Free PPC Resources You Can Use to Enhance Your Businesses Marketing Strategy

In spite of its complexity, pay-per-click (PPC) marketing is among the most effective ways to market your business. If you are new to PPC it can be difficult to know where to start and where to look for help. Before you get started with paid search marketing, it’s a good idea to learn a little about it.

It doesn’t matter whether you are a beginner or an experienced PPC marketer, there is a wide array of free online resources that can help you continue to learn about pay-per-click advertising.

We wouldn’t be good marketers if we didn’t first promote our own PPC resources!
 

 
Learn everything you need to know about implementing a PPC strategy for free with LOCALiQ’s latest paid search resources below.

• Webinar: 7 Steps to Success: Create a Winning Local PPC Strategy for Your Business

In this on demand webinar, we’ll provide you with an easy-to-follow, 7-step guide to creating a winning local PPC marketing strategy.

• Resource: Paid Search Campaign Checklist

Make sure you tick all the right boxes for your PPC strategy, download our free checklist to get started.

Continue reading for some great PPC resources! (Keep an eye out for resources with a ‘*’, this means they are used and recommended by LOCALiQ experts)

Free PPC Learning Resources

1. Hubspot Academy

HubSpot’s integrated CRM platform contains the marketing, sales, service, operations, and website-building software you need to grow your business. Their website hosts a wealth of marketing knowledge and offers free courses and certifications so you can learn everything you need to know about the most sought-after business skills.

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2. PPC University from WordStream 

Wordstreams’ PPC University is a free PPC marketing course hub brought to you by their PPC experts. The University hosts a vast collection of PPC resources and courses to teach you what you need to know to effectively advertise on search engines and social media.

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3. Google Ads Resource Centre

Over 5 billion search queries are made on Google daily, making it one of the most powerful platforms for paid advertising. Check out their resource centre to learn the basics and get started running successful paid search campaigns. There is also a pop-up chat tool so you can speak directly to a Google Ads Expert.

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4. Bing/Microsoft Ads Learning Lab

Bing Ads, also known as Microsoft Advertising, lets you run ads on Bing, as well as on Yahoo and AOL. The platform works very similar to Google Ads, however, Microsoft Ads reach 63 million searchers that can’t be reached through Google Ads, proving it is still a platform worth investing in.

Microsoft Ads learning lab provides informative, convenient certifications which are free for everyone. Become a Microsoft Advertising Certified Professional (MACP) by completing all 3 certifications. Once completed, you will automatically receive the higher-level MACP badge which can be shared on LinkedIn and other social media.

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5. Web FX PPC Resource Hub

Web FX has a wide selection of PPC learning resources which have been organised into sections such as; Statistics, B2C, B2B, and E-commerce. Browse the hub for useful marketing guides, tips, how-to articles, and more great resources.

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6. Search Engine Land’s PPC library

Search Engine Land is a great source for PPC news and content. Their experienced team create a variety of up-to-date PPC resources, including the latest news, tactic-rich tutorials, and the latest data to help you work smarter and make better decisions.

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7. SEMrush Academy

Another brilliant website for learning all about PPC is SEMrush Academy. It comprises more than 30 free courses and certification exams on SEO, PPC, content marketing, social media & competitive research that help anyone unlock their digital marketing potential. SEMrush also provide useful webinars, ebooks and podcasts to keep you up to date with the latest industry news and trends.

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PPC Blogs

1. LOCALiQ’s blog allows you to keep up with local marketing tips, trends, and data insights. Featuring advice, how-tos, and more to help you use marketing to reach your target audience and achieve your goals.

Get started with these popular PPC blogs:

• Find the Right Words for Your Paid Search Campaigns

Choosing the right keywords to bid on is very important to your SEM strategy. This guide breaks down some helpful tips help you select the right keywords, and where to use them in your PPC campaign.

• The Ultimate Guide to PPC Advertising

This guide covers everything you need to know about PPC. It includes terms you need to know, how PPC works, advantages and disadvantages, and 8 steps to get you started setting up PPC ads.

• The Complete Guide to Google Ads

In this comprehensive guide, you will learn everything you need to know about advertising on Google, so you can optimise your campaigns to achieve the best performance and results.

• How to Successfully Run a Paid Search Campaign

Whether you are considering starting your first campaign or already have run dozens, follow these 8 steps to launch and manage a successful PPC marketing campaign.

2. PPC Hero is a widely recognised resource for all things PPC. Their blog focuses on Google Ads as well as other areas of digital marketing, including their search section, which should be helpful for beginners.

