PPC stands for Pay Per Click - a popular
advertising technique on the Internet. Found on websites, advertising networks,
and especially on search engines, PPC advertising involves sponsored links that
are typically in the form of text ads. These are usually placed close to search
results, where an advertiser pays a particular amount to visitors who click on
these links or banners and land on the advertiser's web page.
In essence, PPC advertising is all about bidding
for the top or leading position on search engine results and listings.
Advertisers do this by buying or bidding on keyword phrases that are relevant
to their products or services - the higher the bid, the higher the spot on the
search results, the more the people will find the ad (and click on it) to go to
their websites (this is why some people call it "keyword
auctioning"). Advertisers would then pay the bidding price every time a
visitor clicks through the website.
PPC advertising is also known under the following
names/variations:
PPC advertising is usually done with the following
standard procedures:
1. Setting up an account and/or deposit funds.
2. Creating a keyword list.
3. Choosing (and setting up) an account with a PPC
search engine.
4. Bidding on the ad placement, including the search
result words or phrases.
5. Writing out an ad copy.
6. Setting up the 'landing pages' for your ads.
7. Placing the advertisement in the search engine.
There are many benefits to Pay Per Click advertising,
making it an effective way of promoting a business 'online'. Some of them are
listed below:
· Get launched immediately. PPC advertisements are
implemented very quickly - they can go 'online' within an hour after winning
the bid and paying for it.
· Obtain specific, pre-qualified, and quality
traffic. PPC provides you with quality or a well-targeted traffic. Visitors are
narrowed down into 'qualified' people who are actually looking for specific
products and/or services that you offer - those who are more likely to become a
'lead' (a convert) and complete a transaction (either by buying your product or
subscribing to the service that you are offering.
· Widen your reach. PPC advertising provides
additional traffic to your site, aside from the natural or "organic"
search engines.
· Track your investment. PPC advertising makes use
of a tracking system that will determine exactly who comes to the website and
what they do once they arrive - the length of their stay on the site and the
number of pages (including the actual pages) that they view. These are valuable
tools in determining statistics such as return on investment (ROI), acquisition
cost-per-visitor, and conversion rates (the percentage of visitors who are
converted into customers or leads).
Below are some important things to consider when
planning on a pay per click campaign:
1. Know your product. Take an inventory of the product
and/or services that you have to offer (before anything else).
2. Stay within the budget. Determine your daily or
monthly budget; and stay with it. This means keeping your budget in mind,
avoiding bidding wars if possible.
3. Bid just right. Know how to bid right - a bid that
is too high can exhaust all of your money, while a bid that is too low can make
you lose that spot.
4. Watch the bottom line. Measure your profit margin
against your spending or expenses. Know when to stop and terminate your PPC
program - if you spend more on advertising but have little or no sales at all.
5. Find the right keywords. Decide which keyword
phrases to opt and bid for. Do some keyword research, either by actually
looking at existing search terms or with the use of online keyword suggestion
tools, to know which terms are mostly used when searching for items that are
related to your business. Focus on specific keywords, not on general ones.
6. Write effective ads. A good PPC ad is that which
can persuade and move a searcher. There are several approaches to this:
7. Maintain a professional-looking site. Your web
content should be regularly updated and checked for spelling and grammatical
errors. There should be no broken links or images. The website should be simple
- designed in such a way that it will be easy for visitors to navigate and
load. Include contact details to create a good impression among potential
customers.
Done properly, PPC advertising can be an effective
marketing tool that will maximize the return on your investment.