Amazon is a massive platform that reaches literally billions of users. It can be one of the best ways to expand your reach to acquire more customers and more importantly to improve your brand recognition.
Unfortunately, there are costs associated with selling on Amazon, and depending on who you are, what you’re selling, in what volume, and most importantly, how much you’re making on that sale, will determine whether you can afford to sell on Amazon.
Amazon works for both large and small businesses, but the costs associated may be more than the smaller sellers can afford depending on profit margin. Before you decide whether it is worth it to sell on Amazon, we’ll break down how the whole process works and what you can expect to pay so that you have a better idea of what you’re getting into.
We’ll also outline some of the benefits of using Amazon paid ads, besides the massive marketplace. One thing to note is that Amazon offers a number of services beyond just a platform for selling. Most sellers don’t realize at first, that Amazon offers resources for order fulfillment, advertising, affiliate sales linking, and other options. All of these features do increase the overall cost though, so we’ll dive into the benefits of each so that you understand what all you do and don’t need from Amazon before you ever start selling.
The actual setup process for becoming a seller on Amazon is fairly easy. Amazon will actually walk you through the process by making a few decisions and then setting up your seller account.
Before you begin that process though, the key thing is to understand your finances, what you’re looking to do and the scale you’re trying to sell at. Amazon actually offers a marketing agency program to help sellers get to market and offer their goods, but this means additional fees and charges and more work when trying to get ready to sell.
If you’re not going this route and have your own marketing agency, or are doing your marketing yourself, then you would just sign up for a seller account. There are two business models that most sellers use.
Third-Party Seller: This is a person who sells goods that another person makes. This means you rely on the supply you are given by the third party and sell the goods accordingly.
Brand Owner: You make and sell your own goods. This puts you in charge of the supply and sale process. You sell exactly what you are able to produce.
When setting up an account, you should consider whether you want to do one or the other, though some businesses do handle both ends of the process, selling their own goods as well as those provided by third-party suppliers.
Once you know what you want to do in terms of the types of selling you want to handle. Go to seller.amazon.com to register your account. Note that you should already have a standard Amazon account before you begin the process. You’ll also need several pieces of information to complete the actual sign-up process.
We’ll go ahead and bullet point the information you should have for clarity.
All of the information you have to provide is fairly standard for setting up any business type of account, so you shouldn’t have any issues with actually opening your seller account.
When you complete the process, you are given access to a platform called Amazon Seller Central. For informational purposes, we’ll break down Amazon Seller Central into its core components and explain what it does for sellers.
Amazon Seller Central is essentially your eCommerce hub for selling on Amazon. It allows you to manage all aspects of the selling process. They even have tutorials on how to sell on Amazon and a fees calculator to help you see what you’ll be paying for selling your products.
The main benefit of the platform is that you can set up your sales pages, adjust product listings, descriptions, rules, prices, and anything else related to the actual products you sell. It also assists with order processing. From here you can add and edit products as you like, adjust, improve, or remove listings and keep track of all your orders.
Additionally, there are brand services. To access these services, you have to be a registered brand on Amazon. To do this, you must apply to the Amazon Brand Registry, which requires more paperwork.
What you’ll need:
This can be a time-consuming process, even if you have all your paperwork together. Amazon has a brand approval process that can take between 1 and 30 days to complete.
Why is this important? Recognized brands get a number of advantages. They get customized product pages with their brand logos attached, higher brand recognition through the seller platform, and a branded storefront. This level of recognition is invaluable to growing both your sales and your web presence. It guarantees that your brand name and logo will be seen by more people as they browse and buy products on Amazon.
Setting up your Amazon Seller Central can be done manually or you can pay for a service through Amazon to have it done for you.
The last official step before you begin selling is the creation of your actual store on Amazon. This is fairly straightforward and is done through templates. Once you select your brand name and click create store, you’ll be directed to add your brand name and logo and select a pre-built template for your store.
