Pay-Per-Click Copyright (C) 2004 F. Terrence Markle
Pay-per-click (PPC) advertising is when an advertiser pays for each qualified click that sends a search engine user (i.e., visitor) to
advertiser’s web page. PPC requires advertiser to bid on key words or key word phrases chosen by advertiser. There are many PPC advertising services available to choose from. Google AdWords and Overture are probably two most popular in use today.
The PPC search engine allows you to buy a top position in search engine results for particular keyword or phrase you choose. The PPC search engines can deliver targeted and qualified visitors to your web page at an economical advertising cost if you manage program carefully with a clear objective. PPC provides advertiser with assurance that their ad is being delivered to targeted audience.
PPC advertising uses a bidding process where highest bidder or highest activity value, depending on search engine, for a particular keyword or phrase will receive top placement on search engine results page. The PPC search engine will place your ad text in a special location on results page when a user searches on your PPC keyword or phrase search term.
As an example, Google AdWords appear on right side of search results page while organic (i.e., natural) search results appear on left side of page. In case of Yahoo! Search, sponsored ads appear on both left and right side of search results page. The top 2-3 sponsored ads appear in top positions on left side above natural search results and next 3 sponsored ads appear at bottom of left side and on right side of search results page along with other sponsored ads.
PPC advertising is a good way to obtain web page visitors when you don’t have a top ranking web page to get you necessary natural search engine placement. Statistics show that over 80% of search engine users prefer natural search results as opposed to sponsored ads. Nevertheless, search engines deliver a huge amount of visitor traffic to sponsored advertisers especially in competitive keyword markets.
The typical PPC advertising campaign is based on bid per click. For example, you bid $0.10 for a particular keyword or phrase that is accepted by search engine. Whenever a search engine user clicks on your sponsored ad then you are charged $0.10 by search engine. This amount is deducted from your account funds. Your placement in search engine results page depends on search engine. For Google, placement is determined by your bid price and ad’s click-through activity. For Yahoo, placement is determined by your bid relative to other bids.
