Ever wondered why PPC advertising in Singapore is so extravagant, it hurts?
Well, we’ll try to break it down for you.
Seriously, ever been given a PPC advertisement quote that you interpreted as a blatant rip off?
If you’re thinking about closing your shop or having second thoughts on whether running a business in Singapore is a viable venture, Google Ads will be glad to disclose to you the kind of data that will be pushing you further to the edge.
Here’s the truth: running a successful business in Singapore is super-competitive — and NOT for the faint-hearted.
How Running an Google Ads Feels Like
To understand how everything comes into play in the world of PPC, here’s a real-time example of how PPC works.
Assume you’re running a massage parlour, where the average CPC for some of the top keywords in the industry is 2.00 Sing Dollars. And from stats, only two out of every 50 visitors you get via the ads convert.
That means the cost per conversion translates to
50/2 * 2 = S$50
That’s the price you pay per every visitor that converts after clicking through the Ads. So assuming you’re making S$20 from every customer that converts, and you’re lucky enough that the new member will be staying with you for the next two years, then that means you’ll be making a profit of S$480 (S$20 * 12 * 2 = S$ 480).
This is Customer Lifetime Value that you can get from an S$50 Google Ads Investment. That’s how everything is supposed to fall in place. But there’s more.
The Rates of Google Ads in Singapore
Google Ads rates always vary from place to place, depending on the scale of business competition in that place.
Singapore happens to be among the few places on earth that’s jammed with all kinds of businesses, and the resultant effect of all this is the blown up rates of Google Ads.
Investing
One of the most crammed business spaces in Singapore is the stock market. And those affected are not only the traders and trainers but advertisers as well.
That said, here’s a CPC bid price for targeting some of the top keywords in the stock industry.
- Fixed Income Investment is going for a bid price of S$64.83
- Online Investment is going for a bid price of S$50.01
- Stock Market Investment is going for a bid price of S$47.18
- Oil Investing is going for a bid price of S$37.00
- Forexpros is going for a bid price of $32.59
In other words, that’s the price you pay for every click you get when you run an Google Ads campaign on the keywords.
Insurance
- Car Insurance Brokers is going for a bid price of S$83.08
- Affordable Car Insurance is going for a bid price of S$76.11
- Cheap Auto Insurance is going for a bid price of S$56.48
- Low Car Insurance is going for a bid price of S$43.29
- Business Car Insurance is going for a bid price of S$46.00
SEO Services
Affected as much are digital marketing agencies. Here are their rates:
- Website SEO Services are going for a bid price of S$55.06
- SEO Services Company is going for a bid price of S$35.50
- SEO Company is going for a bid price of S$29.93
- SEO Website Design going for a bid price of S$27.17
- SEO Services going for a bid price of S$26.32
Where It Gets Even More Complicated
Price aside, not knowing the right set of keywords to bid on will leave your pockets drier than a piece of stale bread, and with nothing to show for it at the end of it all.
So your bids end up attracting the wrong kind of clicks. These people click through the ads, Google charges you, and they immediately bounce off because they’re looking for something completely different from what you’re offering.
Singapore is a world-renowned business hub. People from all corners of the world move here to do business, so you can only expect the competition to get stiffer and the rates for Google Ads to drastically shoot up compared to anywhere else in the world.
But that’s NOT to say you should forget about Google Ads and find an alternative. If anything, Google Ads is one of the most effective marketing channels for leads that your business can’t afford to turn its back on completely.
Why You Should Let an Experienced Agency Run Your Google Ads Campaign
Running a successful Google Ads campaign may sound like the most natural thing on earth to do, but a great majority of the people running the campaigns are just wasting their money on something that isn’t bringing in any returns.
The keywords you’re using may relate to your business 100 percent, but your campaign isn’t bringing the results you want. Speaking of which, it takes a lot of experience and technical expertise to figure out where the problem could be, so you can come up with a tangible solution on how to turn things around.
Running a successful Google Ads campaign is NOT cheap, especially here in Singapore. It’s for this reason that you wouldn’t want to experiment with your marketing money on something you’re NOT sure of.
Where you think that your marketing team lacks the resources and experience to effectively manage an AdWord campaign, why NOT hire an experienced source outside your premises to help you out?
So what Makes a Particular Agency a Decent Choice for Managing Your Ads Campaign
Not all Google Ads specialists were created equal. As one of the leading providers of PPC services in Singapore, we have devised a simple approach that could help you differentiate between a competent PPC agency from an amateurish one.
Scenario One — Where You’re Already Running an Account
Where you’re already running an Google Ads account, ask the agencies to run a free audit of your account.
Many of the agencies willing to take a new project will be more than willing to offer a free audit of your Google Ads account. Once the audits check in, take your time to go through them to find out which one among them puts in more effort to serve you with the most valuable information. This is the agency you should be working with.
What to look for in the account audit presented:
- If the agency has identified the issues in your account.
- What does the agency recommend you to do?
- Did the agency even bother asking you about your goals? This is important as it helps the agency to understand if you’re after clicks, impressions, or conversions.
- Is what you’re looking for a familiar territory to the agency? Did they sound engaged, or did they have trouble trying to understand you?
- Did the agency bother checking out your landing page? Were they impressed by it or did they feel like there’s something you should do to improve it?
Scenario Two: Where this is your first attempt at running an Google Ads Account
You’re completely green on the whole Google Ads shebang. You’ve never managed an account before, and you’re looking for an agency to help you set everything from the ground up.
So after you’ve given the agency your website URL, here’s what you’d want to find out from them.
What strategy are they proposing that you should adopt when running your Google Ads campaign? The approach they give should highlight on all the crucial elements of running a successful AdWord campaign, with special touches on keywords, budget, and competition.
If the strategy they mention happens to cover all of the following, then there’s a fair chance they know what they’re doing — and for that, you can trust them to deliver:
- Did they ask you about Google Analytics? This is what they’ll be using to track the progress made so they can make necessary improvements to your campaign strategy. In which case, any agency that fails to mention it could be clueless as to what they’re supposed to be doing.
- Did they ask you about your budget and how long you intend to run the campaign?
- Did they suggest some keyword examples that are relevant to your line of work or business?
- Did they advice you on the types of keywords you should be targeting, the target locations, and so forth?
- Will they be creating as many ads and ad extensions as it’s humanly possible. I’m talking about callouts, site links, snippets, and call extensions.
- Did they promise to check your website for conversion tracking? Did they give any advice on this?
- Did they bother asking about your goals?
- Did they recommend remarketing?
The Takeaway
Running a successful Google Ads campaign in Singapore is costly. This only goes to show that there’s no room for mistakes.
It’s for this reason that you’d want to hire only the best of the Google Ads managers that you can find, and this post is there to help you make the right choice.
You don’t have to be a PPC expert to find the right agency, but you certainly need to understand the finer details to determine which agency is most suited for the job.
Feel free to contact MediaOne today for free advise on running a successful Google Ads Campaign in Singapore. You can also go through their website for more info about Google Ads campaigns and PPC in general.
