Pay Per Click Internet Advertising Overview
As mentioned in the PPC Methodology section, your PPC ranking is based upon your bid relative to other bids that are made in an auction-like bidding system. Therefore, if your advertisement has the highest corresponding bid, your ad will appear at the top of the Paid Listings results page. If your bid is the second highest, then your ad will appear second, and so on.
For the major PPC engines, the top one to four bid positions are the ones that receive the highest amount of distribution across their search partner networks, and hence receive the greatest exposure and click traffic. Our advice for PPC bid management is to initially position your bids so that your ads will appear third, with the best targeted title and text possible. The fee is a little lower (usually) and the click thru rate remains quite high.
When search engine visitors click on your pay per click ad, they are sent to a page on your web site. As a PPC advertiser, you are only charged when a visitor clicks on your advertisement to visit your web site. Typically minimum bids start at $0.05 and up to $50.00, although few bids ever reach that higher level. For most PPC search engine marketing campaigns bidding averages between $0.25 and $2 per click (visitor).
The majority of advertisers who employ both search engine optimisation (SEO) and pay per click marketing typically report very positive results. However, a well-executed SEO plan over time can deliver more visitors at a lower overall cost than a pay per click advertising campaign.
Unlike banner ads that often display pictures and graphics, PPC advertisements are textual and appear in search results pages when a user queries a keyword in the search engines. Typically a few PPC ads appear at the top of the search engine results page and additional ads appear to the right of the organic results.
Here is an example advertisement if you sold widgets.
Shop for Widgets
Over 2,000 kinds of widgets in stock. Hundreds of widgets for home and work including western and exotic widgets. Shop online. Secure ordering. Same day shipping.
www.widgets-r-us.com
Pay per click internet advertising offers you the ability to control how much you want to spend and where you want to be ranked. And, perhaps best of all, you only pay for actual traffic that clicks through to your web site!
It is estimated there are over 300 PPC programs, but really the top 10 have about a 90% reach across the Internet.
Similar to Search Engine Optimisation, designing, developing, and PPC management takes time and labor, but the benefits are undeniable:
- Instant visibility & traffic: The more you bid, the higher you are listed and the more traffic you will receive.
- Quick to launch: Although some PPC search engine
marketing campaigns require editorial review before they are active,
some do not. Even with editorial review, a pay per click advertising
campaign can be active in a few days.
- Easy to Implement: PPC does not necessarily require
expert knowledge to set up, although experience with search engines is
definitely an advantage.
- Easy to track and measure conversions: With
tracking code & metrics in place and data being gathered by the
search engines, tracking a campaign's success is easier than it ever has
been.
- No content or Web design changes necessary:
Although you might want to make some changes to create a really
effective PPC campaign, none are necessary to get you started. Your
existing Web site or Web page will work.
- Keyword conversion testing: You can use pay per click marketing to find out if you are targeting the right keywords
by running a PPC advertising campaign to see how well they will
convert. Then incorporate the best keywords into your search engine
optimisation (SEO) campaign.
Need PPC Management Services? For more information, see our Discussion of PPC Management Costs and read the specifics about our Professional PPC Management Services.