There are a few different options, but select the one that presents your products in the way you want them seen and displays your brand in a way that is visible and identifiable. This comes down to personal taste but is an important part of the store setup process.
From there you move on to the inventory setup process where you can add products to your store. This can be done one at a time or all at once by uploading the products to your store. You can follow the instructions through Amazon’s helpful product upload guide to get the gist of how to do it.
After you have all your product pages set up and you’re happy with everything, the last step before you launch the store so that it goes live is to submit it to Amazon for approval, which takes 72 hours. As you can see, beyond the cost, which we’ll discuss further in a moment, there is a significant type lapse between account creation and beginning the selling process.
Selling on Amazon is not nearly as simple as it may seem at first glance. To sum up the entire process, you need to think about the type of seller you want to be, gather all the important documents, create your seller account, get your brand name approved (if applicable), set up your store, and get it approved.
Now that we’ve broken down the process of selling on Amazon, we’ll do a deep dive into the actual cost of selling on Amazon. This can get fairly complicated so we’ll try to break the fees down in a way that lets you figure out what you have to pay, what you may want to pay for, and what you have no use for.
Beyond just the storefront, there is a whole plethora of options and services that Amazon provides to sellers. The trouble is that each of these services has additional fees associated with them. These costs can really add up, especially if you go in for more than what you need.
Before we begin, one quick thing to note is that the costs we are quoting are at the time of publishing and are subject to change. Use these costs as a guideline for what you can expect to pay.
There are two seller subscription plans and each has its own costs and features.
The individual plan is free to set up and the fee is a flat $.99 per item, at the point the item sells. You can create new product pages with an individual account, but you won’t have access to many of the customized reporting options and inventory management features.
The shipping fees are standardized and set by Amazon instead of the seller. You will also not have access to gift cards and promotional sales options. The individual account is also a single account that belongs only to the account holder, permissions to alter the product pages and other services cannot be given to other users.
We can’t say whether this type of account will be right for you, but for individuals that do limited numbers of sales and just want a marketplace to host their products, this is a good option to start with. If sales volume increases or you need access to other features, you can upgrade. Amazon also offers temporary suspension of sales for any reason to either plan holder. This is useful if you run out of stock or suffer a sudden emergency.
The professional plan comes with a flat fee of $39.99 per month. There is no per-product fee directly associated with the plan (though other fees may apply depending on services). You are also given access to all of the product management and reporting features that are offered through a seller account, unlike with an individual account.
One major difference is that with a professional plan, the seller is able to set the shipping rates instead of Amazon. Sellers are also given access to promotional offers, gift cards, and featured listings on products. You are also able to calculate U.S. sales and use taxes on your products through an available feature. Lastly, professional plan owners have the ability to grant access and use rights to other owners/users.
The professional plan is ideally suited for larger sellers that want more control over their products and reports and who do such a sales volume that the per-item fee would be an unnecessary expense. Starting sellers may choose to go with this plan straight away or may choose to wait and upgrade to it.
These are fees assessed to the seller at the point of sale. For individual plan owners, the fee ranges from $.45 to $1.35 per sale, on top of the standard $.99 fee. This means sellers can expect to pay between $1.44 and $2.34 per item sold. These fees are non-negotiable and are applied by Amazon.
Professional plan fees are percentage-based and can vary greatly. There are two types of fees assessed, closing fees, and referral fees which are paid on a percentage of sale basis and range between 6% and 25%, though the average is 13%. Professional plan holders can track fees with a fee calculator to determine the cost of fees associated with the sale of products.
Depending on the place of origin, taxes can vary wildly so we can’t give you an accurate estimate of what taxes, if any, are applicable. Amazon does provide professional plan members a tax calculator for U.S.-based sales. For multinational sales, the taxes can be quite high, so it is best to do some research into these costs to determine what your product is going to cost you so that you can set your shipping costs accurately.
This is what marketers refer to as the “landed cost” of an item, you take the base price of making the item and include the cost to get it to the customer to determine how much it will cost you in total. If you’re planning on selling on Amazon, it’s important to understand the role taxes play in the sale of products.
