Pay Per Click Advertising

Website traffic or the number of visitors and visits a website receives is the key concern of businesses having an online presence. More than 80 percent of website traffic originates from search engines be it Google, Yahoo, MSN or other search engines.

Pay-Per-Click advertising is the fastest growing form of online marketing today and it is set to grow even bigger in the future. Advertising revenues from Pay-Per-Click are expected to exceed $15 billion in 2007 and will continue to grow at 40 percent or more annually.

The idea of Pay Per Click or PPC advertising is an advertiser's dream. As its name suggests, you only pay when someone clicks on your ad. In other words, even if your ad appears a million times and a lot of people view it, you only pay for those people who click on your ad and are brought to your website becuase they are searching for something which they believe your company may be offering.

Benefits of Pay-Per-Click Advertising

Many companies are now moving their advertising budget to Pay-Per-Click advertising because of the many benefits that it brings. These include: 

• Market Targetting
  With traditional offline advertising and most forms of online advertising, ads are simply broadcasted to a wide group of people. Pay-Per-Click advertising, however, can be targetted to specific market segments with specific interests. Your ad will only appear when a user searches for a specific term or keyword that you have specified. Thus your ad will appear to users at the precise moment that they are looking for your product or service. 

• Marketing Reach
  Targetted relevant ads in Google can appear on Google properties, thousands of partner search sites and even content sites (such as How Stuff Works) in the Google Network, and newsletters and emails. These ads are viewed by over 80% of internet users in the United States alone. Google's global network provides extensive ad exposure across the world.

• Speed and Ease of Implementation
  PPC advertising campaigns can be set up fairly quickly, are easy to implement and can be almost instantaneous. Your ads can appear as quickly as 15 minutes from the time you launch your campaign.

• Ability to Modify and Fine-Tune Your Campaigns
  Unlike traditional offline marketing, you have the ability to modify and fine-tune your ad and campaign at any time and have the changes implemented immediately. You can test various ads to see which gives you a better click-through rate. You can adjust your budget, the maximum amount you are willing to pay for a click or the keywords that you have chosen.

• Measurable
  The results of PPC advertising are clearly measurable. In fact, tools are provided by the Search Engine provider such as Google to let you monitor and measure the effects of your advertising. You can tell, for example, not only how many visitors visit your site, but even details such as which search term they use to find your site, which pages they visited, how long they spent on each page, and on which page did they exit your website, among others. This allows you to fine-tune your ads and campaign to achieve better returns.

• Cost Effectiveness and Control
  Compared to traditional as well as other forms of online advertising, PPC advertising is definitely more cost-effective. You have complete control over your budget as you can set the maximum amount you are willing to spend per day for each campaign. You can also specify the maximum amount you are willing to pay for each click. All these help to minimize your financial risk and prevent you from running above your budget.

• Ideal for Large and Small Companies
  PPC advertising is ideal for both small as well as large companies as there is no limit as to how small or large a budget you need to spend. For small companies, it is suitable as a means to target niche markets effectively.

There are many other benefits that can be derived from PPC advertising. However, your PPC campaigns need to be planned and executed well in order for your company to reap these benefits and achieve a good ROI.

If you plan to engage the services of a PPC consultant, do ensure that get someone who is certified by a major Search Engine proovider such as a Google Advertising Professional.

To be a Qualified Google Advertising Professional, a person must meet the following requirements:

• Accepted the terms of the Google Adwords program.
• Managed at least one AdWords account in a master account for 90 days.
• Built and maintained Google's 90-day spend requirement.
• Passed the Google Advertising Professional Exam.

To contact a Google Advertising Professional, do email us.