Last updated on June 9th, 2023 at 11:16 am
Pay Per Click (PPC) advertising is a way of ensuring your adverts get seen by the right people. One that is often for a smaller sum too. In this article, we will discuss the UK Top Spenders on PPC Advertising.
It is a way of advertising utilized by many businesses across the world. There are many businesses in the UK that are using this advertising strategy to great effect and putting significant money behind it. Some of these may seem obvious, as they are businesses with a global presence. While others that are doing well may surprise you.
What is PPC Advertising?
PPC advertising is a form of advertisement where you only pay a fee if someone clicks on your ad. If you’re a smaller company starting out, this can help you get your feet off the ground.
The majority of businesses that use this well are the larger businesses. Google Ads is one of the best-known platforms to use when it comes to PPC.
When you use PPC, you bid on specific keywords. You’ll win them if your ad rank is high enough. Your ad rank then gets determined by your bid and your content score combined. Your content score gets calculated by a few variables. It could be your landing page or how relevant your page is to the keyword.
It’s important that you bid on the right keywords for your business. If your ad succeeds, it’ll get shown at the top when people search those keywords. People are more likely to click the top five links, so this will get your business seen.
Who Are the UK Top Spenders on PPC Advertising?
With that in mind, you may already have an idea of which companies are spending the most money. If they spend a lot, you’ll see them the most. Right?
You may see them a lot, but that doesn’t always equate to higher sales. You’ll see a mix of high sellers and high spenders on this list.
The people over at PPC Shield have spent some time researching this, looking at the estimated monthly spend on PPC using SEMRush. The expenditure on this list started in June 2020. That means we’re comparing the expenditure of a year rather than individual months.
Amazon UK
It will come as no one’s surprise that Amazon tops this list. This worldwide conglomerate does well everywhere that it ships to. Amazon is one of those companies you expect to see in lists of PPC ads.
These ads seem to be paying off. Amazon’s PPC adverts pop up for a variety of keywords. That along with a strong brand presence online and offline makes Amazon a powerful company.
Plus, how easy is it to order from their services? That’s likely what makes them so popular.
Very
Very are another one of those companies whose adverts pop on TV as much as their PPC ads pop up online. They’re a company that has money to spend on advertising.
Very stocks everything, from designer clothes to furniture or electricals. Thanks to that, they have a variety of keywords to choose from. Unsurprisingly, they’ve spent a lot on PPC in the last year.
When you look at the net sales of 2019, Very came in 5th. That suggests that the PPC ads have been working, and people have been making large orders from them. Though, this is very easy to do with a store like Very.
John Lewis
The only department store to make this list, John Lewis, is making good use of PPC advertising. John Lewis is also well known for its TV ads, with the British public always waiting with bated breath for their Christmas ad.
Last summer, they spent over £1,000,000 in both June and July. That suggests they found PPC advertising more important at that time. Not surprising, as during this time, there were fewer people in the shops.
Currys & Sainsburys
These two shops were other big spenders on PPC, according to the research.
It’s no surprise that Currys is on this list. Considering they sell technology themselves, they can laser-focus their PPC advertising. For example, they can target their advertising at people planning to replace their broken gadgets or even fix them.
Sainsbury’s is not the only supermarket to make it onto this list. With three others making the top eleven, including Tesco and Asda, it can vary what PPC ads you see for which keywords. Sainsbury’s is likely the supermarket you will see most, as they’ve spent more.
When do businesses spend the most on PPC?
You would think that businesses spend the most on PPC around Christmas. If you’re a shop, you know people will be buying around then. And you want them to notice you. But PPC shield has found that a lot of money seems to get spent during the summer.
Five out of the eleven businesses on the list spent more in July than they did in December 2020. Considering that in December, we not only went back into lockdown, but it was Christmas, it seems strange that less money went onto PPC advertising. It is possible that they used the advertising budget in other areas, such as television advertising.
Why do businesses spend money on PPC?
Businesses need to have an online model. When a shop is only a physical building, there’s a limit to what they can sell and the money they can make. Having a website will help your business, but it can be expensive to advertise.
PPC works because it allows businesses to watch and limit how much they spend. They can set limited amounts of money on certain keywords.
It’s worth noting that out of the top 11, four of these stores are online businesses. For these businesses, PPC is going to be one of the most effective ways to advertise. It gets potential customers to see your advertisement. But not having to pay for ads that go unseen is going to be best for their budgets.
Though you may not be able to afford to put as much money on PPC as these companies. It’s something worth looking into doing. And if you’re going to do it, doing well.
Does spending a lot of money on PPC make a difference to their sales?
Spending money on PPC is always going to make a difference. Any form of advertising is going to help your business out. And PPC can give you more opportunities to get seen among the bigger businesses.
By using keywords and learning from the responses you get, you can tailor your advertising to get the best response.
With these big business examples, it’s clear that PPC can make a difference.
Tesco is 10th on the list for how much they spent on PPC in the last year. But the 2019 stats say that they came in second place to Amazon with how much money they earned. They may not have been spending a lot of money on PPC, but their adverts must have still been getting seen.
People looking to order from places like Tesco are likely going to be making a large order. That means that with well-thought-out keyword choices, they could make a lot of money.
PPC may sometimes add up to a lot, but it’s also important to carefully research your keywords. All the businesses on this list are shops that do well across the country. Some of them across the world. You can earn a lot of money through PPC, as these companies have.
