Pay Per Click

Introduction to Pay Per Click

Pay per click (PPC)advertising is a search engine marketing technique.

Pay per click is an advertising model used on search engines, advertising networks, and content websites, where advertisers only pay when a user actually clicks on an ad to visit the advertiser's website.

Advertisers bid on keywords they believe their target market would type in the search bar when they are looking for a product or service. When a user types a keyword query matching the advertiser's keyword list, or views a page with relevant content, the advertiser's ad may be shown. These ads are called a "Sponsored link" or "sponsored ads" and appear next to, and sometimes, above the natural or organic results on search engine results pages, or anywhere a webmaster chooses on a content page.

As of 2007, notable PPC Keyword search engines include: Google AdWords, Yahoo! Search Marketing, Microsoft adCenter, Ask, LookSmart, Miva, Kanoodle, Yandex and Baidu.

You can bid to have your site link displayed on the results page for that particular keyword search. Depending on the search engine you use, either the highest bid or the best performing link will be displayed first on the page.

You pay the amount of your bid every time someone is directed to your website, by clicking on the advertised link. To get started in Google's AdWord program you will have to set up and account and you can do that by visiting this page: Adwords setup.

After setting up your account, it's a good idea to browse around the google adwords section and learn as much as you can about this advertising program. First, you will need to create an ad group, which means you design your ad, select your keywords, determine the maximum cost per click that you are willing to spend and define your bid amounts.

All of this information will be found at http://adwords.google.com

Cost of Pay Per Click advertising

Depending on the search engine you use, you may have an initial deposit when you open your Pay Per Click account of around $50, and a minimum monthly spend of around $20. Your bid amounts will depend on your chosen keywords.

Here are a few basic things to consider when trying to assess the cost of your AdWords campaign.

    Set your budget
  • There is no minimum spending requirement - just a nominal, one-time activation fee.
  • You set the limit on how much you are willing to spend each day.
  • you specify how much you are willing to pay per click or per impression.

The bidding system means that the more popular keywords can end up being very expensive. You need to keep a careful record of what you are spending on PPC advertising as the cost can quickly mount up and you can end up paying more than your are making.

    Pay only for results
  • You pay only for clicks on your keyword-targeted AdWords ads.
  • You pay only for impressions on your site-targeted AdWords ads.

The following simple calculation should help you decide what you can afford to pay for Pay Per Click advertising: Total revenue from PPC conversion sales over a certain period, divided by total PPC visitors over the same period, equals the total revenue per PPC visitor.

You must keep accurate and up to date records to ensure your are paying less than the revenue per Pay Per Click visitor for each click to make any profit.

To get the most out of pay per Click advertising, you should bid on as many keyword phrases as you can affort. Perhaps you should consider less popular keywords that are more targeted to your potential visitors and which will command a lower price per click-through.

Monitor and analyse your pay Per Clcik results carefully, Look both at which keywords are getting you visiors and which of these visitors are actually signing up or buying a product from you. You should focus on the keywords that are getting you the most sales rather than the most visitors.

Avoid the guesswork

Use this Keyword Tool (https://adwords.google.com/select/TrafficEstimatorSandbox?hl=en_US) to explore keyword traffic and cost estimates and make informed decisions about choosing keywords and maximizing your budget.

While the description text you use for general SEO is designed to get as much traffic to your site as possible, your description text for PPC advertising has a different purpose. Because you are paying for each visitor, you want to make sure that only people who are likely to buy your product actually click on the link. Your description should make it very clear what your product or site is about to attract the visitors that are most likely to generate revenue for you.

Resources

Keyword tools:

Nichebot: http://www.nichebot.com/

Google Adwords: https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal