Pay Per Click Advertising An Overview

Pay-per-click advertising is a marketing strategy that is relatively straightforward. But, to better understand pay-per-click advertising, you need to have a better understanding of how search engines such as Google and Overture work.

 

First, the search engine has “natural” search results. These are the web sites the search engine brings up when an Internet user performs a keyword search. Getting a high ranking through the natural search engine rankings is great for your web site. But, you can further increase your traffic flow with pay-per-click advertising.

 

With pay-per-click advertising, you actually bid on certain keywords. If you have placed the highest bid on a certain keyword, a keyword phrase, or a group of keywords, you will rank as number one on the paid listings. With Google, these paid listings are located on the right hand side of the computer screen beneath the heading of “Adwords.” With Yahoo and MSNSearch, the pay-per-click listings are located in the same space as the natural search engine results, but under the heading of “sponsored listings.”

 

If a web user decides to click on your pay-per-click advertisement, he or she will be directed straight to your site. Consequently, you will be charged for the amount you bid to have your site listed. So, if your bid was for £.20 per click, that is how much you will be charged every time someone clicks on your link. If 100 people click your link, you will be charged £20.

 

Pay-per-click advertising can become costly, particularly if you place a rather high bid on your keyword or keywords. Therefore, it is important to select your keywords carefully in order to improve your chances of drawing in your target group. Through careful selection of keywords and monitoring of the success of your pay-per-click advertisement campaign, however, this form of marketing can significantly boost your website traffic as well as your sales.