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Can You Rely On Pay-Per-Click Advertising?A Successful Pay-Per-Click Advertising Campaign Depends On Several Factors
by David Hurley
Pay-Per-Click advertising is a method of bidding for certain keywords or phrases that people type into search engines such as Google when looking up something on the Internet. As the bidder, you can decode how much to pay for a keyword and the more you pay the higher ranked your advertisement will be in the search results. The highest bidder's ppc ad gets the top spot.
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However, whether or not you can rely on Pay-Per-Click advertising as a PROFITABLE way to drive traffic to your website will depend upon the products or services you have to offer and how, how well they are presented on your website, and how skilfully you can harness PPC to promote your website.
To begin advertising via Pay-per-Click you will need to open an account and deposit some money with a PPC advertising company. The biggest PPC companies in the market as of 2007 are Google AdWords, Yahoo! Search Marketing, and MSN adCenter. Other popular PPC companies include Ask, Kanoodle, LookSmart, Miya, and Yandex.
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The cost per click starts from as little as US$0.01 and rises to several dollars a click depending on the polularity of the keyword or search terms and the popularity of the PPC company. Anything over a dollar a click and your advertising costs begin to soar. The good news, however, is that you only pay when someone clicks on your advertisement. Also, with some Pay-Per-Click advertising companies, you can set the amount you wish to spend, which is obviously good for small businesses on limited advertising budgets.
In order for Pay-per-Click advertising to work, you need to make sure that the search engine or PPC company you choose to use are visible enough in your market for the advertising to be worthwhile; in other words you need to choose the right sites where people may be looking for the type of products and services that you are selling.
For example, if you sell women's shoes, it is not likely to be beneficial for you to post your PPC links on a site that emphasises sales of electronic equipment. On the other hand, it might be effective to post your ads on a site that sells fashion items, fragrances, or even men's wear since many people are looking for a quick way to find clothing for all members of the family.
Make sure you fully understand the advertising policies of the PPC company you choose. If you choose a company that allows you to set your own price for each click, you will probably find that your ad will appear on more sites if you are willing to pay more for the service. You want to make sure that you have control over the types of sites where your Pay-Per-Click advertisement will appear. You want to be choosy so that you don't allow your ad to show on sites where people might just click through to see what you have to offer and then not buy anything. Remember, every click costs you money so it's important to target those who are interested and ready to buy, even if it may not be the same day.
Before you choose Pay-Per-Click advertising, talk to other people you know who have used it to get a feel for the right company to use. Do your own research as well. Read the content on websites where you are thinking about placing your ads.
Like any other type of advertising, you must keep in mind that PPC advertising works better in some industries than others. Before investing your money in a long-term commitment, you may want to try a couple of small PPC test campaigns to give you an idea of how well it is likely to work for you.
You will need to choose your keywords with great care. Remember that when someone searches for a keyword the advertisers' links appear in descending order, starting with the advertiser who is willing to pay most for the click. The obvious or more common or popular keywords for your market will also be the most expensive ones because they attract most bidders. What you need to do is to brainstorm a range of phrases that people may use to search for your product but which fewer of your competitors will have selected. Those phrases, or "longtail keywords" as they are called in the industry, will almost certainly be cheaper to bid on and yet may also be more effective in attracting very targeted traffic to your site.
For that reason, the phrases that you choose are of vital importance for the success of your campaign. You can lose a lot of advertising money very quickly and end up going nowhere mighty fast if you do not test your keywords and phrases before deciding whether or not Pay Per Click advertising is for you.
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David Hurley
Grasp-The-Nettle.com/blog
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