DOES PAY PER CLICK REALLY WORK?

At Lillian Purge, we specialise in Local SEO Services and have written Does Pay Per Click Really Work? to address common concerns and show you when PPC delivers results and when it doesn't.

When people talk to me about Pay Per Click advertising there is usually a split in opinion. Some business owners treat PPC as the backbone of their marketing. They rely on Google Ads or Meta Ads every month to drive enquiries and sales. Others tell me they tried PPC once, lost money and decided it does not work. I have had conversations with businesses that generate consistent leads at a sensible cost and conversations with businesses who spent hundreds or thousands without seeing a single good result. That is why the question comes up so often. Does PPC really work or is it just a way for platforms to drain your budget.

In my opinion PPC absolutely works for the right businesses with the right approach. The real problem is usually not the channel itself but how it has been used. PPC is unforgiving if the offer is weak, the targeting is vague or the landing page is poor. It will expose weaknesses in your marketing quickly, which can feel brutal. However that exposure can also be a massive advantage because it tells you exactly where your funnel breaks down. When PPC is planned and optimised well it becomes one of the most measurable and controllable forms of advertising available.

What Pay Per Click Actually Is

Pay Per Click is a model where you pay when someone interacts with your ad. Most commonly this means you pay when someone clicks your advert. In some campaigns you may pay per thousand impressions but the core idea remains that you pay only when the platform delivers a defined action. PPC can appear in search results, social feeds, display banners, video pre rolls and more. The platform uses an auction system where advertisers bid for placements. Your bid interacts with relevance scores and quality scores to decide whose ad appears and at what price.

The reason PPC can work so well is that you can choose who you show your ads to and when they see them. On search platforms such as Google you can show adverts only when someone types a specific keyword or phrase. This means your advert appears at the exact moment they express a need or problem. On social platforms you can define your audience based on interests, behaviours, demographics, locations or job roles. This lets you reach people who match your ideal customer even before they search for you.

Where PPC Fits Compared With Other Channels

It helps to understand PPC in context. SEO builds long term visibility by improving your organic rankings yet it takes time. Social media can be powerful for brand building but growth is often unpredictable. Email marketing delivers great returns but only once you have built a list. PPC sits at the intersection of speed and control. You can turn it on and get traffic the same day. You can pause it at any time. You can direct it to specific products, locations or offers. This is why PPC is so valuable for testing ideas and for generating results in the short term while other channels grow.

However PPC is also more transactional. Once you stop spending the traffic disappears. This is why I believe PPC works best when it is part of a wider mix rather than the only strategy. You can use PPC to test which offers resonate then build SEO and content around those winners. You can use PPC to build remarketing audiences then nurture them through email. When PPC is integrated with other channels its strengths become more apparent and its weaknesses become easier to manage.

Why PPC Often Fails

If PPC works, why do so many businesses struggle with it. In my experience there are several recurring mistakes that cause PPC campaigns to fail or underperform.

The first mistake is weak targeting. If your keywords are too broad, your audiences too generic or your locations too wide you attract clicks from people who were never going to convert. This inflates your cost and produces poor results, which leads to the belief that PPC is a waste of money. The second mistake is poor alignment between ad and landing page. If your advert promises one thing and your landing page delivers something different users feel misled or confused. They leave without doing anything and your cost per lead skyrockets.

Another major issue is a weak or unclear offer. PPC can send the right people to your website but if they do not see a compelling reason to act they will simply browse and leave. Plenty of campaigns fail not because of the ad but because the offer lacks urgency, value or clarity. I have also seen many accounts run with no tracking, no A/B testing and no structured optimisation. The business launches ads, watches the spend and then turns everything off when it does not work. This is not a PPC problem. It is a strategy problem.

How PPC Works When Done Properly

When PPC is set up correctly it is very simple in concept. You identify the audience you want to reach. You craft a message that speaks to their need or desire. You offer a clear next step that feels easy and worthwhile. You send them to a landing page designed to convert. You track every step of the journey and you refine based on real data. The platforms are sophisticated but the underlying logic is very straightforward.

