22 JanPay Per Click Advertising for Beginners

Pay Per Click advertising is often referred to as PPC which stands for a popular advertising technique on the Internet. You can find this form of advertising on websites, advertising networks, and especially on search engines.

If you’ve ever searched the internet for a product or service, then chances are you’ve come across some form of PPC advertising. The majority of Pay Per Click ads involves sponsored links that are typically in the form of text ads but there’s also banner ads, popup ads, pop-under ads, and the newest thing to the internet world, video ads.

All of these forms of advertisements have one ultimate goal in mind… to call viewers to action. Whether it’s to get them to buy something or to receive a free gift or to sign up for their newsletter. The ultimate goal of Pay Per Click advertisement is to encourage the viewer to respond.

To sum up PPC in one sentence – an advertiser pays a particular amount to a search engine for visitors who click on their links or banners and land on their 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 website (this is why some people call it “keyword auctioning”). Advertisers would then pay the bidding price every time a visitor clicks through to their website.

There are many variations to Pay Per Click advertising such as

• Pay per placement
• Pay per performance
• Pay per ranking
• Pay per position
• Cost per click (CPC)

The procedure for placing a Pay Per Click advertisement is pretty straightforward and simple. There are basic steps you will most likely have to take such as:

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.

Important things to consider when planning on a pay per click campaign:

• Know your product. Take a stock ckeck of the product and/or services that you have to offer (before anything else).
• 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.
• 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 cause your ads to receive poor placement (not appear on the top 3 pages).
• 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.
• 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.
• Write effective ads. A good PPC ad is that which can persuade and move a searcher.
• Try some of these approaches:
  • Discount offers
  • Testimonials
  • Celebrity/famous endorsers
  • Money-back guarantees
  • Free trials or sample offers
  • Freebies
  • Reverse psychology
  • Major benefits (“Lose weight”)
  • Direct instructions (“Click here”)
• 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, Pay Per Click advertising can be an effective marketing tool that will maximize your return on investment. Most likely you will have to play around with different variations of your advertisement to see which ad copy encourage viewers to click on your ad and enter your website. Keep in mind, it can be costly, but if done right, Pay Per Click advertising could very easily become the life-line of your business.

Don’t give up! If at first you don’t succeed, TRY, TRY, AGAIN! There is a lot to learn when starting a online business. Give yourself a break and don’t set unrealistic goals. Contrary to popular beliefs, having a successful, profit making, online business doesn’t happen overnight.