Digital marketing guide

Pay-per-click (PPC) advertising without wasting your budget

With PPC you pay only when someone clicks your ad. Done well, it brings customers the same day. Done badly, it spends your money fast. Here is how to start small and stay in control.

Start with the basics All marketing channels
Person reviewing an ads dashboard on a laptop
The basics

How pay-per-click works

Google Ads and Meta Ads run an auction every time an ad can be shown. Four ideas explain most of what happens.

01

The ad auction

Your bid and your ad quality together decide whether your ad shows and where. A better ad can beat a bigger bid.

02

Keywords and audiences

Search ads target what people type. Social ads target who people are and what they like.

03

Quality Score

Google rates how relevant your keyword, ad and landing page are. Higher scores mean lower costs per click.

04

Conversions

A conversion is the action you want, such as a call, a form or a sale. Track it, or you cannot tell what is working.

Team pointing at campaign results on a laptop
Checklist

Before you spend your first ₹1,000

Most wasted ad budget comes from skipping the setup. Tick these off before your first campaign goes live.

✓ Set up conversion tracking and test it once
✓ Start with exact and phrase match keywords
✓ Add negative keywords for searches you do not want
✓ Send each ad to a page that matches its promise
✓ Set a daily budget you are happy to lose while testing
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Your first month

A simple four-week plan

1

Choose one goal

Pick a single action to pay for, such as enquiries or sales, and track it.

2

Build one small campaign

Start with one campaign, a few tight ad groups and a modest daily budget.

3

Check search terms weekly

Read what people actually searched and add negatives for anything irrelevant.

4

Scale what converts

Move budget to the keywords and ads that bring conversions at a cost you can afford.

Common questions

Quick answers

How much should I spend on PPC at first?

Pick an amount you can afford to test for a month, often ₹500 to ₹1,000 a day for a local business. Judge results after enough clicks, not after two days.

Google Ads or Meta Ads?

Google Ads reaches people already searching for what you sell. Meta Ads is better for creating demand people did not know they had.

Why are my clicks so expensive?

Usually low Quality Score, broad keywords or strong competition. Tighter keywords and a more relevant landing page bring costs down.

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