The Pros and Cons of PPC for Accountants

Accountancy in the modern age isn’t just about calculating income and expenditures and all the things that go along with them. Accountants also need to market their services, and that means adding a few more numbers to those books, specifically ones related to PPC.

PPC stands for “Pay Per Click”. It’s a form of advertising where you pay for every click. Whether the visitor eventually buys or not, you pay the same.

It’s not perfect. It’s not always effective. And it’s not easy to get it right. However, if you run an accounting firm or operate as a Certified Public Accountant (CPA), you should definitely consider PPC advertising.

The Pros of PPC Advertising for Accountants

You Can Target Specific Regions and Interests

PPC platforms like Google Ads let you target users with certain interests in specific locations.

Advertising platforms have a lot of data on their users. They know where they live, what they like, and even how likely they are to spend. You can use that to your advantage when creating a PPC campaign.

Of course, the more limited the category, the fewer users you have to target and the more expensive it will be. However, you’ll know that everyone who clicks that link is looking for your services and resides within your target area.

The Results are Instant

Some forms of advertising take time to work.

SEO is a prime example. It’s one of the most cost-effective ways to get your brand out there, but it can take weeks to create a good SEO campaign and months before you start climbing the search results.

WITH PPC advertising, you should see results immediately, with people clicking your links and visiting your site within hours. And if you’re not getting results, it means you’re not spending anymore.

There is Lots of Quantifiable Data

Accountants are familiar with numbers and comfortable with data, and that’s what PPC campaign optimization is all about.

These campaigns generate data such as total cost, average cost per click, return on investment (ROI), average time spent on the site, conversion rate, and more.

Crunching those numbers will tell you what’s working and what’s not, giving you the direction needed to optimize your campaigns.

It is Highly Scalable

You don’t need a big budget to run a PPC campaign. Some platforms may request a minimum budget, but that’s not the case for the likes of Google and Meta, where you can set detailed budgets of just a few dollars before clarifying how much you want to spend every month.

If you’re just starting out and don’t have much capital behind you, simply launch a small PPC campaign to drive more traffic, get more leads, and slowly grow your business.

Once you have optimized your campaigns and acquired a few more clients, you can increase that budget and keep scaling your business.

The Cons of PPC Advertising for Accountants

The Average Cost Per Click is High

The price of clicks is based on competition, which in turn is set by the value that these clicks generate.

In many ecommerce sectors, clicks can cost as little as $0.20 to $0.50 each. In the professional services sector, however, it’s not unusual to pay upwards of $10 per click, and some keywords run into the hundreds of dollars.

If you don’t know what you’re doing, it will get very expensive.

Clicks Don’t Equal Conversions

A click brings someone to your website, and if you’re using targeted campaigns, that person could be interested in accounting services.

But that doesn’t mean they will buy what you’re selling.

Maybe now’s just not the right time for them. Maybe they’re picky and want to compare your services with others. It could also be the result of a poorly optimized website.

That’s not all, as many PPC platforms, including social media sites and Google Ads, will drive traffic that’s not relevant.

Think about all the writers researching articles, the accountants checking the competition, and the people using VPNs who aren’t actually local. Sure, they account for just a small percentage of the clicks you’ll get, but when you’re dealing with an industry that can charge over $10 per click, it all adds up.

If you’re paying per conversion, it doesn’t matter, as those clicks won’t cost; if you’re investing in SEO, you don’t care if the occasional wrong people click, as all the right ones will click as well.

You’re Paying for Every Visit

Unlike SEO, which drives organic traffic to your website, you’re paying for every click with PPC. That can cause problems if it’s not working in your favor.

Suppose, for instance, that you have a high return on advertising spend (ROAS) in the beginning. It costs more to acquire a client than you get from that client.

You make some changes and improve that rate, but you need to hire someone to run the campaigns and keep it there.

In doing so, you have effectively reduced your ROAS, and if there is a change in conditions that drives costs higher or conversions lower, you’ll constantly be straddling that profitability line.

Campaigns Requires Ongoing Maintenance

A PPC advertising campaign is not something you can launch and forget. It needs ongoing maintenance to remove irrelevant keywords, add new ones, change targeting preferences, adjust the budget, and ensure your ROAS remains high.

If you don’t have the time to do all of that, you’ll need to pay someone who does, and experts aren’t cheap.

Summary: PPC and Its Alternatives

PPC can be very effective, but only if you do it right.

There are many pitfalls, and if you’re overpaying and under-converting, you’ll find yourself in a very deep hole.

SEO is one of the best alternatives. It’s not free, but once the traffic starts flowing, it’ll feel like it is, as you don’t pay for every click or interaction and can just harvest the fruits of that initial labor.

Contact us today to learn more about our SEO services for accountants. We work with accountants across the country and can scale our services to meet most budgets.