Pay Per Click Advertising

What is PPC?

Pay-Per-Click advertising is a specific internet-based advertising campaign which is used on search
engines. Pay per click website advertisements can be placed as sponsored results, down the right hand side, above or to the right of the search results page; when a user clicks on the advertisement link, the advertiser is charged a small amount.

A campaign is made up of multiple ad-groups each bidding for specific keywords, if you place the highest bid for a specific keyword or set of keywords, then you rank number one in these paid listings. Every major search engine now displays these paid ads above and to the right side of their ‘organic’ rankings.

If a user clicks on your PPC listing, they will arrive at your web site and you are charged the amount you bid. So, if you bid $.35 per click on ’sheep dog trials’, and that’s the highest bid, you’ll show up first in line. If 100 people click on your PPC listing, then the search engine or PPC service will charge you $35.00.

What are the advantages of PPC?

Often when companies are first starting out and have a very new website with no history, or have performed a major structural renovation of their website, it can take anywhere from a few days to a few months to see your site in the rankings for your chosen keywords and even longer before your site reaches the top 10 of those keywords, particularly if you operate in a competitive market. During this time traffic to your site will be minimal, almost non existent, relying on direct traffic or inbound links from other sites. Pay-per-click advertising can generate traffic right away. It’s simple: If you spend enough, you can get top placement, and your industries potential customers will see you first. Should people be searching for the same keywords that you have defined, (see section 2.2) bid on and ensured that you’ve placed a well-written ad for, then you can start getting clicks the moment the ad is activated.

So PPC advertising is fast: Google Adwords, for example can generate targeted traffic within a few minutes of opening an account, obviously very beneficial for brand new sites or users but the benefits aren’t just for those recently entering the fray.

An advantage for old and new sites alike is that PPC is both very adaptable and very flexible. When dealing with the natural or organic listings, search engine marketeers (SEM) may have to wait for a few weeks or even months to analyse how their changes have been reflected in audience behavior. Contrast that with PPC advertising where you can adjust most campaigns in hours or days. This provides PPC with an unmatched ability to react or adjust to unforeseen market conditions.

Sometimes PPC can also very cost effective, if you’ve done your research right and been thorough, then it’s possible to find keyword ‘niches’ for which you can place the winning bid for $0.10 – $0.15.

This list below, provided by WebEventsEurope, does a great job of summarizing some other the other major benefits;

  • Budgeting – With a PPC campaign you will be able to set a daily budget and this can be increased accordingly as the quality traffic which is directed towards your website begins to create revenue.
  • An Effectively Targeted Campaign – PPC gives you better control over which users arrive at your website through your choice of keywords. This is extremely important in ensuring that your advertising campaign is reaching the appropriate targeted audience.
  • Campaign Flexibility – As a PPC campaign is so easy to measure, it also becomes very easy to adapt, or fine-tune, your campaign accordingly. This means that if a keyword isn’t working for you or you decide to target a different audience, a revision of the advertising components is achieved easily.
  • Pay for Targeted Success – Unlike more traditional advertising methods, launching a PPC campaign guarantees that you will only be paying for the people who are genuinely interested and decide to click through to your site. Every click can be viewed as a potential sale.
  • Testing Possibilities – The speed of the traffic being driven to your site can often provide you with a fantastic way of testing out the demand for a new product or service without extravagant expense. This is possible as PPC is an extremely measurable and easy-to-monitor advertising technique.
  • Immediate Results – When managed correctly a PPC campaign can produce significant results in a short period of time, sometimes even minutes.
  • Brand Awareness – Pay per click campaign is effective for increasing brand awareness, as even when the searchers do not click through they are still aware of the PPC ads appearing predominately on the results pages.

And the disadvantages?

Although it can be cost-effective, PPC advertising can also end up being an expensive endeavor. It’s easy to get caught up in a bidding war over a particular keyword phrase and end up spending far more than our potential return.

Speaking of potential return, with PPC this can often be very hard to measure. Google Adwords does provide conversion measurement tools, so that you can track whether your pay-per-click campaigns are generating the desired result, but these tracking tools are unlikely to be 100% accurate.

Finally, pay-per-click advertising does not scale. If you get more traffic, you pay more money in direct proportion to that traffic – your cost per click stays constant, and your overall cost increases. Compare that to natural search engine optimization, where you invest a fixed amount of time and/or money to achieve a better rank, and your cost per click goes down as you draw more traffic.