3. WordStream is a popular blog with a wide range of marketing knowledge that is updated every weekday.

Check out these blog posts recommended by LOCALiQ experts:

• *Google Ads Benchmarks for YOUR Industry
• *The 10 Most Popular Words in Google Ads (+8 Other Findings)

4. Neil Patel is a digital marketing guru who produces free content that gets published regularly, from blog posts to free webinars, conferences, podcast episodes, videos, and online digital marketing training courses.

To gain a comprehensive understanding of PPC, we recommend these resources:

• Blog: What is PPC Management and How You Can Take Advantage Of It To Maximise Revenue.
• Video: Paid Ads Vs SEO: Which is Better for Lead Generation.

Free PPC Tools

Wordstream Free Keyword Tool makes it fast and easy to find the keywords your business needs to drive traffic through organic and paid search. Wordstream uses the latest Google search data to deliver accurate, targeted advertising ideas.

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This useful tool uses the latest Google search data to deliver accurate, targeted advertising ideas. Discover hundreds of relevant keywords, actionable information like competition level and estimated CPC, all for free!

*Free map tool is an online resource that enables visitors to easily and quickly use maps in order to measure, search and overlay mark-up elements on maps for a for a wide range of useful applications.

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LOCALiQ experts find this tool useful for obtaining postcodes within a specific radius which can then be exported as a CSV. file and used for setting up location targeting in PPC campaigns.

*Date calculator adds or subtracts days, weeks, months and years from a given date. This tool is good for working out cycle dates and display cycle dates specifically on campaign plans.

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*Google website speed tester conducts a diagnostic test to determine the performance, accessibility, SEO and more. Get your PageSpeed score and use PageSpeed suggestions to make your web site faster through this online tool. Don’t forget to check the speed of your mobile page as well.

Keyword Planner is a new tool from Google with the aim of helping you “find new keyword and ad group ideas, get performance estimates for them to find the bid and budget that are right for you, and then add them to your campaigns.” Learn how to navigate it with this post from Google.

*SEMrush If you’re wanting to conduct competitor PPC research, SEMrush is the tool you should be using. It helps you find out the keywords, positions, CPCs, costs and traffic for your competitor’s Google AdWords PPC. Learn how to use SEMrush with their help center containing user manuals, how-tos, videos and more.

Free PPC Extensions

Keywords Everywhere is a free plug-in for Chrome and Firefox that shows monthly search volume, search difficulty, suggested keywords and competition on multiple websites. It also provides traffic, link metrics and back link data.

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Ubersuggest is a free chrome extension and a powerful SEO tool that shows you keywords monthly search volume, CPC & competition data.

Moz Search Bar is a free chrome extension that makes it easy to get link metrics and do all your SEO on the go. Moz Search Bar saves time as you can quickly uncover the Page Authority, Domain Authority, and Spam Score of any site or page.

*What Font is a free chrome extension which can identify any font on webpages. With this extension you can inspect fonts online just by hoovering over them. This is good when making creatives to ensure consistent branding.

SEO quake is a free add-on that provides you with key SEO metrics, along with other useful tools such as SEO Audit and many others.

*Lighthouse is an open-source, automated tool for improving the performance, quality, and correctness of your web apps. It gives a quick overview on how good a website’s SEO is. Lighthouse runs a barrage of tests against the page, and then generates a report on how well the page did. From there you can use the failing tests as indicators on how to improve your website or app.

Support

Official Ads Community – Get help (for free) on Google Ads from other users.

Hubspot Community – Connect with peers, maximize your HubSpot knowledge, and learn how to grow better with HubSpot.

Google Partners – Hire a Google Partner to help.

Summary

It’s best to learn the basics of paid search marketing before you get started. This will not only save you time and money in the long run, but you’ll understand how to create more effective campaigns and how to track them efficiently.

If you don’t feel confident enough to run PPC campaigns on your own, why not explore our PPC services? At LOCALiQ we take the time to understand your business, creating the most cost-effective paid advertising campaign for your budget – ensuring your paid ads appear in front of the right people.

Plus, we’ll help you to optimise your digital marketing campaigns with our exclusive Cross Media Optimisation platform and Client Centre technology. Our bespoke services will streamline your paid advertising campaigns and provide real-time reports on how your customers discovered your business, maximising the return on investment for your budget.

Our team of digital marketing specialists are ready to provide you with expert marketing support – from PPC campaign management, professional SEO and content marketing services, to paid social, digital display advertising and more, we’re here to help.

Get in touch to find out how to get the best results from your campaigns.