PAY-PER-CLICK _PPC_

							                             PAY-PER-CLICK (PPC)

Search Engines are considered to be the play-makers in the Internet advertising and
marketing space. Every business formulates a long term and a short term strategy for
the growth of its business. A balanced approach to Internet marketing is comprised of
a Long Term Strategy (SEO) and a Short Term Strategy (SEM).

Search Engine marketing (PPC - Pay Per click) does not have a maturity period like
SEO but, Rather can yield instant results. The complete marketing mechanism is
dependent upon a customers interaction with the advertisement on search engines.
The Business owners pay the Search Engines based on the number of visitors they get
to their site through the clicks on the ads.

You need to create the most effective and budget conscious PPC campaign in order to
get the maximum mileage out of your buck. The core of a great PPC strategy is the
selection of right keywords which would target the right customers and which are not
priced high also. PPC is a time tested mechanism for generating targeted leads -
which can translate into a greater conversion rate - taking your company to a higher
stage of growth..

Advantages of Pay-Per-Click Advertising:


PPC ads can immediately generate visibility for your website by getting you placed on
SERPs of the desired keywords. Distinctively, PPC advertising is:

   • Definite
   • Flexible
   • Low Risk

Because of these features PPC enjoys certain advantages over the other forms of
online advertising. Some of these features are listed and discussed below.

      Placement:

             PPC ads appear when you want

      Instant Results:

             The results of PPC campaigns are instant. The ads go live immediately
             and can be modified, added or deleted at any time.

      Easy implementation:
             PPC advertisement is an effective model and is easily implemented. PPC
             ads don't require any modifications on the website and hence are an
             effective search engine marketing model for sites which are architecturally
             difficult to modify for SEO. For example even if you are site is in Frames,
             you can run a PPC campaign for the site and the ads would appear.

      Pay per click:

             You only pay when some one clicks on the ad.
             Advertisers have control over who the PPC ads are visible to.

      Keyword selection:

            PPC advertisers can decide what keywords they want to bid on.

      Language Specification:

             PPC advertisers can choose the language in which they want the ads to
             appear. The following options are given to the advertiser: Take options
             from Google.

      Location Specification:

             PPC advertisers can choose the exact geographic location for the display
             of their PPC ads.
             Advertisers decide how much they want to spend on PPC ads

      Control of Costs:
           PPC advertisers can adjust the maximum bid limit based on the
           profitability of the campaign. The position of the PPC ad in SERP's* is
           decided accordingly. So if you feel that beyond 15¢ a click your
           profitability goes down, then you need not bid any more on the same.

      Measure the effectiveness of your campaign:

             Accurate Stats can be obtained and the effectiveness of the campaign can
             be measured. For example you can get details like: The maximum bid
             rate, the number of clicks and impressions, average cost per click, cost
             incurred and the conversion rate for each keyword. From this you can
             calculate the ROI (Return on Investment).

* SERP
     Short for search engine results page, the Web page that a search engine returns
     with the results of its search. The major search engines typically display three
     kinds of listings on their SERPs. Listings that have been indexed by the search
      engine spiders, listings that have been indexed into the search engine directory
      by a human, and listings that are paid to be listed by the search engine.

Disadvantages of Pay-Per-Click Advertising:

      Easy:

              You might be thinking that being an easy strategy should not be a
              disadvantage. There are two sides to this, yes, it is true that pay-per-click
              advertising is easy to get going, however it does not mean that success is
              on your side right away.

              Before you plunge into pay-per-click advertising you have to do careful
              keywords research to ensure you are not going to be part of an
              overflowing market. A sorry excuse for a copy will surely affect your ad's
              ranking which means you are spending unnecessarily.

      Click fraud:

              To explain this in non-technical language, click fraud happens when your
              competitors click on your advertisements hence eating up your budget.
              Click fraud in per-pay-click advertising can be done by an actual person or
              it could be done by a program that is designed to click on ads without
              detection.

              Be sure that you check the conversion rate of your pay-per-click with each
              search engine that you use. After getting this information drop whatever it
              is that is not doing well and save some money in the process.

              Do not go thinking that since Google is the biggest search engine right
              now that you should only use that. It sure is big but together with that,
              there is a lot of competition. You stand a better chance of getting
              conversions if you use small pay-per-click programs, and not to mention it
              is less expensive.

      Poor keyword research:

              What are your prospects doing to find products like yours? Do you know
              what they are typing in that search box? If you are guessing as to what
              that is then you are costing your business unnecessary expense.

              A well-researched keyword phrase will clearly show what the main
              purpose of the search is. So when you think you have found a keyword,
              ask yourself, "What problem is this person trying to solve? What are his
      issues? ". If you are not able to answer those then what you have is too
      general so you have to research again otherwise you are going to loose
      money.

      If you are just starting out you might want to try out Google Adwords
      because that is for free and it can help by providing you an amazing range
      of information that will help you zero in on inexpensive, targeted keywords
      that will bring in people with a problem that your product can solve.

Scattergun ads:

      Every advertisement that you think of should be based on one keyword
      phrase that is relevant to one specific problem. Using an advertisement
      that is too general might result to clicks that are not valid. What do I
      mean? Someone might click it but in reality, these people are actually
      looking something entirely different.

      In writing your advertisements make sure that you do it right, spend some
      time on it. Write as if you are the one with problems that needs resolution.
      Use your keyword in the header and try to integrate it to the body of the
      advertisement. In the body of your advertisement, be sure to mention the
      product benefits instead of just mentioning the features.

Unrelated landing page/s:

      People click on your advertisement because they want to know if you can
      solve their problems, so if you link unrelated landing pages and prospects
      see it is a different thing then they will for sure close that window and
      never click on your advertisement ever again.

      If your prospects click, on an advertisement, that sells handbags and then
      they are taken to a landing page with all sorts of other products, or they
      have to figure out how to navigate to get to the handbags section then
      chances are you have lost a sale.

Click-throughs cost money and conversions keep you in business:

      So be sure that you make the most out of each click you receive. The
      conversion of each click is what keeps your business going.

Continuous work:

      If your advertisement is not working, test other advertisements against it
      by modifying some elements and running them against each other. Think
          of your original ad the control ad, change the headline, and see if the new
          ads yield better results. Keep doing this until you get the results that you
          want.

Keyword Competition:

          Because of the competition for popular keywords is huge and getting
          larger everyday, the cost for these words is correspondingly higher. Most
          Search Engine sell their keyword placement on an auction basis, in short
          the higher the bid the higher the page placement within the advertising
          sections of their pages.

          Using Google Adwords as an example:

                 The top three bidders will have their ads placed at the top of the
                 page and everyone below will have their ads placed on the right
                 hand side (or column).

                 For those of you who remember the good old days of the Gasoline
                 Wars between competing suppliers - where one station would drop
                 their price and then the next one would drop their price and so on
                 until no one easy making any money (very bad ROI).

          Using this example it is quite possible that no one will even pay attention
          to your ad because it is so low on the totem pole. Granted this doesn't
          cost you any money, but you are not making any either.