With so much going on with the internet today it can be difficult to keep up. You may know a little bit about Pay Per Click Advertising but looking to learn more.  This article is intended to help you fill in the gaps, learn how it works, and learn whether you or your company should take advantage of this type of advertising.

We all know that there are millions of people online everyday using the internet for everything you could ever imagine…personal banking, finding a nanny, shopping for a new TV, learning how to scrapbook…the list just goes on and on.

I think its safe to say that everyone on a computer has probably used the Google search engine. You simply type in a query into the search box, and “poof” its like magic, the page fills up with relevant information about what you just typed in. As someone that uses Google, you couldn’t be happier. Every thing that you were looking for is just a mouse click away.

Here is were the lesson starts. Lets say someone is getting married and needs to find a photographer so they type in the word “wedding photographer” into the Google search box. A new page will load and you will be looking at what is called “organic” links or website listed down the middle of the page (in black type) and you will also see links on the top (sometimes), and always on the right hand side 4 line ads in blue that you can also click on. The blue text ads are what is called “paid advertising” or “sponsored ads”. No one is telling you which link to click, it is completely up to you. The power of PPC is that anyone in a matter of hours can be advertising on the first page of Google using paid advertising. This is not the case with “organic” websites. ”Organic” placement can take months, and sometimes even years to get on the first page. In essence you are paying your way onto the first page of Google when you use “paid advertising”.

That brings me to the next point. Who pays and how does that all work? Well, the person who is responsible for placing that ad (the blue one) is the one paying.  Every time someone decides to click on your ad, you (the advertiser) will pay for that click. Lets say no one clicks on your ad, then you pay nothing. The only time you will pay is when someone actually clicks on your ad and they are taken to your website. You are essentially paying a small price to ensure visitors to your website (so make sure you have a killer website that closes the deal for you!).

What is the cost per click? Well, there is a range that people pay and it all depends on just how competitive the keyword is that you are bidding on. The range can be as low as .20 cents a click all of the way up to 6,7,8 sometimes 12 dollars a click on some very, very competitive keywords. I would say a realistic range is .60 cents to $2 a click if you don’t have a wide open budget. The bottom line is you decide what keywords to bid on, and if a keyword is too expensive, just go and find a new one. The best part is there is an interface or a back-office that helps you stay organized and keeps track of the cost, the numbers, the keywords, your bid price, etc. The system, whether it be Google or someone else will provide all of its advertisers with a management area where all of your numbers will be tracked and secure. You just have to decide what keywords you want to bid on and what the maximum amount you will pay per click. (More on who offer PPC Advertising soon).

Now, the question is, “Is this a good way to spend advertising dollars?” Well, that is highly debatable. The undeniable truth is you will have laser targeted views of your advertisement. What I mean is, as a photographer you are only going to bid on keywords that are relevant to your industry. For example: photographer, professional photographer, wedding photographer, best photographer, etc. When you bid on those specific keywords your ad will show up when someone types any of those words into the search box. That is what I mean by a laser targeted view. There really is no other type of advertising out there that provides this sort of “supply and demand” advertising platform. The person that has typed in “wedding photographer” is clearly looking to find a wedding photographer, and what better place to have an advertisement if you in fact are a wedding photographer. It doesn’t get much better than that!

Now Google is not the only place that you can do paid advertising. There are other search engines like MSN and Yahoo that also offer the same advertising opportunity. And more recently, Facebook and YouTube have joined the game and offer Paid Advertising space.

Pay Per Click is growing in its popularity, but the most important advise I could possibly provide is to educate yourself. You now know the basics…the difference between “organic” and “paid” and where to find them. You also understand that you can bypass the challenges of website SEO (search engine optimization) and pay to get on the first page of any search query. And you understand that Pay Per Click means exactly that. You have officially been exposed to the unique power of PPC Advertising. This is just the first step, don’t make the mistake of jumping into PPC too quickly, that is how you will lose serious advertising dollars. Learn the skills necessary to maximize your ad dollars and increase your sales accordingly.

Copyright (c) 2007 Allen Thomason

In the PPC or Pay Per Click model, which are used primarily in blogs, websites, and search engines, the advertiser pays only when their ads are clicked by visiting users to their blog or site. A set of keywords are included by the web publisher or advertiser, during the PPC setup. When web users query for topics by typing the exact or similar words in their search engine, the advertisors ad appears on the same page as a match.

These ads are generally are termed as sponsored ads or sponsored links. The revenue generated from these links goes to the providers as and when the ads are clicked. Therefore, the cost incurred in this model is from pay per click, is the basis of revenue generation in advertising in internet marketing.

Google AdSense, MSN AdCenter, Yahoo! Publisher Network are some popular advertising networks that help publishers to put relevant ads that matches their search engine queries. The minimum prices per click begin from US$0.01. However, this model is more vulnerable to click fraud if reputable and renowned search engines are not engaged in the process. To prevent click frauds, Yahoo, Google, and MSN have automated fraud protection techniques in place.

Optimizing the PPC campaign depends on the nature and strength of the blogs and websites. Indexing of sites in the search engines can also be helped by micro tracking your keywords. Often website owners tend to overlook keywords that are weak and rarely used. Rather than dropping them, the best way is to accommodate these keywords in some way that relates to your content. Your ads or links will be optimized this way, as to never be missed from any search result hunted by the web crawlers.

Many prospects enter the internet not knowing which are the products or services they would go for. They are indecisive about their choices and preferences in spite of sharing similar tastes that your blog or website projects. Therefore, if you are targeting only those who have researched and ready to be your customer there is a high chance that you lose out a section of targets that indeed had strong potential to become future prospects. Therefore, a good marketing strategy is to target people in almost all stages of their buying cycle- those who visit just by accident, those who know exactly why they have come to you, those who are the typical shoppers and are more or less decisive about their actions and lastly the window shoppers.

Do not ever forget dormant clients who could actually contribute to PPC optimization after taking much time to decide what they should do. Therefore, advertising should always be followed by a period that incorporates the chances of visitor latency.

To optimize your revenue from clicks you should also be sure about the return you get from investing on each keyword or key word phrase. From your chosen keywords, calculate the maximum ROI. These keywords should be given equal importance to other keywords that has low return but generates more traffic. Your ad copy should match the keywords perfectly so that visitors know that you deliver exactly what they are looking for. You should also develop plans to guide your buyers through the marketing maze in decision-making and action taking. Not only should ads promote your business by attracting traffic towards your site or blog, but also be designed in such a fashion to get visitors to act according to your terms .i.e. terms that are more favorable to bring success in your business.

In summary

PPC Advertising flat works, but chart the waters carefully. Make the click flip your revenue side up. It is here that PPC is optimized to support internet-marketing efforts.