Not all digital advertising platforms are equal. Knowing how to utilise different PPC ad platforms to fulfil your marketing objectives will help you maximise the effectiveness of your digital marketing budget. Whether your objective is lead generation, sales or brand awareness, you need to ensure you’re working with the best PPC platforms to achieve those goals.

With the right PPC platform and the right strategies, your business can reap great rewards. 

In this article, we take a look at the best PPC platforms to help you decide where to focus your marketing efforts.

The Best PPC Platforms 

1. Google Ads

Google Ads is the most well-known and commonly used PPC advertising platform. It offers the easiest user interface to navigate and has exceptional data compared to most other PPC platforms. 

With Google Ads, you can target keywords that your audience searches for to get your ads to appear for relevant terms. For instance, if you search for “patterned wallpaper” on Google, you’ll see a handful of PPC advertisements at the top of the search results linking to patterned wallpaper or similar products.

This form of advertising is ideal for most businesses because it gets your ads to the top of the search results, making it an effective way of reaching your desired audience. Google also offers advertising on their display networks, YouTube, and other partner sites. 

2. Microsoft Ads

Similar to Google Ads, Microsoft Ads is a keyword-based platform. It will show your ads to people who type queries into Microsoft Search Network engines if that query matches your keyword or close to it. So, you’ll be reaching people with higher intent to purchase your products and services as they’re likely actively searching for them. 

Microsoft Ads also has display capabilities and shows image ads across the Microsoft Audience Network (a lower intent channel, just like Google Display).

It’s worth noting that not all businesses are as successful with Microsoft Ads as they are on Google. And this is partially because Google and Microsofts’ user demographics are different. Majority of Microsoft Ads users are 45-54, so if your products appeal to younger audiences, Microsoft Ads may not work as well as Google. 

3. Facebook Ads

These days, anyone who scrolls through Facebook is bound to come across a sponsored ad approximately every 3–4 organic posts. Not only that, but most of us know they’re strangely relevant ads. Facebook’s complex algorithm works in the background to decide what posts and what ads are most relevant for users to see in their feed.

Instead of targeting keywords (like you would on Google Ads and Microsoft Ads), this audience-based platform targets people based on their interests, demographics, behaviours, or actions they’ve taken on your website.

Facebook users get added to these audiences based on various signals they express, including which pages they follow and interact with, or the posts they’ve engaged with in the past. If someone follows a sports nutrition brand on Facebook, they might be added to a “fitness lover” audience. 

Additionally, advertising through Facebook also allows you to advertise through Instagram, which is great if you want to expand your reach to multiple platforms. It’s also ideal if you run an eCommerce business, as you can add your online store to both Facebook and Instagram to try and sell your products directly from these social platforms. 

4. LinkedIn Ads

With millions of active users from job seekers to managers and CEOs, Linkedin offers a unique solution to those wanting to build a professional network and engage with individuals within their industry.

LinkedIn is one of the top PPC platforms for B2B firms that primarily focus on lead generation. These firms can use LinkedIn ads to target users by job title, function and industry, allowing them to place their brand and services in front of relevant decision-makers.

Using LinkedIn as a recruitment tool can be effective in discovering high volumes of quality applicants. You can even specifically target job seekers or employees with relevant skills in your chosen industry. 

5. Amazon Ads

Amazon advertising is a great option for many sellers and vendors who want to run ads on one of the most popular online shopping sites beyond Google. Amazon has millions of active customers ready to spend their money.

Instead of targeting keywords (like you would on Google Ads and Microsoft Ads), this audience-based platform targets people based on their interests, demographics, behaviours, or actions they’ve taken on your website.

Amazon offers sellers several different types of PPC ads to use, with customisable targeting options. These include:

• Sponsored product ads: these ads appear in search results and product listing pages, and can closely resemble organic listings.
• Automatic targeting: this strategy involves targeting keywords that Amazon’s algorithm determines are related to your product listing. Over time, Amazon uses data that it collects from shoppers’ clicks and purchases, then adjusts the ads to better suit your listing and increase conversions. 
• Manual targeting: these ads only appear if a shopper’s search terms match your chosen keywords. As a more “hands-on” type of ad, you will need to monitor changes in costs and make adjustments where applicable. This optimisation often results in more effective ads and a lower long-term ad spend.
• Sponsored brand ads: allows sellers to drive awareness to more than one product at a time and catch shoppers’ eyes with more robust visuals than with Sponsored Products. 
• Sponsored display ads: allow sellers to retarget customers who have visited their product detail pages, on and off Amazon. Unlike Sponsored Products and Sponsored Brands ads, Sponsored Display ads can appear on Amazon’s affiliate sites, including Google, Facebook, Netflix, and even mobile phone apps. 

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