The cost of a GTIN may vary depending on the size and scope of your product sales. A standard GTIN for just a few products is a one-time fee of $30. For large companies with many products and expectations to add more, there is an annual fee associated with your GTIN and multiple GTINs may be necessary.
You can get an exemption to this, but to be a legitimate brand you must have a GTIN on every product. This is mandatory and facilitates shipping around the world. You should figure out the monthly cost of your GTINs and factor that into the cost of products just like taxes.
The first thing we’ll talk about, and this is one that big business may want to invest in to protect their property, is a registered trademark. You should already have this if you are a branded company, but we’ll assume you’re just starting and need to know the cost. Depending on the level of protection you want, the cost ranges from $225 to $400. This is not mandatory but should be considered essential if you’re using Amazon to build your brand.
Second, and this is one that has to do with getting your products sold, is Amazon PPC Ads. Advertising is an important part of getting your products sold and investing in advertising through Amazon’s PPC ads can help you drive sales to your store. There are a number of ad types, some are directed at new customers and some are directed at marketing towards existing customers through remarketing ads.
Lastly, there are additional marketing costs for influencer marketing and marketing agency representation. These are associated with the marketing methods you choose and whether or not you employ help from Amazon or an outside marketing agency
The last thing we’ll talk about in regards to fees and Amazon are the fees you pay as part of building your brand and marketing your products on Amazon. There are a number of things you can do from using Amazon’s marketing services to maximizing the SEO on your product pages to improve Google rank or running ads through the Google Ads program on outside sites or through SERP.
Using Google Ads and Ad Extensions can help you develop customer data, but these costs are based on each individual situation, like the optional fees above, these services aren’t necessary, but they may benefit your brand.
Marketing and SEO can get expensive but is one of the main ways to drive your sales up. If you’re looking to build brand exposure and sell more products quickly, then these are important steps to take.
These are the basics of many of the different fees associated with being a seller on Amazon. The exact amounts and total costs will vary, but as we’ve discussed, the total cost versus profit on Amazon is calculated by adding in all of the associated fees, the cost of the product, and subtracting that from the sale price.
By knowing this, you can determine whether Amazon is the right platform for you. You may decide the benefits are worth the increased costs or you may decide that you don’t have the right procedures in place to make it worthwhile. The last tip we will give is to get help from a marketing agency or advertising firm to help you set up and run your online shop so that you can maximize the potential for profits.
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When you’re running pay-per-click (PPC) ads, it’s easy to assume clicks mean genuine interest, but most car shoppers are just kicking tires online. Seeing your inventory once doesn’t mean they’re ready to buy anytime soon or even at all. If you want to reach the portion of clicks that come from serious buyers, you need to use retargeting.
The reality is that even prospects who intend to buy a car will bounce before contacting you or visiting your lot in person. And if you don’t have a way to keep them aware of your business, when they’re ready to buy, they’ll buy from a competitor. Running retargeted ads will keep your dealership in their awareness even after they bounce.
According to a 2022 Cox Automotive Car Buyer Journey Study, the average person spends more than 14 hours searching for a new car, which includes visiting around 5 websites before making a purchase decision. The sites they visit include automakers, dealers, third-party sites, and pre-owned car lots with online inventory. Your prospects aren’t going to buy right away, so to get the sale you need to reel them back in. If you’re not using retargeting – also called remarketing – in your PPC campaign, you’re missing out on hot leads.
Buying a car isn’t a small decision. People compare makes, models, and deals and look for dealerships with great reputations. Getting a single click from a potential car buyer isn’t enough to make the sale. And when they bounce, there’s no guarantee they’ll remember you exist. You’re paying for all those initial clicks, and if potential leads never come back you’ve wasted your ad spend. When you use retargeting, you’ll have another chance to turn their curiosity into a conversation, and that’s why remarketing is an essential component in every PPC ad campaign.
