What is Pay-Per-Click?

Pay-per-click (PPC) advertising is when an advertiser pays for each qualified click that sends a search engine user (i.e., visitor) to the advertiser's web page. PPC requires the advertiser to bid on key words or key word phrases chosen by the advertiser. There are many PPC advertising services available to choose from. Google AdWords and Overture are probably the two most popular in use today.

The PPC search engine allows you to buy a top position in the search engine results for the particular keyword or phrase you choose. The PPC search engines can deliver targeted and qualified visitors to your web page at an economical advertising cost if you manage the program carefully with a clear objective. PPC provides the advertiser with assurance that their ad is being delivered to the targeted audience.

PPC advertising uses a bidding process where the highest bidder or highest activity value, depending on the search engine, for a particular keyword or phrase will receive the top placement on the search engine results page. The PPC search engine will place your ad text in a special location on the results page when a user searches on your PPC keyword or phrase search term.

As an example, Google AdWords appear on the right side of the search results page while the organic (i.e., natural) search results appear on the left side of the page. In the case of Yahoo! Search, the sponsored ads appear on both the left and right side of the search results page. The top 2-3 sponsored ads appear in the top positions on the left side above the natural search results and the next 3 sponsored ads appear at the bottom of the left side and on the right side of the search results page along with other sponsored ads.

PPC advertising is a good way to obtain web page visitors when you don't have a top ranking web page to get you the necessary natural search engine placement. Statistics show that over 80% of search engine users prefer the natural search results as opposed to sponsored ads. Nevertheless, the search engines deliver a huge amount of visitor traffic to the sponsored advertisers especially in the competitive keyword markets.

The typical PPC advertising campaign is based on the bid per click. For example, you bid $0.10 for a particular keyword or phrase that is accepted by the search engine. Whenever a search engine user clicks on your sponsored ad then you are charged $0.10 by the search engine. This amount is deducted from your account funds. Your placement in the search engine results page depends on the search engine. For Google, the placement is determined by your bid price and the ad's click-through activity. For Yahoo, the placement is determined by your bid relative to other bids.

PPC can be an excellent method for getting visitor traffic to your web site but it can also cost you a lot of money. You need to be extremely careful and monitor your cost of using PPC versus the revenue generated. As the old saying goes, do the math. Calculate your return on investment (ROI) on a continuous basis to determine if you are making a profit on your PPC campaign.

As an example, assume your bid for a particular keyword is $0.10 and the product you sell has a profit margin of $15 after product costs (excluding PPC costs). If your conversion rate (the number of visitors that buy your product) is 1.0%, only 1 of your visitors will buy your product out of 100 visitors. Your net profit for every 100 visitors from your PPC campaign will be $5 ($15 profit margin less $10 for PPC).

It is a good idea to experiment with the different PPC search engines to find the one that works best for you. In addition, you need to spend the necessary time and effort to select the keyword or keyword phrase that has a profitable conversion rate for your specific web page. A higher conversion rate implies more profits to you.

Try to avoid the senseless bidding war with your competitors. Seriously evaluate whether having the number one placement position is worth the PPC price you pay. What about position numbers two, three and so on. Will you get enough clicks in one of those positions to make your PPC campaign a success? Do not automatically assume that you have to be in position number one to make a lot of money using PPC. It all comes down to experimenting and testing.

There is no such thing as the perfect PPC campaign. Evaluate the performance of your PPC campaigns on a continuous basis. Are you leaving money on the table by not adjusting your PPC bid to a lower level? Should you increase the bid price to get more traffic? Is your conversion rate changing? What are your competitors doing? Should you be considering different keywords in your campaign? PPC advertising is a great way to get traffic but at a definite price. PPC requires a thorough knowledge of the PPC search engines that you use and constant monitoring and evaluation of your campaigns.

