This article is a basic introduction/overview to Pay Per Click (PPC) marketing. PPC is an Internet advertising model used on search engines, advertising networks, and content sites such as blogs, in which advertisers pay their host only when their ad is clicked. With search engines, advertisers typically bid on keyword phrases relevant to their target market. Content sites commonly charge a fixed price per click rather than use a bidding system. Most of the better PPC systems allow very fine-granuled targeting of ad display, which can be very useful for niche or localized products and services.
Don’t pay a lot for clicks unless your copy is KILLER
It’s easy to blow a lot of money fast for nothing on PPC. Unless you can afford to lose a lot of money for a while until you’ve found some combinations that work, it’s best to start small and proceed cautiously.
Google AdWords, Yahoo! Search Marketing, and Microsoft adCenter are the three largest PPC network operators. Social networks such as Facebook and Myspace are now offering PPC too. Google AdWords is the largest player in this space at the time of this article’s publication.
Common PPC Mistakes to avoid
- Having all your PPC keyphrases in one ad group and/or campaign.
- Bidding on generic keyphrases or only using broad match.
- Poor PPC bid management – setting your maximum cost per click too high or too low.
- Starving your PPC advertising budget so your ads are seen intermittently.
- Including content and search networks in the same PPC campaign and/or retaining the content network when it does not perform.
- Selecting the wrong website landing page and/or not tracking your PPC conversions.
- Not optimizing your PPC account in order to improve your click through rate (CTR) and quality score.
- Displaying your PPC ads to customers in the wrong geographical region or including all countries/regions (and languages) within the same Ad Words campaign.
- Using scheduling to turn your PPC ads off so your ads are not seen in the evening or at weekends.
- Not integrating your pay per click advertising strategy with your search engine optimisation (SEO) and other internet marketing techniques.
11. May 2009 at 6:40 pm
Sweet intro, Mogul. Cheers.
17. May 2009 at 10:52 am
Very interesting. Nice site, my first visit, good stuff, I’ll be back!
Cody Dream-Life-Coaching’s last blog post..7 reasons you may be failing
17. May 2009 at 10:26 pm
The hardest part of PPC advertising is to know what to bid for each keyword.
Asswass’s last blog post..Today’s Featured WOP: John Chow vs Shoemoney
23. May 2009 at 2:04 pm
yes thats right, finding and researching keywords also had a big difference right?
23. May 2009 at 9:55 pm
True. I’ll probably devote a post specifically to keyword research in the future. Thanks for your comment!
26. May 2009 at 10:52 am
Good introduction. PPC is a really vital tool and very, very useful when done well…however if not it can cost a lot of money!
It MUST be used in conjunction with some kind of tracking site – Google Analytics is free and probably the best. That way you can track the returns on your investments and where the best traffic is coming from. Essential and hugely useful.
31. May 2009 at 5:10 am
Nice article… Most advertisers on a ppc only promotes affiliate products.
4. June 2009 at 9:20 pm
It is possible to make a lot of money over the internet and now many people have turned to this opportunity because of the economy’s downturn. Pay Per Click has becoming popular nowadays. Great post!
9. June 2009 at 10:56 pm
Social networks would definitely be taking great opportunity for this PPC knowing that a lot of million people use facebook and among others.
6. July 2009 at 9:42 pm
FYI, there are two primary models for determining cost per click: flat-rate and bid-based.
18. July 2009 at 12:37 pm
An article about PPC keywords would be excellent. A primer about bidding for keywords would be outstanding. This seems to be the area that most people get tripped up on. Unfortunately it is almost always bidding too high because they’ve not done some simple research. All of the tools are available and most of them are free. Your statement about starving your campaign is good advice, keep up the continuity and your campaign will reach people.
Thanks
.-= Tony @ Phoenix Internet Marketing Specialist´s last blog ..3 of the Dumbest Things Ever Said By Internet Marketing Specialists =-.
19. July 2009 at 3:57 pm
Good idea, Tony. Will consider it as a topic for a future article. Cheers.