Pay Per Click Advertising

PPC (Google’s “AdWords” and Yahoo’s “Sponsored Search” systems, etc.) is the Search Engine’s way of leveling the playing field, and generating a sizeable income in the process. It is in fact, Google’s only source of income. PPC lets anyone willing to purchase website traffic the opportunity to bid for keyword searches. The client gets the needed front page exposure without the difficulties of SEO, and because of the bidding system, the market sets the value of that placement. Costs are accrued on a per click basis, as the name implies – not on a pay per display basis, as banner ads do. One click through might cost the advertiser $0.10 or $30.00, it primarily depends on how much the competition is willing to spend. This does not mean you have to spend yourself into the poor house to get results. The engines offer customizable restraints into the system so that daily spending limits can be set for each ad group and campaign, to fit any budget. Keep in mind though, there are other factors involved with how the SE’s determine the cost of a click through.

The PPC price is also determined by the relevance of the target keywords, the ad copy and the content of the page the ad points to. This is particularly true with Google, whose revenue lifeline depends on their ability to provide the best results for searches. If they allow their SERPs to become cluttered with garbage, people will turn to another engine. To maintain their dominance in the search market by providing the best results, they have established a very effective system to weed out the chaff in the PPC market. Once again, it is a factor of relevance. Creating ad campaigns for keywords not directly reflected in the content of your website will exponentially increase your PPC costs. Thus, SEO becomes increasingly important for your site as even basic onsite SEO will have a direct impact on your PPC campaign costs.

Effective PPC Strategies

• Only target keywords your website content can support
• While being in the first position can be important, it is often not cost effective
• Negative keywords are extremely important for weeding out irrelevant traffic
• Long tail and obscure keywords can be extremely effective at
  • driving quality traffic
  • minimizing click through costs

An often overlooked value of running a PPC campaign is that it can be the best approach for determining keyword effectiveness and ranking strategies for SEO. Knowing that “Manhattan Real Estate” is not the same as “Manhattan Townhomes for Sale”, figuring out which is more relevant to your target audience, in addition to know which will be easier to target, can be of critical importance. PPC lets you find out within weeks what that difference will be, before committing to a long and expensive SEO process. Test the market with PPC before engaging in SEO. Within a few days, anyone can have a top positioned marketing campaign underway.