Introduction to Pay-per-Click Search Engines: A Useful Tool to Get to the Top
Pay-per-Click Search Engines are useful to gain ranking in web search results. If after developing a quality website you still find yourself far from the top, pay-per-click search engines may be the answer for you. With this form of advertising, you pay a search engine sight to place your website with the top search results. Pay-per-click (PPC) is the fastest growing segment of advertising according to the January 2006 issue of Wired.
How much you pay is determined by a bidding process. You bid on how much you are willing to pay for each click on your site. The winning bidder gets higher rankings. The bids include a bidding war on keywords. These keywords are the ones that the search-engine user types into the search engine. This search request from the user will have results showing your website on top. This is where relevancy and planning comes in. In order to have a successful pay-per-click campaign you must consider the keywords you choose. If the keywords are too general, they may be costly and your advertising wouldn not result in financial gain. If your advertisement is focused on specific keywords, your ad may not come up as frequently, but you might pay less per click and it will target the specific customers you are trying to reach, thereby resulting in a healthier gain.
Monitoring the ranking and action of your website once it has been submitted for pay-per-click services is crucial to your income. Rankings change, bids change, keywords change. If a keyphrase isn’t working, try another one. Keep track of visitor habits and click-through rates so you can tailor your campaign to reach your customer’s habits. Tracking your data is also useful identifying click fraud. An unethical competitor could continuously click on your PPC site and wipe out your advertising budget. A study which was cited on MarketingExperiments.com stated fraud occurred in “as much as 29.5%” in three experimental pay-per-click search engine campaigns on Google. Estimations on fraud vary widely, but there is no doubt that it does exist. Fraud protection programs exist and are worth looking into. Your records for your PPC campaign should be monitored as often as your financial records. Most pay-per-click search engines have budget tools so you can limit your monthly amount.
All of the major search engines offer pay-per-click advertising and there are hundreds of others. Keep in mind that the major search engines pull results from smaller search engines. There are pros and cons to each of them and it is important to become familiar with their demographics before putting your link out for clicks. Start with one search engine until you are comfortable with your budget and conversion rates. It might also be wise to develop a special “landing page” for your URL that is specifically related to the search term. Determine whether you want a short-term campaign for brand recognition or a long-term campaign focused on return on investment. Pay-per-click search engine advertising can be a worthwhile compliment to your overall marketing strategy. After all, it rarely hurts to be number one!
