The average cost per click is $ 0.97. 
• The average cost per like is $ 1.07. 
• The average cost per thousand impressions is $ 7.19. 
• The average cost per download is $ 5.47 

Advantages of using Meta ads 

• A huge audience base. 
• The visual medium ads allow you to attract attention with attractive images or videos. 
• It offers social proof which helps in improving the credibility of your brand. 

3). Microsoft Advertising 

The Microsoft search network is used in more than 35% of desktop searches in the US. It is considered the biggest competitor of Google in the paid search niche. If you want to leverage the 20 million unique searchers on this network every month, then you should ask a reputed agency that offers PPC services in India to build your advertisement campaign on this platform. 

Ad formats 

• Bing Smart Search. 
• Microsoft Audience Ads. 
• Microsoft Product Ads. 
• Microsoft Responsive Search Ads. 
• Microsoft Expanded Text Ads. 
• Microsoft Dynamics Search Ads. 

Bidding Strategies  

The various bidding strategies that you can use in the Microsoft ads include the following: 

• Manual CPV 
• Manual CPC 
• ECPC  
• Maximize conversions 
• Maximize clicks 
• Target CPA 
• Maximize conversion value 
• Target ROAS 

Pricing 

As one of the strongest competitors of Google’s ad, the pricing structure is also similar. The Microsoft ads platform uses search queries to find people. Therefore, you will have to use different keywords to finally get your ad ranked higher. 

• The average cost you have to pay per click on Bing is $ 1.54. 
• The cost for each keyword will depend on the keywords that you have used in your ad and your bid. 

The Ad Placements 

• The ads will be displayed on the search result pages of Yahoo, Bing, and AOL. 
• These ads will also appear on the websites of Yahoo and AOL networks. 

Advantages of using Microsoft ads 

It gives you a higher reach for desktop users. You can reach 40 million more desktop users with Microsoft Ads compared to Google. 

4). LinkedIn Ads 

The PPC services India uses LinkedIn ads for B2B companies to help them reach their target audience. LinkedIn users are mainly work-focused and you can reach out to them based on the industry they are working in, where they work, their job titles, and many more. 

Ad Formats Available 

The ad formats available on LinkedIn include the following: 

• Video ads 
• Single image ads 
• Event ads 
• Carousel ads 
• Message ads 
• Conversation ads 
• Text ads 
• Lead gen form ads 
• Follower ads 
• Spotlight ads 

Bidding Strategies 

The various bidding strategies that are available on the LinkedIn platform include the following: 

• Target Cost. 
• Maximum Delivery. 
• Manual. 

Average Pricing 

The minimum cost for any LinkedIn campaign is $ 10 and the minimum lifetime budget is $ 100. There is no upper limit and you can spend any amount to get the requisite response for your PPC campaign. If you are looking for LinkedIn as the platform for attracting your target audience, then ask the agency that offers PPC services in India to create a customized advertising campaign to get the best results. 

Advantages of Using LinkedIn Ads 

Your B2B business will get more visibility on this platform. 

5). YouTube Advertising 

YouTube is the second most popular search engine in the world and it is used by almost 1/3^rd of Internet users. You can use high-quality videos to reach your target audience. As this platform receives around 14 billion views every month, you get a chance to reach out to a humongous user base to get more traffic to your website. 

Ad Formats 

The ad formats that you can use when you are launching a PPC campaign on YouTube includes the following: 

• Non-skippable in-stream ads 
• Skippable in-stream ads 
• Bumper ads 
• In-feed video ads 
• Masthead ads 
• Outstream ads 

Bidding Strategies 

The bidding strategies that you can opt for on this platform include the following: 

• Cost per view. 
• Cost per thousand impressions. 
• Maximize conversions. 
• Target CPA. 
• Viewable CPM. 

Pricing 

There is no fixed pricing and the cost for your campaign depends upon your bid, ad format, bidding selection, and targeting options. The average cost per click for you to ads platform is in the range of $ 0.10-$ 0.30 

The Ad Placement 

If you have launched your PPC campaign on the YouTube ads platform, then your ads will be placed at the following places: 

• YouTube search results. 
• YouTube videos. 
• The YouTube video partners. 

Advantages of Using YouTube Ad Platform 

The YouTube app platform has a huge reach that allows you to target your niche audience anywhere in the world. 

The PPC ad campaign gives you an amazing level of control over how much you spend to get the best result in terms of increased traffic, conversion and sales. However, there are multiple platforms, which you can use for your PPC campaign. You must consult a highly reputed agency that provides PPC services India to find out which one of these platforms is best suited for your unique business needs.