PPC ad retargeting for car dealerships shows your ads to people who have already clicked on an ad or visited your website. When implemented strategically, it keeps your dealership visible across multiple platforms and follows those people across the web. For example, when you run retargeted ads on the Google Display Network, your display ads will show up on the blogs, news sites, and apps your prospects frequent.
You can also run retargeting campaigns on social media sites like Facebook and Instagram. As long as your prospects scroll through their daily feed, your ads will show up for them if they’ve already interacted with you. YouTube also offers retargeting options with video ads that play right before the content. In fact, don’t underestimate the power of YouTube video advertising. According to data from Wyzowl, video ads convince 84% of people to buy a product or service.
Not everyone searching for a new car will respond to the same bland, boilerplate message. For example, someone browsing luxury SUVs isn’t going to click on an ad that says, “Low APR on all models!” That’s where remarketing shines. It lets you tailor your message to what each user actually wants, which increases response rates.
With retargeting, you can segment your audience based on their interests and behavior. For example, someone comparing financing terms won’t be swayed by flashy sports car imagery. With retargeting, you can show truck shoppers truck ads and sports car shoppers sports car ads. It sounds simple, but it’s one of the most powerful marketing methods of all time. People are far more responsive to messages that feel personal. You may have caught their attention with a general ad at first, but once they start browsing those SUVs on your website, you can retarget them with SUV ads.
When you use retargeting, you can provide different calls to action (CTAs) to users based on how they’ve engaged with your web pages. A visitor who spent a lot of time on your truck inventory pages can be served ads for your latest truck deals. Someone who checked out your lease specials can be hit with ads that talk about financing offers. It’s deceptively simple and brutally effective. Relevance is everything. When your ads reflect what the prospect was already thinking about, it feels personal and resonates.
A next-level tactic is using engagement depth to determine how strong your call to action should be. For instance:
· Multi-page viewers and long dwell times. These are warm leads and can be retargeted with stronger CTAs like “Book a test drive” and “Get a quote today.” They’re close to converting and just need a little push.
· Single-page bouncers. These are people who just peeked at your site. They can be re-engaged with lighter touchpoints like a general promotion or model comparison guide to reel them back in.
· Abandoned lead forms. If someone started filling out a form but didn’t finish, retarget them with a reminder and a stronger offer to sweeten the deal (e.g., “Complete your form for $500 off!”).
This level of nuance turns retargeting into a conversion machine and allows you to show the customer exactly what they want to see.
People don’t buy cars from whatever dealer they find first. That’s too risky. They buy from dealerships they trust and that feel familiar. You can build that sense of familiarity and trust through retargeting. For example:
· Consistent branding across ads. Using consistent branding, design, and messaging throughout your ads reinforces your dealership’s identity.
· Frequency builds familiarity. People need to see a brand between 5-7 times before they’ll remember it. Retargeting puts your dealership in front of people over and over again. Even if they don’t click right away, it’s helping to establish your credibility.
· Social proof works. When you use social proof like customer testimonials or awards in your ads it builds trust with your prospects.
Trust is earned over time, and retargeting will help you get it.
If you’re not using retargeting, your competitors definitely are. Car dealerships operate in one of the most brutally competitive markets out there, with national chains and franchise giants dominating search results and flooding ad channels with endless budgets. If you’re not showing up again and again, your competitors will, and they’ll scoop up all your leads.
The good news is you don’t need a massive marketing budget to get results. Retargeting allows smaller, local dealerships to play smart rather than trying to play big. When you focus on local PPC with hyper-targeted remarketing, you can reach a smaller, more qualified audience – people who are actually in your area, browsing your inventory, and likely to buy soon.
And unlike those cookie-cutter campaigns from national dealers, you can make your messaging feel personal and specific to your local community. That’s an edge big budgets don’t have.
Every visitor who leaves your website without converting is a potential sale but not necessarily lost. With smart retargeting, you can bring them back into your funnel and stay top-of-mind while your competitors waste money shouting into the void. Persistence wins the sale and retargeting is how you stay on the map.