A Google Ads search campaign, for example, can deliver excellent results for service businesses. You choose keywords that match the services you want to sell. You write adverts that answer those searches. You send users to focused pages that make it obvious how to enquire or book. If your targeting, message and page all align with intent you will usually see leads at a reasonable cost. On Meta you might reach people earlier in the buying journey. You create adverts that introduce your service, highlight problems you solve or share useful content. You can then retarget people who engaged with your ads to move them towards a consultation or purchase.

The difference between PPC that works and PPC that fails is usually the presence or absence of a coherent funnel. When each step of the funnel is planned, aligned and measured, PPC becomes a tool for pushing the right people through that funnel.

Examples of Businesses That Benefit From PPC

From what I have seen PPC delivers strong results in several common scenarios. Local service businesses such as plumbers, electricians, roofers, accountants, solicitors, car repair garages and clinics often thrive with PPC because people search actively for these services when they have an immediate need. When a boiler breaks or a legal issue arises people go to Google and type in very specific queries. PPC puts your business in front of those searches instantly.

Ecommerce brands also benefit, especially those with clear products and margins. Shopping campaigns, remarketing campaigns and dynamic product ads can bring back website visitors who dropped off without buying. SaaS businesses and consultants often succeed on LinkedIn Ads where they can reach specific job titles, seniority levels or industries. Training providers and events businesses also tend to see good results because PPC gives them rapid exposure when promoting time sensitive offers.

On the other hand some businesses might find PPC more challenging such as very low margin products, very low ticket items or industries where customers do not research online at all. In those situations PPC can still work but the margin for error is smaller and conversion rate needs to be very carefully managed.

The Financial Logic Behind PPC

The question “does PPC really work” often comes down to simple maths. You do not need to guess. You can calculate whether PPC is likely to be profitable for your business by looking at a few numbers.

You need to understand your average order value, your gross margin, your conversion rate from lead to sale and your expected cost per click. For example if you sell a service worth £800 and your gross margin is 50 percent your profit per sale before marketing is £400. If one in four leads turns into a sale each lead is worth £100 in profit to you. If you pay £25 per lead through PPC and your close rate stays the same then PPC is profitable. If your cost per lead rises above £100 or your close rate falls, then PPC becomes unprofitable.

This is why tracking is important. Without data you cannot measure ROI. With data you can see exactly how much you spend, how many leads you get, how many convert and whether you are making or losing money. PPC works when the numbers make sense.

The Importance of Tracking and Analytics

One of the biggest advantages of PPC is the level of data it provides but that advantage only exists if tracking is set up properly. Google Ads combined with Google Analytics allows you to see which keywords generated clicks, which campaigns led to conversions, which landing pages performed well and which devices or locations were most profitable. Meta provides similar insights for Facebook and Instagram.

If you do not have conversion tracking set up you are essentially flying blind. You may see traffic and clicks but you have no idea which part of your account produced the enquiries or sales. This leads to wrong decisions such as pausing campaigns that are working and leaving on campaigns that are wasting money. In my opinion conversion tracking is non negotiable. Without it you cannot seriously judge whether PPC works for your business.

Why Landing Pages Make or Break PPC

Many businesses send PPC traffic to their homepage rather than to a dedicated landing page. The homepage usually contains too many distractions, mixed messages and navigation options. A landing page is designed with one purpose, whether that is to get someone to fill in a form, request a quote, download a guide or make a purchase. When your landing page matches the promise of your advert and makes the next step obvious, your conversion rate improves dramatically.

A good landing page is fast, mobile friendly, focused and persuasive. It explains the main benefit quickly, removes doubts, builds trust with social proof or testimonials and provides a simple way to respond. When landing pages are treated as an afterthought PPC performance suffers. When landing pages receive proper attention PPC results often transform even if the ad creative stays the same.

