PPC works by putting your ads in front of people on platforms like Google Ads and charging you when someone clicks (and in some formats, when someone calls or completes another action), with an instant auction deciding which ad shows and where it appears.
For most Orlando service businesses, PPC usually means search ads, the text ads you see when someone types “emergency dentist Orlando” or “pest control near me.” You choose the searches you want to show up for (keywords), set a daily budget, write ads, and send traffic to a landing page built to turn that click into a call, form, or booking. If you want help building or cleaning up your campaigns, our PPC management services focus on lead quality, not just clicks.
How the PPC auction decides who shows up
Every time someone searches, the ad platform runs a fast auction. It is not just “who bids the most wins.” Your bid matters, but so does quality. In Google Ads, quality is heavily influenced by expected click-through rate, how closely your ad matches the search, and the experience on the page you send people to. A better match and a better landing page can help you pay less per click and still show above a competitor with a higher bid.
What you build in a PPC account
PPC is organized like a folder system: campaigns (big buckets) contain ad groups (tighter themes) that contain keywords and ads. For a local business, a clean setup might separate “emergency,” “same-day,” and “cosmetic” if you are a dentist, or split “termite,” “roach,” and “rodent” if you are in pest control. You can also set location targeting so your ads focus on your real service area, like Orlando, Winter Park, Lake Nona, Dr. Phillips, and nearby zip codes that match where you actually work.
- Keywords: The searches you want to appear for. You also pick match types to control how close a search must be to your keyword.
- Negative keywords: Searches you do not want, like “jobs,” “free,” or “DIY,” so you do not pay for the wrong clicks.
- Ads and assets: Your headlines and descriptions, plus extras like call extensions, location info, and sitelinks that take more space on the results page.
- Landing page: The page that turns a click into a lead with clear services, proof, and an easy next step.
Landing pages matter a lot for cost and results. If you send paid clicks to a slow or confusing page, you pay for traffic that bounces. This is why we often pair ads with conversion-focused web design so the page matches the promise of the ad and makes it easy to call or book.
What you pay for and how budgets behave
Most PPC is priced per click (CPC). You set a daily budget, and the platform will try to spend around that average over time. Your actual cost per click depends on competition, your settings, and quality. Some campaign types are billed differently, like cost per thousand impressions (CPM) for certain display or video placements, or automated bidding that targets a cost per lead after you have solid conversion tracking.
Tracking, the part that decides if PPC is profitable
PPC only “works” when you track what happens after the click. For local businesses, that usually means tracking phone calls, form submissions, online bookings, and sometimes chats. If calls are your main result, you want call tracking that captures calls from ads and calls from the website, plus a simple way to mark which calls were real leads versus wrong numbers or price shoppers.
What ongoing PPC work looks like
PPC is not a set-it-and-forget-it channel. The steady wins come from reviewing search terms, adding negatives, testing new ad copy, adjusting bids and locations, and improving the landing page based on what converts. In Orlando markets where competition can spike seasonally (think pest control during warm months or emergency dental around holidays), these small adjustments can prevent budget waste and keep lead flow consistent.
If you are comparing paid traffic to long-term visibility, our guide on how SEO works explains the difference in plain language. If you want a quick reality check on your current PPC account, we can review your search terms, targeting, and conversion tracking and tell you what is helping, what is wasting spend, and what to fix first.
