Pay-Per-Click Makes Sense

Pay-per-click is one of the best ways to increase the number of visitors to your website, while keeping the cost of advertising down. Because you only pay for what you use, none of your valuable advertising dollars are wasted.

Keyword searches on major engines like "Overture" and "Google" are the most common way for people to explore the internet and find sites that meet their needs. Both of these popular search engines and others offer Pay-Per-Click. Pay-Per-Click allows a business to pay to keep their website at the top of search results, by outbidding competitors on specific keywords. A business decides how much it is willing to spend each time a search engine sends them a visitor, then the search engine and their partner engines organize search results with the highest paying businesses listed first.

Pay-Per-Click provides each business with an account where that business can set keywords and the price per click. Accounts are user friendly, and once keywords have been activated, a business can (and should) monitor the results regularly.

The advantages of using Pay-Per-Click are obvious. By only asking a business to pay when a person selects its website from the search results list, Pay-Per-Click is an excellent way to make sure your advertising budget is well spent. Also, no changes need to be made to your existing website look or content. In addition, creating a Pay-Per-Click account is simple and quick, with results almost immediately, unlike standard SEO campaigns.

Pay-Per-Click advertising does have limitations, however. New higher bids by competitors can lower your ranking, forcing you to increase your bid to maintain your position while other businesses do the same. Monitoring your ranking becomes an important part of using Pay-Per-Click and requires time. Moreover, competition for keywords may drive the price of high rankings through the roof, making it too expensive to continue. Lastly, some people using search engines now recognize PPC results as paid advertising and bypass them without consideration.

The Pay-Per-Click campaign process has four steps, and begins by determining how much each visitor to your site is worth. Using a basic formula which divides monthly net profit by the number of visitors during a month, you can figure out approximately how much each visitor is worth. From there, it is up to you to decide which keywords are worth investing in, and how much to invest in each. It may make sense to settle for a lower ranking on the most popular keywords, and bid on other less popular search terms to end up paying an acceptable amount per visitor.

After determining a visitor's worth, you must select key words that will lead visitors to your site. Well chosen keywords and phrases are essential to your online success, and PPC encourages the use of as many as you can afford. Do not be afraid to include a number of key phrases and words that may not be used much-- the cost is low because you only pay when someone uses that search term to find you.

Once your keywords and phrases have been set, you must write a description of your site to appear alongside the link to your site in the search results list. Remember: the object of these descriptions is lure only highly-targeted traffic, not every browser or "tire kicker," since you must pay every time your site is selected from the list. Make the descriptions of your business very specific up front. If you sell books, but only textbooks, make this clear immediately so you don't have to pay every time a mother searching for a Dr. Seuss book visits your site only to discover it has nothing she wants.

Finally, you must monitor your Pay-Per-Click campaign regularly. Rankings can change daily, and competition for top placement often results in bidding wars. If the price of a keyword gets too high, you should find more moderately priced keywords and phrases rather than lose money. Your rankings are not the only thing you should monitor, however. View your click-through rates and study your visitor’s habits monthly so you can modify your campaign as necessary.

One more thing to keep in mind when considering a Pay-Per Click campaign is the frequency and cost of "click fraud". Click fraud occurs when businesses, persons, or automated machines click on your link with the sole intent of costing you money. Click fraud represents approximately 30% of all PPC expenditure, and should be factored into any PPC decision you make.

Even with click fraud and bidding wars, Pay-Per-Click campaigns are an excellent way to bring large numbers of highly-targeted visitors to your site. By giving you the power to spend your advertising budget deliberately, and allowing you to modify and refine your campaign regularly, Pay-Per-Click can be a smart way to grow your business. While the cost of PPC campaigns is likely to rise in the near future due to increased popularity, this method of advertising, when used correctly, can prove effective and profitable.

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