The Role of A/B Testing in Making PPC Work

In theory you could get lucky and create a winning advert on your first attempt. In reality that rarely happens. A/B testing helps you refine your ads and pages so that they improve over time. You can test headlines, images, calls to action, offers, layouts and formats. With each test you learn something new about your audience. You discover that they respond more to certain phrases than others. You learn which benefits matter most and which objections need addressing.

Over time the cumulative effect of small improvements through testing can be huge. A fifteen percent improvement in click through rate combined with a twenty percent improvement in landing page conversions can cut your cost per lead nearly in half. This is where PPC begins to feel predictable and sustainable rather than volatile. In my view A/B testing is the difference between throwing adverts at the wall and building a machine that gets more efficient every month.

Setting Realistic Budgets and Expectations

Another reason PPC gets a bad reputation is because expectations are unrealistic. Some businesses expect a flood of leads from a very small budget in a highly competitive industry. Others expect instant profitability in the first week without any testing or learning period. PPC has learning costs. You need to spend some money to find out what does not work before you can concentrate spend on what does work.

A sensible approach is to treat early PPC campaigns as research and development. You expect to gain insights, test offers and identify audience behaviour. Once you have evidence of a working approach you can increase the budget gradually. In most cases scaling works best when you expand in controlled steps rather than doubling or tripling budgets overnight.

How Long It Takes To See Results

The timeline for PPC results varies by industry, competition, budget and how refined your funnel is before you start. If your website and offer are strong, and your tracking is in place you can see good leads within days. If your funnel needs work it can take weeks to refine. Search campaigns on Google often settle down within two to four weeks. Social campaigns sometimes require longer testing to find the right combination of audience and creative.

In my experience the first month is about discovery and optimisation. The second and third months are about scaling what works and pruning what does not. By the fourth or fifth month you usually have a clear sense of whether PPC is viable for your model and what your predictable cost per lead looks like.

When PPC Is Especially Powerful

There are certain situations where PPC is particularly effective. Launching a new product or service can be accelerated with PPC because it gives you instant visibility. Short term promotions or seasonal offers benefit from PPC because you can appear quickly and disappear just as quickly once the campaign ends. Competitive industries where being at the top of search results matters can use PPC to ensure they do not rely solely on organic rankings which fluctuate.

PPC is also powerful when used for remarketing. Many users visit a site once then leave without buying or enquiring. Remarketing campaigns target those users with tailored ads which remind them about your brand and encourage them to return. This often produces cheaper conversions than trying to reach cold audiences every time.

When PPC Might Not Be the Right Fit

Although PPC is versatile it is not always the best primary channel. If your average sale value is very low and your margins are thin the allowable cost per click may be too small to make PPC viable. If your audience does not use the internet to search for your type of product then PPC will struggle no matter how good your ads are. If your website is extremely outdated or slow then you must address that before investing heavily in PPC.

There are also situations where brand building through content, social and partnerships might deliver better long term value than direct response advertising. PPC is strongest when you know the value of a lead, have a clear sales process and can track outcomes.

How I Would Invest £2,000 in Pay Per Click Advertising

When people ask me what I would do with a £2,000 PPC budget I always explain that I would never spend the full amount in one go. In my opinion PPC performs best when the budget is introduced gradually because the early stages of a campaign tell you far more about what not to do than what to scale. If you spend the entire amount immediately you lose the learning period, the refinement period and the opportunity to correct mistakes before they become expensive. I would always spread £2,000 over a four month period so that each stage has a clear purpose and enough time to generate meaningful data.

Month 1: Research and controlled testing (£400)

In the first month I would allocate no more than £400 and I would treat this phase as a discovery stage rather than a sales stage. The goal is to understand which keywords, creatives, audiences and messages actually resonate. I would run small tightly controlled A/B tests across headline variations, creative styles and possibly landing page adjustments. I would focus on gathering reliable conversion data so that I know precisely which combinations show potential. This month is all about diagnosing the strengths and weaknesses of the funnel. You are not trying to scale anything yet. You are simply learning.