To be blunt, search ads can get expensive fast, especially when clicks can cost a couple dollars per click. Pouring money into cold traffic is gambling on people who may not be ready to engage. Retargeting changes everything.
Display retargeting clicks typically cost a fraction of what you’d pay for search ads using competitive keywords. You’re no longer paying top dollar to get someone’s attention from scratch – you’re nudging people who already know who you are, and those people are more likely to respond. This makes retargeting one of the most cost-effective ways to use your advertising budget.
· Lower CPC, higher intent. Retargeting costs less per click, but you’re targeting people who already visited your site and showed interest.
· Better conversion rates. Familiarity breeds trust. Retargeted visitors are statistically more likely to convert than new users who just clicked an ad out of curiosity.
· Higher ROI. Since retargeting reaches warm leads, the cost of acquiring a lead is usually lower, which means your overall cost per lead is lower and you get better ROI.
If you’re skipping remarketing because you think it’s just something “extra” that doesn’t make a difference, you’re not saving money – you’re losing easy wins. Instead of perpetually chasing new, cold traffic, invest in converting the traffic you’re already getting. That’s exactly what remarketing does.
Generic ads are fine for first impressions, but once someone has browsed your inventory it’s time to get specific with dynamic retargeting. Here’s how it works:
When a prospect views a specific vehicle on your site, you can use retargeting ads to show them the exact vehicles they viewed and others like it down to the year, color, trim, and mileage. For example, if they looked at a black 2005 BMW 535i, that’s exactly what they’ll see in the ad – the same photos, same specs, all across sites like YouTube, Facebook, news platforms, and more. This reminds your prospects of exactly what they want.
Dynamic retargeting works by integrating your live inventory feed with your ad platform, like Google Ads or Meta. This means the vehicles displayed in your ads will always be up to date and won’t feature cars you sold last week.
Beyond personalization, dynamic ads are an incredible tool for creating a sense of urgency:
· Leverage scarcity. With these ads, you can leverage the power of scarcity by stating that your inventory won’t last. Using messages like “Only 1 left” or “Recently reduced” signals that the opportunity won’t last.
· Show what’s popular. If a particular model is getting a lot of views, let your prosects know. People don’t want to miss out on a good deal.
· Trigger action with FOMO. Fear of missing out is real, and when people see the car they want again – with a reminder that it might sell soon – they’re more likely to come in for a test drive.
By using retargeted ads, you can increase conversion rates by up to 200% compared to standard display ads. These ads feel more like a helpful reminder than an outright advertisement.
If you’ve never run paid ads before, it’s easy to assume your only options are basic keyword targeting and generic follow-up ads. But today’s ad platforms give you a buffet of hyper-specific targeting capabilities to fine-tune exactly who sees your ads, where, when, and how.
One of the most effective PPC retargeting tactics for car dealerships is location-based targeting. With radius targeting, you can serve ads to people within a specified distance from your dealership, like within 10-15 miles. These will be prospects who are not only likely to visit your site but could realistically walk into your showroom today. Don’t waste ad spend on clicks from people three states away.
Then there are device-specific campaigns. If your analytics show that 75% or your traffic comes from mobile (this is common), you can launch a mobile-only retargeting campaign with click-to-call buttons, mobile-optimized landing pages, and a map and directions built right into your ads. This will improve the user experience and increase conversion rates.
Timing also matters. When you schedule your ads you can control when they appear. Run them during lunch breaks, in the evenings, or on weekends when people have more time to browse car listings and are more likely to make big purchase decisions.
Other strategic targeting elements include:
· Demographic targeting. You can tailor your messages based on age, income level, and household status. A 25-year-old college grad and a 45-year-old parent are not shopping for the same reasons even though they might buy the same car.
· Behavioral triggers. You can create audiences for your retargeted ads based on repeat visits, clicks, video views, or interaction with a specific feature like a trade-in calculator.
· Lookalike audiences. Build new audiences that resemble your best customers. Platforms like Meta and Google are really good at identifying similar users based on their behavior online.
