How To Make Money With Pay-Per-Click Advertising

Pay-per-click (PPC) advertising is a method of online marketing where businesses pay every time someone clicks on their ad, which also lets them measure the results of a campaign. Unlike traditional advertising on radio, TV, and newspapers, you can track the actions taken by consumers and calculate your return on investment. It can be used to target specific audiences, too.

PPC ads can be a faster-converting channel than organic marketing. This was true for home machinery company FactoryPure, whose original strategy included reaching out to blogs and writing guest posts. As the brand scaled and added more product categories, they decided to turn away from the slower organic process and focus on paid online ads.

“It was very, very slow. Usually with SEO, that’s not abnormal. It’ll take six months, a year, two years, before you get that traction,” Founder Eugene Ravitsky says on an episode of Shopify Masters. “It’s not that it didn’t work, we just abandoned it because we thought our resources and time would be better spent elsewhere.”

In this article, learn about the different PPC ads you can run and the elements of a successful PPC campaign.

What is pay per click (PPC)?

Pay per click (PPC) is an online advertising model where advertisers pay a fee each time a user clicks on their ad. It has also become an umbrella term for other bidding and payment models, like cost per thousand impressions (CPM) and cost per acquisition (CPA). Analytics tools can help you measure the effectiveness of campaigns by tracking metrics attributed to ads like traffic and sales.

PPC advertising enables precise targeting by letting you bid on specific keywords, user behaviors, or audience interests. For example, Ricky Lee Jones, founder of ski apparel brand Stratus, uses Facebook targeting to show ads to shoppers who are dedicated skiers and more likely to be interested in the brand’s niche products.

Advertisers place bids on ad space by specifying a maximum fee per click. PPC advertising platforms compare bids and quality scores to determine ad placement. How much you end up paying can depend on how competitive the keyword is and how well your ad ranks.

An alternative to a traditional PPC ad is a pay-per-conversion ad. If you run a pay-per-conversion campaign on a platform like Shop Campaigns, you pay only when a customer takes a desired action, such as making a purchase.

Types of PPC ads

PPC ads can appear across the internet and in different forms. Here are three popular types: 

Search ads

With paid search ads, or search engine marketing, brands pay to improve their visibility on search engines. Search ads are the most popular digital ad type, making up 38.8% of digital ad market share in the United States in 2025, according to the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB). 

Eugene of FactoryPure uses Google Ads to target customers who are further along their buying journey and who might be more likely to convert. The key to success, he says, is avoiding general keywords in favor of more specific ones. 

“We sell water heaters, so if somebody’s searching for a water heater, there’s a very low chance that they actually could convert because they could be looking for anything,” he says. “We try to target longer-tailed keywords, where people are a little bit further into the process and they know what they want. They’re searching not just for a water heater, but they’re searching for a specific brand or a specific size or fuel type. … If people are searching for that phrase, they’re more likely ready to buy.”

Long-tail keywords may be even more important in the age of AI. Shopify data shows 71% of AI-attributed orders came from the long tail searches in 2025.

If you’re running a Google Ads campaign, you can segment audiences based on habits, demographics, location, and interactions with your business. With Shopify Audiences, you can create ad campaigns that draw on data from the Shopify ecosystem and target high-intent customers. 

Social media ads

Social media ads appear on platforms like Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, X, Pinterest, and Snapchat. Because these platforms collect large amounts of user data, such as personal interests, scrolling behavior, and demographics, they can serve your ads to the right audience. 

Each platform has different ad formats. Jaclyn VanSloten, founder and growth strategist at Femra Consulting, suggests selecting the format based on your goal for the campaign. For example, on Instagram, she chooses Reels and Stories for awareness campaigns because those full-screen formats are “immersive and a little bit more authentic.” For conversion-focused campaigns, she opts for more polished-looking feed or carousel ads with a clear call to action (CTA).

Display ads

Display advertising places ads on digital platforms, apps, and websites. They can be banner ads, interactive content, and pop-up ads. Display advertising was the second-most popular form of digital advertising in the US in 2025, with 27.7% of market share, according to the IAB. 

Display platforms use browsing history, demographics, or interests to determine which ad campaigns users see. For example, if a user is visiting a media website, they might see an ad placed within an article for something they’d previously searched. 

Elements of a PPC campaign

• Robust keyword research
• High-quality ad content
• A good landing page
• Performance data

Building and managing a PPC ad campaign involves selecting an advertising platform, allocating ad spend, and developing a bidding strategy. Here are some of the essential elements of a strong campaign.

Robust keyword research

Keyword selection is a main component of search ads. Start by defining your target audience. Map their interests, pain points, and search behaviors. Use keyword research tools to select keywords directly connecting potential customers to your product’s unique value proposition. 

For example, accessories brand Ridge sells wallets in several colorways. The brand uses different keywords that highlight what makes their product unique, including “RFID wallet,” “metal wallet,” “slim wallet,” and “tough wallet.” 