--

Copyright (C) 2004 F. Terrence Markle ? All Rights Reserved

Get my F.R.E.E multi-part series on generating targeted and quality traffic to your web site. http://www.QuikSystems.com/WST/TrafficSeries.htm Get my F.R.E.E newsletter on building your own targeted mailing list: http://www.QuikSystems.com/EzineSub.htm

About The Author

Copyright (C) 2004 ? F. Terrence Markle has worked for over 20 years with public and private companies. He has an MBA in marketing and finance. He has been involved with Internet-related businesses for over 3 years. His primary focus is the marketing of affiliate programs.

tmarkle@quiksystems.com

---

Optimize Your Pay Per Click Ads - 3 Quick Tips

Running a pay per click campaign can be a valuable,... Read More

Pay-Per-Click Marketing: How to Waste Your Advertising Budget

A well-oiled pay-per-click search engine campaign can land hundreds of... Read More

Disguise Your ClickBank Affiliate Links Using Status-bar Faking

Many surfers are savvy enough to identify ClickBank affiliate links,... Read More

Increase Your Click-Through Rate And Skyrocket Your Sales - 3 Quick Tips

Most pay per click ads draw amazingly low click through... Read More

How You Can Make Serious Money Self-publishing With Adsense

Some folks may think that self-publishing began with the invention... Read More

Targeted Traffic with Pay Per Click?s

In order for your online business to succeed you must... Read More

Google Adsense: What You Need to Know!

We read about how to develop a Google AdWord campaign,... Read More

Pay Per Click or Pay Per Human Browser?

Pay Per Click advertising has been around a few years... Read More

Expand Your Horizons - Sell Your Professional Services Through ClickBank

ClickBank allows its merchants to sell many different types of... Read More

ClickBank Affiliate Woes: When Tracking Breaks Down

Hardly a day goes by without a forum posting in... Read More

Free Pay Per Click-PPC Search Engine Advertising

Did you know that there are actually pay per click... Read More

Pay Per Performance Web Traffic

Why should you pay to get web site traffic, isn't... Read More

Organic Natural Search Engine Optimization versus Pay-Per-Click Search Engine Advertising

When you purchase visitors or "clicks" from a search engine,... Read More

Pay-Per-Click Search Engines ? The Basics

Search engine optimization can take a long time to show... Read More

The Truth - Adsense Click Fraud Can NOT be Stopped

Your probably reading this article because you use Google Adwords... Read More

What The Adsense Top Earners Are Doing To Constantly Increase Their Earnings

It is really frustrating, is it not, to log into... Read More

It Makes Sense to Add AdSense to Your Blog

Google AdSense is easy to install on a web page... Read More

Top 5 Secrets to Making Money with Adsense

Did someone tell you you can make money easily with... Read More

AdWords Work: They Really Do!

In 2003 I was accepted by Google into their AdSense... Read More

Pay-Per-Click Search Engines: A Really Bad Investment

What was once such a good thing is now a... Read More

Google Adwords Guide I

You probably have already heard about the new marketing tool... Read More

You Wont Make Dollars If You Dont use AdSense

As the dust settles and the excitement caused by Google's... Read More

The Long Term Benefits From Pay Per Click Advertising

Businesses are starting to look closely at the long-term benefits... Read More

Local Business Advertising & Google Adwords

"I don't need the Internet to advertise - I'm a... Read More

The Pay Per Click Mistakes Of A New Marketer

My first real foray into Internet Marketing was a Pay... Read More

Making Google Adsense Work For You

If you have been online for quiet some time you... Read More

What is Google AdSense?

AdSense may be one of the fastest and easiest ways... Read More

Secret Reasons Why Some Businesses Can Afford to Bid Ridiculous, Amounts On Pay-Per-Click Keywords

The other day I was talking to one of my... Read More

Top Paying Keywords: How to Increase Your Pay Per Click Returns

There is no doubting the success of Google's Adsense program.... Read More

3 Tips For Adwords PPC Management

Adwords PPC Management Tip No. 1Setting up an accountIf you... Read More

PPC Management: When To Give Up On A Loser

Pay per click (PPC) advertising can be a dream come... Read More

Plan Your Way to Pay-Per-Click Campaign Success!

Have you heard the saying, "planning is everything?" Perhaps there... Read More

Can I Make Money Online with the Adsense Program?

Sure you can. If you will learn how many other... Read More