The bottom line is that retargeting doesn’t have to be broad. With the right strategy, it becomes a smart, cost-effective system for reaching the right prospects at the right time.
Have a sale, lease offer, or year-end clearance? Retargeting can amplify the urgency to act now. By offering short-term discounts and financing deals, you can tap into the urgency people feel when presented with time-sensitive offers. Emphasize the end date using a countdown timer or final deadline to create FOMO (fear of missing out).
With this type of retargeting, you can align your ads with your email messaging to increase conversions even more. For example, if you sent out a promotion to your email list, they’re likely to see your retargeted ads and be reminded of the deal you’re offering.
Retargeting is the PPC secret weapon most car dealerships don’t take advantage of. Using this strategy can make the difference between a one-time curious visitor and a buyer ready to schedule a test drive. If you’re spending money on clicks without retargeting your visitors, you’re wasting your ad spend.
At PPC.co, we specialize in high-performance white label PPC campaigns that include smart retargeting from day one. Whether you’re launching your first campaign or looking to tighten up your existing ad strategy, we can help you capture more leads, drive more traffic, and move cars off your lot. Let’s turn those clicks into closed deals – contact us now to get started.
When it comes to selling web hosting, you’re competing in a fierce market with thin margins and corporations with big budgets. According to data sourced by Hostinger, the top 10 hosting providers account for 33.6% of the global market, which is expected to reach $355.81 billion by 2029. And the top three cloud providers combined hold more than 60% of the cloud infrastructure market.
That’s some fierce competition. But when you take a closer look, some of the bigger companies have a slew of dissatisfied customers looking for alternatives, and many first-time buyers will sign up for a good deal if a web host seems legit. That leaves plenty of room for smaller hosting companies to thrive. In fact, your hosting services and customer support might outshine some of the big players. But when you run paid ads, you’re all competing in the same space. That means you need to level up your advertising strategies to capture your share of the market.
Pay-per-click (PPC) advertising can be a powerful tool for acquiring hosting clients, but it can also be a fast way to tank your marketing budget. Make just one mistake and you’ll end up paying for clicks that don’t convert. To win, you need more than just good ads – you need a laser-targeted strategy, messaging that hits your market’s triggers, and landing pages that convert. You need to deliver the right ads to the right market at the right time. Here’s how it’s done.
Not everyone searching for web hosting is the same and treating them as such will yield poor results. For instance, someone searching for “cheap web hosting” is going to make a price-driven decision, and someone searching for “WordPress hosting” wants to skip technical tasks. Although they might all end up purchasing the same hosting plan, you need to reach each group based on what’s driving their purchase decision. Your messaging – from ad to landing page – needs to guide each user down a path that speaks directly to their goals, fears, and expectations. This is done through segmentation.
To execute this, determine what groups of user intent you want to reach. For example, common groups in this market are bargain hunters, small businesses looking for reliability, companies governed by data privacy laws, and non-techies looking for managed hosting.
When you run an ad campaign, you’ll set up a different ad group for each user intent so you can target them with their specific message. Ads displayed to each group will drive traffic to a corresponding landing page written exclusively for that persona. For instance, ads for “cheap web hosting” will lead to a landing page that highlights your low prices and special deals for paying years in advance. Ads targeting small businesses will lead to pages promoting 99.9% uptime, email tools, and reliability. The better you know your segments, the easier it is to tailor each funnel.
Before you even think about creating your first paid ad, you should already know what your competitors are doing. And yes, even major hosting companies are your competitors regardless of the market you’re trying to reach. However, not everyone is happy with the big hosting companies so there’s space for smaller fish, but you have to play your marketing hand right. That starts with knowing what you’re up against and where there’s room for improvement.
Study your competitors deeply. Look at their websites, paid ads and landing pages, email newsletters, and everything else in-between. Once you visit their website, you should start seeing their paid ads across various channels, including Facebook and Google. Study the layouts, the copy, the headings, the pricing models, and look up their customer reviews.
