Understanding The Basics Of Pay Per Click Advertising
Understanding The Basics Of Pay Per Click Advertising
Pay per click advertising allows a website owner to advertise on search engines under a special sponsored listings section. Internet users type in a particular term or keyword and the search engine displays the results of websites that may be of interest to the searcher. PPC lets a website owner bid anywhere from $0.001 to $5 on a particular keyword.
When an Internet user types in a search for that keyword, the website's PPC ad is displayed along with the organic search results obtained from the actual content of the website. Every time a PPC ad is selected by an Internet surfer, the website owner is charged the amount that they bid for that keyword.
A sample of PPC at work.
If I have a website that sells purple flip flops, I may bid on keywords such as: "summer sandals", "flip flops", "purple shoes", "women's shoes", etc. While bidding on a keyword, the amount of your bid determines the ranking of your ad on a search engine results page. The keyword "flip flops" may be currently owned by my competitor's site as first ranking for $0.12 per click.
If I want that first rate spot, I need to bid $0.13 and see if the competition outbids me. If I am willing to settle for a ranking that will show on the first one or two pages of results, I can bid less and still be ranked for that particular keyword and be seen by potential customers.
In this way, PPC ads are an inexpensive and effective advertising tool. They can be used to gain exposure for your business or website.
Getting in the know: a lesson in PPC related jargon.
PPC- pay per click -
This is a marketing strategy where a website owner bids on keywords that determine when an ad for the website will be displayed. The owner pays for each visit to the website that comes form these ads.
Keyword -
This is the search term typed into a search engine by a consumer to locate information, services or products.
ROI- return on investment -
This is the amount of money gained by a company by investing in PPC ads. This is the bottom line value of how successful the PPC ad is.
CTR- click through rate. It refers to the number of times your PPC ad was displayed in proportion to the number of actual clicks the ad received. Better ads receive higher CTRs.
Click. Each time a user selects a link to a website by using the sponsored ad, a click is generated. This is referred to a click because the visitor clicks the mouse over the desired link, the consumer interacts with the ad.
CPC - cost per click
CPC refers to the monetary value that each user click costs the sponsoring website's company.
Above the Fold -
This term refers to the portion of the website that is initially viewed without scrolling down or to the right. This is prime real estate for ads.
PPCSE -
pay per click search engine. Google AdSense is an example. The search engine that presents sponsored listings to the consumer.
Top PPC search engines: Google AdWords , Yahoo! Search Marketing , Microsoft adCenter , Ask.com , ABC Search , 7Search , SearchFeed , Enhance Interactive , and Findology .
Click fraud -
This term refers to clicks made on your PPC ads that are not made to honestly explore the listed website. Your competitors may click your ads to drain your budget so that they may get keywords at a lower price.
Website owners that host your PPC ads may fraudulently click on those ads to generate revenue for themselves. Click fraud occurrence has been estimated to be as high as 20%. It is an unavoidable part of PPC advertising. Many PPC search engines have instituted programs to identify and stop PPC fraud. If you suspect click fraud, you can report it to your PPC search engine for investigation.
Alternative pay per click search engines -
These search engines are not as popular, but may offer more affordable keyword bidding. Some search engines are niche specific for certain products or services and may return a higher ROI by targeting a specific group of buyers looking for your exact product or service.
A few alternative PPC search engines are: LookSmart , Clicksor , Lycos , ChaCha , SeeMoreSearch.com , BrainFox , Mamma , goClick , Search 123 , PageSeeker , GenieKnows , SearchGalore , Business.Com , Snap.com , Bidvertiser , SuperPages , WebsiteZone , and Kanoodle.
Landing page -
A landing page is a website page that consumers are directed to when clicking on your PPC ad. This is not the same thing as your homepage. Most website owners create specialized pages for their PPC ads to be directed to. These landing pages are not filled with distracting information and provide the details promised in the PPC ad copy.
Keyword bid -
This is the highest dollar or cent amount that you are willing to pay every time a visitor uses a PPC ad to reach your website. It is important to keep these price as low as possible to avoid receiving a PPC bill that your budget cannot afford.