PPC advertising platforms view ad relevance as a component of quality, which means ad content should be related to target keywords. It’s one of the ways Google judges the quality of advertisements. If your chosen terms aren’t connected to your ad content, your ads are less likely to receive placement. 

High-quality ad content 

Beyond keyword relevance, platforms such as Google also score ad quality based on expected clickthrough rate and user experience.

Create an ad that resonates with your audience. Mary Gui, founder and CEO of Sock Candy, infuses her brand’s ad copy with language pulled straight from customer surveys. 

“When we’re writing ads, we put out a survey to current customers,” she says on Shopify Masters. “The way I describe my socks may not be the way a customer describes them.” 

You might also take a data-driven approach, creating multiple versions of your ad content and using A/B testing techniques to identify the highest performing ad creative.

A good landing page

To get the most value from your ad clicks, send users to a clear, comprehensible landing page. If a user clicks through but finds a landing page design that poorly communicates your product’s specifications and benefits, they may leave quickly, increasing your bounce rate. 

Marketing expert Nik Sharma recommends using the “grandma” test for your ad landing pages. 

“Your grandma should be able to go there and fully understand, What does the product do? Why does it exist? How’s it going to benefit me? And how does it compare to the other products on the market that say they do the same thing?” he says on Shopify Masters.

Performance data

Use your advertising or ecommerce platform’s analytics tools to gain insights on your ads and optimize your PPC ad spend. 

Shopify users have access to Shopify’s analytics, which can show the number of sessions and sales on your store that resulted from ad campaigns. Data like this can help you compare different campaigns and channels to decide whether you need to reallocate your budget to place more money behind top performers.

How to make money with PPC ads

• Conversion-focused campaigns
• Awareness campaigns
• Remarketing
• Lead generation
• Ad extensions
• Pay-per-click affiliate programs

To generate revenue for an ecommerce business, PPC ads have to drive more than clicks. They have to drive purchases. Here are some of the strategies you can use to start making money with PPC campaigns. 

Conversion-focused campaigns

Conversion-focused campaigns aim to drive an action, such as a purchase. You can run ads on platforms like Google Shopping, TikTok Shop, Amazon, and more. Target keywords related to your product’s category or intended use. For example, rollerskating brand Impala Skate targeted the keyword “women’s rollerskates” on Google.

Awareness campaigns 

Brand awareness campaigns can drive long-term growth by introducing products to new audiences. These campaigns focus on creating memorable impressions through broad, engaging messages that spark curiosity. 

Combining paid social media ads and influencer marketing is one way to run an awareness campaign. For example, nail polish brand Nailboo has teamed up with celebrities like Paris Hilton and GloRilla, who have millions of followers on social media.

“We really try to align ourselves with individuals that do have a following, do have a cult-like audience, to piggyback in a sense and latch our brands onto their fame and kind of influence,” Cofounder Razvan Romanescu says on Shopify Masters. 

Remarketing 

PPC remarketing, also known as retargeting, allows you to focus on converting users who’ve engaged with your website or products in the past. Since they’ve already shown interest, a well-placed ad can remind them to return and make a purchase.

Remarketing ads can show users products they’ve previously viewed or related items, and can increase conversions and reduce cart abandonment rates.

You can run retargeting ads on social media by adding the TikTok and Meta pixels to your Shopify website. These are lines of code that can allow you to show ads to TikTok, Facebook, or Instagram users who have previously visited your website. Shopify store owners can get started by downloading the TikTok and Facebook & Instagram apps from the Shopify App Store.

Lead generation

Build your potential customer base with a PPC lead-generation campaign. This strategy focuses on collecting user contact information and demographic data. Instead of immediately asking visitors to make a purchase, lead-gen campaigns may offer a discount or perk in exchange for specific actions like email sign-ups. The goal is to build your email list, which can help you generate more revenue over time. 

To strengthen your lead-generation efforts, focus on creating a high-converting landing page. Aim to write a compelling headline, add high-quality visuals, have clear CTAs, and reduce distractions. 

Ad assets

Increase paid search ad engagement through ad assets. These additional content pieces appear alongside paid search ads, expanding their real estate on search engine results pages. 

Assets provide valuable supplementary details like product specifics, pricing, business locations, or contact information, turning your basic search ads into more informative, compelling marketing assets. 

You can add ad assets on Google for free, however, they may only show if they’re predicted to improve the ad’s performance.

Pay-per-click affiliate programs

PPC affiliate programs like Google AdSense let website owners make money online by hosting ads. Affiliate marketers earn money each time a visitor clicks on an advertisement.

PPC affiliate marketing can be a good fit for people who want to make money blogging and other content creators.

He began monetizing the site with Google AdSense in 2016 and used advertising revenue to help fund the business’s growth. Epic Gardening later expanded into ecommerce, launching an online store in 2019.

For example, Kevin Espiritu started Epic Gardening as a blog and educational company. Kevin began monetizing his site in 2016 with Google AdSense, before branching out into ecommerce in 2019.