Does Pay-Per-Click Make Cents?

Pay-Per-Click advertisements are the most important innovation to hit the internet since e-mail!!!

Maybe not, but it can be an effective tool in your advertising arsenal. But what exactly is PPC?

Pay-Per-Click advertisements appear on search engine result pages. When you search a word in Google, the results that show up on the left-center of the page are organic results. These rankings are ordered by relevancy to the keyword, and are the result of good search engine optimization techniques.

To the right of these, however, are sponsored links, or Pay-Per-Click advertisements. Companies pay for the right to be listed here for a particular word. The way it works is companies pick a keyword and specify the amount they are willing to pay each time someone clicks on their ad. The amount is determined by competiveness of keyword which affects placement in the sponsored links.

When a user searches for that keyword, their ad appears. If a user clicks on the ad, the company pays. If not, they don’t. A set daily budget limits what you spend, and once you reach it, your ad is pulled until the next day.

PPC is a great compliment to a long-term SEO strategy. It is quick, and it can help build brand awareness while you are creating a content rich site that will land you in the top of the organic search results. It can also serve as a targeted effort. You can run multiple PPC ads at one time, each one promoting a separate service you offer, positioning yourself as an expert in multiple fields.

As a warning, PPC ads can’t really stand alone. If a user clicks your ad, and is directed to a site that looks unprofessional, they aren’t going to stay long enough to be called to action. So you want to make sure your site portrays your business in the right light (even if you need some creative web design help).

Pay-Per-Click advertising is one of the fastest growing segments of the advertising world, and it should be considered by all businesses looking to make a splash on the internet.