While Chicago, nicknamed the “Windy City,” is primarily known for its delicious food, unique architecture, and a vibrant music scene, it’s also an important and expanding tech hub (with a growth of about 20% over the past 10 years), hosting thousands of IT companies.

It was already an established hub with a significant number of companies operating in finance, healthcare, logistics, and other industries, all requiring robust IT solutions, as technology is inevitably making its way into all of these industries.

Chicago has a thriving startup ecosystem (ranked 7th in the US according to Global Startup Ecosystem Index 2024) and has a large talent pool, due to multiple universities located in the city (it’s one of the top cities by the number of graduates with a computer science degree).

According to the Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce, the fiscal impact generated by the city’s tech industry was more than $651M. In 2024, the city’s tech sector brought $39.3 billion to the economic output. 

The same source states that Chicago is the national leader when it comes to diversity and inclusion in tech: 34% of startups were founded by women (2 times more than the global average), and 32% of Black and Latino professionals work in IT.

There are lots of well-known tech companies that have a significant presence or a headquarters in Chicago. Some of them are:

• Motorola
• Grubhub
• Groupon
• Braintree
• ActiveCampaign
• Cameo
• Cars.com

Chicago is set to become one of the top tech locations in the US, due to several reasons:

• Thriving startup ecosystem
• Multinational companies expanding their presence in the city
• State government supports the IT industry
• Venture capital funding

TechBehmoths lists more than 500 IT service providers from Chicago. If you’re looking for a reliable IT company in this city, feel free to browse the company profiles and shortlist them based on your project requirements. 

Use the filter to narrow down your search results and save your searches for later. There is no obligation to hire, and the service is free of charge.

Pay-Per-Click or PPC, is a type of digital advertising where the advertiser pays each time a user clicks on their ads. The most popular channels for PPC advertising are search engines.

The advertisers usually bid (set up a maximum price per click) on a specific list of keywords and their ads appear on top of organic search results, labeled as “Sponsored” or “Ad”. Users search for these keywords, click on advertisers’ ads and land on their websites.

PPC is a fast way to generate traffic and eventually leads/sales to your business if done right. It implies advanced knowledge of PPC ad platforms like Google Ads, Microsoft Ads, Amazon Ads, LinkedIn Ads and many more.

According to the comprehensive survey on online marketing channels conducted by TechBehemoths, about 33% of IT companies don’t use PPC to advertise their businesses. This might be a lost opportunity to generate leads at a reasonable price (depending on the industry, market, competition, etc.).

PPC can help grow your business in multiple ways. Here are some advantages:

• Relatively easy to setup and launch
• Instant traffic
• Brand awareness
• Fast results (leads, sales)
• Cost effective (depends on multiple factors)
• Advanced targeting
• Can be tracked very accurately
• Precise control over your budget

Finding the best PPC agency for your business needs can be a challenging task. That’s why, we recommend you to define your goals in advance and keep in mind the following criteria when choosing a company to work with:

• Experience - do they have experience in your market, language, etc.?)
• Portfolio - browse their portfolio and ask for more info
• Price - what’s their pricing model - % of ad spend, flat free, management fee, other?
• Turnover time - PPC analytics and data is usually available within a few hours/days
• Communication and reporting - what’s the preferred communication channel and what reports are provided

There are more than 12,000 companies providing PPC services listed on TechBehemoths. Use the advanced filter to choose the ones that fit your project requirements. Get in touch with the agencies and collaborate with them at no extra cost. 

PPC (pay per click) advertising in the era of AI

In 2026, AI-powered search engines and chatbots, including conversational search and generative results, are reshaping how users interact with search engines making it even harder for businesses to generate free organic traffic and convert visitors into customers.

In addition to traditional search engines, users increasingly turn to AI assistants and conversational platforms to ask questions, compare services/products, and receive instant recommendations. Instead of clicking through multiple websites, users often receive summarized answers generated by AI systems.

This shift means brands must optimize not only for rankings, but for credibility, authority, and structured content that can be referenced by AI-driven systems. Building expertise, publishing trustworthy content, and strengthening brand presence across multiple platforms are now essential components of modern search visibility.

All this requires a significant amount of effort and knowledge in the area of SEO/AEO/GEO + it’s a long term investment. For faster result and return on investment (ROI) pay per click advertising is recommended.

Creating different types of content and making sure it’s indexed in search engines might not be enough. PPC advertising makes it easier to test and understand what works and what doesn’t, as you can measure the conversion rate and cost per conversion instantly.

Where to advertise your business?

Pay per click model works on different platforms. The biggest one is obviously Google search, but there are other platforms too, for example:

• Search engines - Google, Bing, Yahoo

• Social media - Facebook, Pinterest, Linkedin

• Native advertising platforms - Outbrain, Taboola, Paved

• AI chatbots - ChatGPT, Gemini, Microsoft Copilot

Bing and Yahoo for example support both display and search ads using the PPC model. While Google is the market leader and has the biggest market share, alternative search engines could be also productive if used right.

How to estimate the budget?

Many PPC platforms like Google ads have built in Keyword discovery tools and forecasts to estimate the approximate cost and number of conversions based on the list of keywords and cost per click/conversion. 

These tools don’t give you the actual numbers though, but can be used as a reference to get a general idea in terms of cost.

To find reliable PPC advertising agencies, feel free to use the submit project tool on TechBehemots. The system will look at your project requirements and match you with the best companies to consider for your job.