What is Pay Per Click (PPC) ?

Pay per click advertising also known as PPC advertising allows you to choose keywords you would like your website to appear when a search is performed. You decide how much you are willing to pay each time a person clicks on the search results. The more you are willing to pay per click, the higher your site will appear in the results for the keywords you select.

There are numerous Pay Per Click Search Engines some of the more popular PPC Search Engines are offered by Google AdWords, Overture now known as Yahoo Search Marketing, and Findwhat. These programs offer the best quality traffic for most website marketing campaigns. In addition to the general pay per click search engines, you may also be able to find theme based search engines or networks that serve your industry or specifically cater to your target audience.

Should I manage my own Pay Per Click Campaign?

Are self-managed Pay Per Click advertising campaigns a wise decision? Well, if you have some content writing skills, understand consumer psychology and have lots of time, then PPC management might be the right thing for you. Some SEO consultants have good experience in this field and have learned the time and money wasting lessons. They also have a system of filtering out the poor performing ads and enhancing the good ads.

If your ad needs are high and you have to find click throughs greater than $1, it may be wiser to use the services of an SEO consultant. However, if you want to pursue it on your own, this article discusses how the PPC programs work and some of the techniques SEO consultants use.
The science behind Pay Per Click advertising is simple; you the web site owner pay a rate you specify for every visitor that clicks your advertisement. Each unique keyword or keyword phrase (e.g., prepaid long distance) has its own bid price. You set the budget. With a credit card and a web site readied, you're on your way to advertising on some of the most popular pay per click search engines on the web.

Good Targeting and Timing


For most small businesses a limited budget is always in place for advertising, Pay Per Click advertising programs can offer good ad placement in some of the more popular search engines and website such as Google, Yahoo, AOL, MSN, Netscape, CNN.com, Cnet.com, About.com, and other web sites with specific targeted audiences. Placing ads on a specific date may be especially helpful for event promoters and the like. Most PPC Search Engines start their bids at five cents. Overture now known as Yahoo Search Marketing , the most popular program recently raised its bid minimum to ten cents. Despite this, they still have good advertising value.

Pay Per Click is a fast performing form of advertising; it is definitely worth a try. The breadth of PPC search engine coverage is very wide since you can bid on hundreds or even thousands of keyword phrases if you want. Gaining top rankings on major search engines especially for this many keyword phrases has never been easier.

Finding the Right Keywords

The most important aspect of any Pay per click campaign is your keyword analysis. There are many free keyword suggestion tools you can use. Most major PPC engines have their own internal keyword suggestion tools. Some of the free tools most commonly used here at Global Agents are Google , Overture and Digitalpoint . In addition there are additional softwares that you can purchase that provide you with multiple search engine keyword statistics such as Rapid Keyword and Wordtracker . Through experience you'll see these keyword services can provide great insight unto what your prospective customer search for and how many times they search for it per day/month.

Writing Your PPC Ads

The verbiage of your ad is also very tricky because of the limited space you're given and the restriction on the verbiage you can use. Believe me, these restrictions do pose a problem. You'll want to use natural promotional language in your ads, but you may not be allowed. If you are not sure if your ad is acceptable most programs offer examples of what is acceptable, in the event the pay per click search engine denies your ad you will be notified, in most cases immediately and will have to redo the ad in question.

Below is an example for TEL3Advantage - one of our most popular services. Notice there is no use of superlatives such as lowest and best. And you can't use promo punctuation such as ! and $ and forget about excessive capitalization.

Title: Home Based Business - Free home based opportunity with monthly residual for the life of your clients.
www.prepaidlongdistance.us

Title: Home Based Business

Description: Free home based opportunity with monthly residual for the life of your clients.

Landing URL: http://www.prepaidlongdistance.us

Writing Your Ad Titles

The title (first line of your ad) is treated differently by different PPC programs, however, having your keywords placed in the title is usually a good decision. That's the golden rule of search engine marketing; use your customer's words to grab their attention. When you test different ad wordings, you'll discover which are effective.

Using catch phrase like free, instant, and bonus, are attention getters. Call now, or get yours here, are calls to action to encourage readers to click through to your site. Be prepared to prove everything you say in the ad on your landing page. This is the landing page you hyperlink the ad to. Each program has guidelines that you'll have to read. If you make mistakes, you'll be warned (disapproved) once, then ignored. They have no interest in your Web master's problems or your manager's concern with legality of terms.

Your Landing Pages

The landing page is the first thing your potential clients will see after clicking your pay per click advertisement. It is estimated that most users look at a landing page only 4-5 seconds before making the vital decision to leave, or request further information. This is the critical point that makes the difference between a sale, and another bit of your revenue being “clicked” away!

Most advertisers direct there pay per click ads to the same page, which looks identical no matter what phrase your potential client used to find your site. Few people realize that you can create dedicated landing pages for specific keywords. For example if you are promoting low international rates then you would want your potential clients that clicks on your advertisement to land on a page that talks about your international rates . This allows for targeting certain web site traffic to specific content driven pages.