Next, use sites like Reddit and Trustpilot to find out what customers don’t like about your competitors. You’ll want to use that information to create compelling ads. For example, if you find a bunch of complaints about poor customer support, advertise 24/7 human support as part of your value proposition (as long as you actually offer it). If another competitor is hitting customers with hidden fees and annoying upsells, advertise transparent pricing and no surprise fees. If people complain about a confusing, highly technical user interface, make it known that yours is user-friendly.
You don’t want to copy your competitors’ ads – you want to outthink them by leveraging their missteps to create better hooks. Tech giants have million-dollar marketing budgets, and you don’t need to outspend them if you can outmaneuver them.
You only have around 0.4 seconds to make a user stop scrolling to look at your ad. Once they click, you have another 2.5 seconds to capture their attention. Whatever is on the other side of that click needs to be good. But to even get that far, you need to capture attention fast.
It’s said that the average person scrolls through the equivalent of around 300 feet of content every day. If your headlines aren’t scroll-stoppers, they won’t get any attention. But headlines that capture attention aren’t necessarily clever – they’re clear, compelling, and speak directly to what your market wants. For example, a web hosting ad headline that reads “Premium Web Hosting” isn’t compelling. On the other hand, “Launch Your Site in Minutes – No Tech Skills Required” will reel in clicks.
The idea is to craft headlines that help people imagine their problem has been solved, whether it’s a faster launch, no tech headaches, or peace of mind. But it has to be accomplished in a split-second or users will just keep scrolling.
There was a time when web hosts sold packages by advertising better server resources, like more RAM and unlimited disk space, bandwidth, and MySQL databases. That type of advertising worked because most hosting packages offered extremely limited resources for a high price. Today, disk space and bandwidth aren’t an issue and most consumers don’t even know what basic server specs mean.
Avoid advertising your hosting services by highlighting server resources and other tech specs. It’s not going to entice people. Even tech jargon that seems self-explanatory won’t be to your customers. For example, “Scalable VPS architecture with isolated containers” sounds smart, but it’s just noise to the average buyer. Sure, you should include that on your product pages so people who understand the lingo know what they’re getting but keep it out of your PPC ads.
You only get so much space for your ad copy, so make it count. Use it to generate clicks from people who want to buy your hosting services now. If you advertise tech specs and rattle off tech jargon, you’ll get clicks from tire kickers and people who are just curious. To get clicks that count, use conversational language, short sentences, and clear calls to action (CTAs). If your grandma wouldn’t understand it, neither will your customers.
Don’t just sell space on a server. When you sell confidence, freedom, and simplicity with urgency, the value of your offer automatically increases and that’s what will generate relevant clicks.
You might have a solid offer and amazing hosting services, but unless users feel compelled to click now, they probably won’t. That’s why you need to create a sense of urgency to click. It’s what creates momentum and cuts through hesitation, pushing potential customers into action. If your ads don’t communicate a reason to act today, you’re giving users an invitation to bounce, get distracted, or go to a competitor.
Create an irresistible offer that gives users a reason to act now, like a limited-time offer. However, this type of offer needs to be believable. You can use a count-down timer that tells people “This offer ends at midnight” or “Only 15 spots left.” These tactics work, but only when they’re done with integrity. If users come back a week later and see the same “limited-time” deal, you’ll lose credibility and you might end up on the FCC’s radar. So use scarcity and time sensitivity sparingly and follow through.
Instead of using gimmicky offers, try these proven approaches:
· Time-sensitive pricing. Most hosting companies offer dramatically discounted rates for the first year and additional discounts for paying up front for multiple years. This works well for price-conscious shoppers. Just be transparent about the cost after the discounted time period ends.
· Free domain registration. Nearly every host offers free domain registration for the first year. You could do the same or offer free yearly domain renewal for the life of the account for the first 100 signups. This adds a layer of exclusivity while giving users a reason to act fast.
· Free site migration. Most people don’t know how to transfer an existing website to a new host. Even technically inclined people struggle with this. Offering free site migration within the first 72 hours of signup can drive sales from users frustrated with their current host, but hesitant to move.
