Pay-Per-Click (PPC) advertising has quickly become one of the most used advertising methods in internet marketing (iMarketing) today. The popularity has grown due to the strength, power, and cost flexibility that PPC advertising offers to an internet marketer.
PPC Overview
PPC advertising can be described as an online advertising method in which a marketer places an advertisement and pays a specified amount each time that a visitor clicks on the advertisement. Available in both text and image formats, PPC ads can be easily set-up, customized, and revised by any marketer with even basic computer and internet skills.
The internet giant, Googledotcom, was built upon the PPC advertising concept and today generates its revenue through small, sidebar advertisements on its search pages. Each search result page generally consists of natural search results and paid advertisements (PPC ads) that are located along the right-hand side of the page.
Each PPC advertisement consists of an ad title, ad text, and a clickable web link. The placement of each ad is ordered according to the search engine company. Some search engines rank ads only on Cost-Per-Click (CPC) value (from highest to lowest). Others use complex, multi-criteria optimization algorithms to calculate a ranking of each ad.
Ads are triggered only when specified keywords are searched for by a user. Keyword-based search allows for further customizing by advertisers. In general, advertisers would like to find least competitive keywords to assure maximum ad exposure at the lowest possible cost. The other end of the spectrum involves bidding on highly competitive keywords. This situation requires a much higher CPC to be specified in order to still achieve an acceptable ad placement.
How to Get Started
Getting started in PPC advertising is easy and can be accomplished for only dollars out of your pocket. The steps include completing a registration form with your most basic personal information such as name, address, phone, business information, and a credit card. The most popular PPC advertising venues are Google Adwords, Yahoo Search Marketing, and MSN AdCenter.
After you’ve registered with a PPC advertising company, you’re within minutes of placing your first ad campaign. An ad campaign is defined as a paid advertisement that is set-up with specific ad criteria such as the ad title, ad text, destination URL, display URL, keywords, and specified CPC.
Additional ad campaign criteria may be specified depending on the PPC advertising company. Some offer national, regional, or local advertising options to limit your ad to be seen only by users in the requested areas. Other options may include targeting your ads to specific sites or ad networks.
Most PPC advertising companies provide detailed written instructions for both sign-up and for setting up your advertising campaigns. Some even offer step-by-step video tutorials to assist you.
Campaign Basics
There are six basic items that an internet marketer must understand in order to set-up any PPC advertising campaign: