The Basics of Pay Per Click Search Engine Advertising
by Kirk Bannerman
Published on this site: August 2nd, 2005 - See
more articles from this month
Not long ago, Forbes magazine has reported that pay per click
ad sales are expected to increase to at least $8 billion by
2008.
There are three fundamental elements that form the basis
of a successful pay per click ad program and they are constant
monitoring, response analysis, and refinement.
Pay per click search engines offer a way to buy your way
to the top of search results for any term you wish. With proper
management, and a clear focus, pay per click search engines
can offer some of the most well targeted and economical advertising
on the Internet.
Pay per click advertising works through a bidding process,
and the ads appear prominently on the results pages of search
engines such as Google and Yahoo. The highest bidder for a
particular word or phrase receives top placement, and depending
on the engine, the top three to five bidders also generally
also receive placement on the first page of unpaid search
results.
Fundamental questions to be addressed when formulating a
pay per click search engine strategy include the following:
When is the top pay per click bid necessary for highest conversion,
and when will bidding for a second or third place position
create a more attractive return on investment (ROI)?
How can you keep your PPC bids from cannibalizing your search
efforts on other (non pay per click) search engines?
What percentage of your pay per click budget should go to
each search engine?
Does either Google Adwords or Overture work better for your
particular product or service? Or, perhaps neither one is
appropriate from a return on investment (ROI) perspective.
It is of critical importance to focus sharply on identifying
the search terms that convert most frequently for your particular
site, eliminating those that don't perform, and most importantly,
calculating and maximizing your return on investment.The cost
structure of pay per click is action-driven and each
time a user clicks your ad, the pay per click engine deducts
the amount of your current bid from your account. Pay per
click offers a high level of assurance that your ad is reaching
the proper target.
Pay per click campaigns, however, are not perfect. Without
CONSTANT monitoring, you sometimes risk incurring advertising
costs that can spiral out of control, focusing on terms that
don't convert well for your product or services, or falling
way down in position during a bidding war.
PPC advertising can be a great help to a site's success,
but only with very close supervision and a thorough knowledge
of the unique characteristics of each PPC search engine.
Kirk Bannerman operates a successful home based business
and coaches others seeking to start their own home based business.
Visit his website at
Legitimate Home Based Business for more details
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