There are many things to consider when instituting a pay per click ad campaign and the process can become very complicated and confusing if you are just beginning. Check out our other pay per click articles to help you become a PPC guru and get your business on the fast track to financial success.
Understanding The Basics Of Pay Per Click Advertising - To learn more about this author, visit Scott Hendison's Website.
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How does PPC work?
Pay per click advertising allows a website owner to advertise on search engines under a special sponsored listings section. Internet users type in a particular term or keyword and the search engine displays the results of websites that may be of interest to the searcher. PPC lets a website owner bid anywhere from $0.001 to $5 on a particular keyword.
When an Internet user types in a search for that keyword, the website's PPC ad is displayed along with the organic search results obtained from the actual content of the website. Every time a PPC ad is selected by an Internet surfer, the website owner is charged the amount that they bid for that keyword.
A sample of PPC at work.
If I have a website that sells purple flip flops, I may bid on keywords such as: "summer sandals", "flip flops", "purple shoes", "women's shoes", etc. While bidding on a keyword, the amount of your bid determines the ranking of your ad on a search engine results page. The keyword "flip flops" may be currently owned by my competitor's site as first ranking for $0.12 per click.
If I want that first rate spot, I need to bid $0.13 and see if the competition outbids me. If I am willing to settle for a ranking that will show on the first one or two pages of results, I can bid less and still be ranked for that particular keyword and be seen by potential customers.
In this way, PPC ads are an inexpensive and effective advertising tool. They can be used to gain exposure for your business or website.
Getting in the know: a lesson in PPC related jargon.
PPC- pay per click -
This is a marketing strategy where a website owner bids on keywords that determine when an ad for the website will be displayed. The owner pays for each visit to the website that comes form these ads.
Keyword -
This is the search term typed into a search engine by a consumer to locate information, services or products.
ROI- return on investment -
This is the amount of money gained by a company by investing in PPC ads. This is the bottom line value of how successful the PPC ad is.
CTR- click through rate. It refers to the number of times your PPC ad was displayed in proportion to the number of actual clicks the ad received. Better ads receive higher CTRs.
Click. Each time a user selects a link to a website by using the sponsored ad, a click is generated. This is referred to a click because the visitor clicks the mouse over the desired link, the consumer interacts with the ad.
CPC - cost per click
CPC refers to the monetary value that each user click costs the sponsoring website's company.
Above the Fold -
This term refers to the portion of the website that is initially viewed without scrolling down or to the right. This is prime real estate for ads.
PPCSE -
pay per click search engine. Google AdSense is an example. The search engine that presents sponsored listings to the consumer.
Top PPC search engines: Google AdWords , Yahoo! Search Marketing , Microsoft adCenter , Ask.com , ABC Search , 7Search , SearchFeed , Enhance Interactive , and Findology .
Click fraud -
This term refers to clicks made on your PPC ads that are not made to honestly explore the listed website. Your competitors may click your ads to drain your budget so that they may get keywords at a lower price.
Website owners that host your PPC ads may fraudulently click on those ads to generate revenue for themselves. Click fraud occurrence has been estimated to be as high as 20%. It is an unavoidable part of PPC advertising. Many PPC search engines have instituted programs to identify and stop PPC fraud. If you suspect click fraud, you can report it to your PPC search engine for investigation.
Alternative pay per click search engines -
These search engines are not as popular, but may offer more affordable keyword bidding. Some search engines are niche specific for certain products or services and may return a higher ROI by targeting a specific group of buyers looking for your exact product or service.
A few alternative PPC search engines are: LookSmart , Clicksor , Lycos , ChaCha , SeeMoreSearch.com , BrainFox , Mamma , goClick , Search 123 , PageSeeker , GenieKnows , SearchGalore , Business.Com , Snap.com , Bidvertiser , SuperPages , WebsiteZone , and Kanoodle.
Landing page -
A landing page is a website page that consumers are directed to when clicking on your PPC ad. This is not the same thing as your homepage. Most website owners create specialized pages for their PPC ads to be directed to. These landing pages are not filled with distracting information and provide the details promised in the PPC ad copy.
Keyword bid -
This is the highest dollar or cent amount that you are willing to pay every time a visitor uses a PPC ad to reach your website. It is important to keep these price as low as possible to avoid receiving a PPC bill that your budget cannot afford.