· Access to priority support. People want to know they’ll be taken care of, and offering basic support isn’t enough. Plenty of companies advertise 24/7 support that turns out to be sub-par in reality. Customers know this. But when you make people feel like a priority, it catches their attention.
Your potential customers have urgent problems to solve, but they don’t wake up with the intention of researching hosting plans. Most likely, your ads will show up for them when they’re not even thinking about hosting, but they’ll click if you promise to solve their problem.
Here’s how to work this into your ads:
Use phrases like:
· “You can’t afford downtime.” If they’re with an unreliable hosting provider, you’ll capture their attention by emphasizing that switching now means immediate uptime.
· “No more battling with complex interfaces.” Highlight how your setup is stress-free. Many users have an aversion to learning complex interfaces like Plesk and cPanel.
· “We’ll transfer your site by the weekend for free.” That’s an instant win for users who fear the pain of switching hosts.
The bottom line is that urgency that connects to real pain points will always outperform generic flash sales.
Deals are everywhere, and consumers tune them out because they know they’re just sales gimmicks. Get their attention by phrasing your offers as an opportunity rather than just another deal. Make people feel like they’re getting something special by using phrases like “this offer ends Friday” or “only available to the first 50 new customers.” Reinforce the idea that hesitating means missing out and remember to follow through by closing your offers when they’re advertised to end. You can always wait a week and run another offer.
Choosing your keywords is one of the most important components in developing a winning PPC strategy. But the words you target matter. You need to know the different keyword match types and how to use them. Because it’s not just about getting clicks – it’s about getting relevant clicks that convert.
You want to target keywords that indicate buying intent, not curiosity. If you go for vague, broad keywords like “web hosting” or “build a website,” your net will be too wide and you’ll invite clicks from curious people rather than committed buyers. These keywords are high-volume, high-competition, and don’t support conversions.
Web hosting PPC keywords that indicate buying intent, like the following:
· “Best WordPress hosting for ecommerce”
· “Affordable VPS with cPanel”
· “Web hosting for real estate agents”
· “Fast hosting for Shopify stores”
These are examples of searches that tell you exactly what the user needs. When someone searches for these phrases, they’re already close to pulling out their credit card. General terms will generate a lot of impressions, but the clicks will just drain your advertising budget.
Be cautious about bidding on phrases like “cheap web hosting” unless your business model is built around affordability. The big hosting companies already offer extremely good deals, and if you can’t compete with that, don’t advertise cheap hosting. People will see that you’re more expensive and bounce. Or, they’ll sign up for an account and require constant support from your team.
Build a strong negative keyword list to prevent your ads from showing up in irrelevant searches. Terms like “free,” “jobs,” “review,” “DIY,” “website builder,” “help,” “learn web hosting,” “courses,” “reviews,” “designer,” and “how to” might trigger your ads without generating conversions. If people use these terms in their search, they’re probably not looking for a web host.
Another tip is to include specific niche hosting you don’t offer that wouldn’t work on your existing plans. For example, exclude “forex hosting,” “HIPAA hosting,” “Git hosting,” and “Minecraft hosting” if you don’t offer these options.
If you’re stuck for ideas, don’t guess. Use Semrush to analyze your competitors’ ad campaigns; find out what keywords they’re bidding on and how much they’re spending on PPC. It may not be entirely accurate, but it will give you a good idea of where to start.
Don’t forget to check in with your reports to find out what searches are triggering your ads. If you find random phrases like “how to host a party,” trim down your keyword lists and add the irrelevant phrases, like “party,” to your negative keyword list.
At PPC.co, we’ll help you build an advertising ecosystem that captures your ideal market. From market research to laser-focused landing pages and optimized funnels, we help web hosting providers turn clicks into loyal customers. Whether you’re tired of campaigns that cost a fortune or you’re just getting started with PPC, contact us now and let’s build a PPC strategy that actually pays off.
