Advertising By Means Of PAY PER CLICK (PPC)
Forbes magazine has reported that Pay-Per-Click advertising spend has increased to $8 billion in 2008.
The three basic core elements that form the beginning of a successful Pay-Per-Click ad program are constant supervision, analysis, and refinement.
Pay-Per-Click search engines offer a way to buy your way to the top of search results for any term you wish. With proper Pay Per Click management, and a clear focus, Pay-Per-Click search engines can offer some of the most well targeted and cost-effective ways of advertising on the Internet.
Pay-Per-Click advertising works through a bidding process, and the ads appear prominently on the results pages of search engines such as Google and Yahoo. The highest bidder for a particular word or phrase gets top placement, and depending on the engine, the top three to five bidders also normally receive placement on the first page of unpaid search results.
Basic questions to be addressed when formulating a Pay-Per-Click search engine strategy include the following:
- Does Google AdWords or Overture work better for your particular product or service? Or, possibly neither one is suitable from a return on investment (ROI) perspective.
- How can you keep your Pay-Per-Click bids from cannibalizing your search efforts on other non Pay-Per-Click search engines?
- What percentage of your Pay-Per-Click budget should go to each search engine?
- When is the top Pay-Per-Click bid necessary for highest conversion, and when will bidding for a second or third place position create a more attractive return on investment (ROI)?
It is of significant importance to focus sharply on identifying the search terms that convert most frequently for your particular site, eliminating those that don’t perform, and most importantly, calculating and maximizing your return on investment.
The cost structure of Pay-Per-Click is action-driven and each time a user clicks your ad, the Pay-Per-Click engine deducts the amount of your current bid from your account. Pay-Per-Click offers a high level of assurance that your ad is reaching the proper target. Pay-Per-Click campaigns, however, are not perfect. Without CONSTANT Pay Per Click campaign monitoring, you sometimes risk incurring advertising costs that can spiral out of control, focusing on terms that don’t convert well for your product or services, or falling way down in position during a bidding war.
PPC (Pay-Per-Click) advertising can be a great help to a site’s success, but only with very close supervision and a thorough knowledge of the unique characteristics of each Pay-Per-Click search engine.
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