There are many things to consider when instituting a pay per click ad campaign and the process can become very complicated and confusing if you are just beginning. Check out our other pay per click articles to help you become a PPC guru and get your business on the fast track to financial success.
Understanding The Basics Of Pay Per Click Advertising - To learn more about this author, visit Scott Hendison's Website.
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Dave KurlanDave Kurlan is the founder and CEO of Objective Management Group, Inc., the industry leader in sales assessments and sales force evaluations, and the CEO of David Kurlan & Associates, Inc., a consulting firm specializing in sales force development. Dave has been a top rated speaker at Inc. Magazine's Conference on Growing the Company, the Sales & Marketing Management Conference and the Gazelles Sales & Marketing Summit. He has been featured on radio and TV, including World Business Review with General Norman Schwarzkopf, in Inc. Magazine, Selling Power Magazine, Sales & Marketing Management Magazine and Incentive Magazine. He is the author of Mindless Selling and Baseline Selling – How to Become a Sales Superstar by Using What You Already Know about the Game of Baseball. He created and wrote STAR, a proprietary recruiting process for hiring great salespeople, and he writes Understanding the Sales Force, a popular business Blog and is a contributing author to The Death of 20th Century Selling and 101 Great Ways to Improve Your Life, Volume 2. - Visit Dave Kurlan's Website |
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Kim CastleWith nearly two decades in the advertising and design business, with clients like Domino's Pizza, General Motors, Direct TV, Pedigree, Wolfgang Puck, Higher Octave Music, Hollywood Celebrity Products, Disney, and Paramount, as well as thousands of entrepreneurs around the world define, structure, communicate, and position their business for greater profits, BrandU(R) co-creators Kim Castle and W. Vito Montone discovered that entrepreneurs could experience the same power that big brands command for a fraction of the cost with the world's only process-based results-drive Integral approach to business creation. BrandU(R) is helping entrepreneurs grow with the power of extreme clarity from idea...to brand...to market(TM) and helping one million entrepreneurs become successful and whole so that they can make a difference in the world. Are you one of them? If you want to experience clarity all the way to the bank(TM), get started now at http://www.brandu.com. - Visit Kim Castle's Website |
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Stephanie RobeyStephanie Robey is President and CoFounder of Pivot Positive, LLC - an Internet marketing business focused on helping people start work at home ventures. Previously, she was employed at The Search Agency with over 20 years experience in graphic design and 10 years experience in online marketing. She was responsible for launching the Conversion Path Optimization (CPO) unit where she and her team have conducted hundreds of optimization tests for online companies across multiple verticals. She is a successful entrepreneur having started and sold 2 companies and remains on the board of directors of the third, PhotoSpin.com Stephanie began her career in the direct marketing realm creating and producing direct mail for many of the major cable television companies and directly attributes her understanding of Internet marketing to those early offline experiences. Stephanie is a graduate of San Diego State University with a BFA in Graphic Arts and also holds an Executive MBA from the Graziadio School of Business and Management at Pepperdine University. Read Steph's Blog Meet Steph and Dave Sign up for our Free 7-Day BootCamp: Self Employed & Rich - Visit Stephanie Robey's Website |
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David AchesonDavid Acheson is the founder of DCJA Consultancy. DCJA Consultancy is a management consultancy business specialising in B2B sales consultancy. They offer bespoke and packaged sales consultancy including Sales Optimisation Review, Interim Sales Management, Sales & Marketing Review, 1:1 Sales & Management Staff Analysis, Management Training, Solution Sales Training, Creation of New Pay Plan, KPI's, run Customer Feedback Campaigns, assist with Recruitment, Coaching, Appraisals and set up Strategic Marketing Campaigns. David spent his early career in accountancy and then moved into sales in 1982, working in Office Equipment, IT, Advertising, Training, Outsourcing and Consultancy. He has held many Senior Positions in SMBs and Global Organisations including Head of Sales Operations & Head of Business Development. His knowledge, skills and great experience of the Sales Industry has led to David making keynote speeches and running educational sessions to key businesses through organisations including The Chamber of Commerce and Business Link. - Visit David Acheson's Website |
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