Pay Per Click Providers (PPC), Paid Search
Posted on 05. Mar, 2009 by SearchGeeks in Pay Per Click
With the seemingly infinite number of ways to advertise online, it’s easy to get overwhelmed by the choices or weighed down by technological jargon. Pay Per Click advertising, simply put, is a model in which advertisers pay search engines (such as Google or Ask.com) per clicks on their ad rather than per ad view.
The trick here, however, is that a company’s ad is only displayed when certain keywords are queried—keywords that the company must bid upon in order to have their ads shown. This cost tends to be tremendously variable, as is the Cost Per Click (CPC), based upon the target market of the advertising company and the size of the search engine.
The big PPC players
Three of the largest PPC providers are Google AdWords, Yahoo! Search Marketing, and Microsoft adCenter; there are also several consulting firms that will help your company determine the best engine and keywords for your needs. Additionally, the advent of social networking sites such as Facebook and Myspace have created new applications of the PPC model as well as new markets for advertisers.
PPC is all about being able to target your ads towards a demographic that previously was impossible to target: people searching for information or services that your company provides.
PPC Fraud
Even better, you are not charged per view of your ad, which means that with a compelling and succinct ad, you’ll be getting at least your name out to some folks for free! On the other hand, however, PPC advertising is somewhat susceptible to fraud or other schemes that are common in all types of online advertising.
Fortunately, since PPC is the leading source of revenue for many search engines, safeguards are quickly being developed to help guard against these problems, so don’t let that dissuade you from exploring this valuable and potentially profitable option!