I believe the first month is the most important because the insights gathered here dictate where the remaining budget should go. If a certain advert produces strong click through rates, or a certain landing page sees high conversion rates, these early signals are what you build on. If something performs poorly you identify it before spending heavily which prevents a large portion of the budget being wasted on the wrong ideas.

Month 2: Refinement and increased testing (£500)

By the second month you have enough data to make informed changes. I would increase the monthly spend slightly to around £500 but I would keep the structure controlled. This month is about refining the assets that showed promise and removing those that clearly held the campaign back. The tests I would run now would be more focused. Instead of broad A/B tests I would tighten the hypotheses such as testing two different versions of the same benefit statement or comparing two different user intent based audiences.

During this stage I would also begin exploring secondary keywords, stronger remarketing messages or an improved version of the landing page that reflects the winning messaging from month one. In my experience small changes made at this point can dramatically increase profitability because you are now layering refinement on top of evidence rather than instinct. You are shaping the campaign into a more efficient model that can be scaled later.

Month 3: Scaling what works (£600)

Once a campaign has run for eight to ten weeks you typically know what your strongest performers are. At this point I would increase spending to around £600 for the month. This is the stage where you expand impressions, widen the audience or increase bids slightly to capture more of the winning traffic. The key is that you only scale elements that have been validated. You do not experiment with new variables once scaling begins. New tests run with small budgets while the main spend remains focused on proven performers.

I would monitor this phase very carefully because scaling amplifies both successes and failures. If the performance holds steady when increasing the spend you can feel confident you have identified a reliable combination of offer, creative and targeting. If performance drops, this is the perfect moment to pause and diagnose the friction before it consumes more budget. Scaling should never be rushed. It should be controlled and gradual.

Month 4: Consolidation and intelligent expansion (£500)

With the final £500 I would focus on two things: protecting what you have built and exploring the next stage of opportunities. Consolidation means strengthening evergreen adverts, refining the landing page further, improving remarketing sequences and preparing for larger long term budgets. Expansion means testing one new angle or one new audience that could become a future winner. I never recommend ending a PPC programme without leaving a new test running. Momentum matters in PPC and every campaign improves faster when testing continues consistently.

By month four you should have a clear picture of your average cost per lead, your conversion rate and your return on investment. The £2,000 has now served three purposes. It bought you insights, it shaped your strategy and it validated what works so that future spending becomes profitable. At this point you are no longer running PPC reactively. You have a measured system that can be scaled with confidence.

Why this phased approach works best

In my opinion this is the safest and smartest way to invest £2,000 in PPC because the staged approach mirrors how PPC platforms learn. It matches the natural progression of testing, refinement, validation and scale. It also safeguards your budget so that you never spend heavily on untested ideas. The biggest PPC mistakes happen when all the money is pushed into one short period, often with little understanding of user behaviour or campaign performance. A phased structure removes that risk and turns PPC into a strategy rather than a gamble.

Bringing Everything Together

So does Pay Per Click really work The honest answer is that PPC works extremely well when it sits on top of a clear strategy, a strong offer and a well optimised funnel. It fails when it is treated as a quick fix, a side experiment or a last minute attempt to generate leads without addressing deeper issues. PPC is powerful because it shows your message to the right people at the right time with measurable results. It is harsh because it reveals weaknesses in your marketing quickly. Those weaknesses are not a reason to abandon PPC. They are an opportunity to strengthen your business.

In my opinion businesses that get the best out of PPC are those that see it as an ongoing process. They take time to understand their audience. They build landing pages that serve that audience well. They write adverts that speak directly to user intent. They track everything carefully. They test, refine and scale gradually. When these elements are in place PPC not only works, it becomes one of the most reliable and controllable growth engines in your entire marketing mix.

We have also written in depth articles on How Does Pay Per Click Advertising Work? and What is Pay Per Click Advertising? as well as our Pay Per Click Advertising Hub to give you further guidance.