Why PPC Advertising?

Why PPC Advertising?

by Alex Plana

PPC (Pay Per Click) is a widely used form of online advertising today. With online search results, ads are displayed in text or image form on blogs or through website content. Advertisers bid on these keywords and are charged each time someone clicks on one of their ads.

There are many advertising networks that host PPC campaigns, but the most common are Google AdWords, Yahoo Search Marketing, and MSN adCenter. Google, because of its ability to deliver significantly more ad impressions that any other search engine, is the most widely utilized. Advertisers typically pay more in CPC (Cost-Per-Click) as a result of Googles dominance.

The cost an advertiser pays for a click is dependent on type of keywords being targeted. Typically, higher traffic keywords result in higher CPC and less traffic keywords have a lower CPC. Keyword costs will be different from one advertiser to another due to the variety of factors that search engines use to help determine what an advertiser's minimum CPC should be.

A key question is how search engines determine how much to charge. This is done primarily by measuring the relevancy of an offer with respect to the keywords being targeted by the advertiser. Google uses a Quality Score (QS) to determine the relevancy of key terms used in splash pages and ads. Lowering a keywords CPC and increased ad position is a measurable result of a high quality score. Quality scores are improved by high Click-Through-Ratios (CTRs) on quality landing pages.

Many Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs) feature PPC ad placements on the top and right side, and are they are usually labeled with Sponsored Links, Sponsored Results, Sponsored Sites, or a similar term. The remaining area of a SERP contains natural or SEO (Search Engine Optimization) listings.

PPC is presently one of the most popular methods of online advertising. One of the main reasons is that advertisers only pay for actual clicks where the visitor goes to a designated site. Another important reason is that PPC campaigns can end up being displayed quickly in search results"often in minutes to a few days. This trumps SEO where several months can past before the same keywords receive ranking in search results. When executed properly, PPC can yield fantastic results for the bottom line of a business.

An effective PPC campaign can be set up fairly easy in Google, Yahoo, and MSN. However, implementing an effective campaign often proves difficult for most people because the factors involved. Choosing key terms is immensely important, and can prove to be quite costly if the wrong keywords are chosen. Success is a combination of how a campaign is created, effective landing page creation, continuous testing, and cost effective bid optimization.

Many successful organizations are taking complete advantage of PPC advertising for branding and profit reasons. Even though many people can manage their own PPC campaigns, it's highly suggested to use search marketing professionals to manage the campaigns. PPC is continually evolving and with more businesses trying to take advantage of this opportunity, the need for high-level search marketing strategies will play an important role in a success in PPC advertising. - 20490

Alex Plana is Search Marketing professional with personal achievements in SEO, PPC, and Affiliate Marketing. In addition, he is a talented web designer and currently owns and operates (http://www.planasem.com) PlanASEM.com, an organization specializing in providing small to medium size businesses "large company" online services at an affordable rate. In addition, Alex offers Search Marketing news and tips on his popular (http://www.planasem.com/blog/