Pay Per Click Campaign
Pay per click (PPC) is an advertising model used on search engines, advertising networks, and content websites/blogs, where advertisers only pay when a user actually clicks on an ad to visit the advertiser's website. Advertisers bid on keywords they predict their target market will use as search terms when they are looking for a product or service. When a user types a keyword query matching the advertiser's keyword list, or views a page with relevant content, the advertiser's ad may be shown. These ads are called a "Sponsored link" or "sponsored ads" and appear next to or above the "natural" or organic results on search engine results pages, or anywhere a webmaster/blogger chooses on a content page.
Pay per click ads may also appear on content network websites. In this case, ad networks such as Google AdSense and Yahoo! Publisher Network attempt to provide ads that are relevant to the content of the page where they appear, and no search function is involved.
While many companies exist in this space, Google AdWords, Yahoo! Search Marketing, and Microsoft adCenter are the largest network operators as of 2007. Depending on the search engine, minimum prices per click start at US$0.01 (up to US$0.50), these prices are often referred to as Costs Per Click (CPC). Very popular search terms can cost much more on popular engines. Arguably this advertising model may be open to abuse through click fraud, although Google and other search engines have implemented automated systems to guard against this
How to choose a PPC Company
(What you should know about selecting a PPC Company?)
Once you are convinced that pay-per-click (PPC) is an effective Internet marketing tool, the next thing is to pick a marketing firm to run PPC program. Here are several points to consider when you select a firm.
How many pay-per-click programs does the marketing company manage?
Some PPC consulting company focuses on one PPC program sponsored by a search engine company. They are either bound by a contract from the advertiser or choose to committee on one advertiser as a way to control the expense. On the other hand, other Internet marketing companies such as satguru infocom pvt ltd run the program on multiple PPC advertisers. It serves two purposes for the customers. The first is to broaden Internet user base, since each advertiser attracts different breed of Internet users. The second is to offer customers alternative choices from a competitive bidding.
Do all pay-per-click marketing companies generate the same results?
They are not. Marketing company with domain knowledge and experience can run a more effective program. First, keyword selection is efficient if the company is experienced with many customers in the same line of business. Second, you can build a keyword bidding strategy with experience from similar business.
What benefit does PPC consultant provide to the customers?
Basically, two types of expertise and service drive the success of PPC program. One is the ability to run a cost effective program. Because PPC consultant’s goal is to spend advertising dollars within a committed budget and to maximize the number of clicks, the trick is to bet on a position that is not highest but high enough to be clicked. Second is the ability to run the program with high conversion ratio. This comes from experiences and knowledge in building efficient keywords and describing the business precisely
Categories of Pay per click campaign
PPC engines can be categorized into two major categories "Keyword" or sponsored match and "Content Match". Sponsored match displays your listing on the search engine itself whereas content match features ads on publisher sites and in newsletters and emails.
There are other types of PPC engines that deal with Products and/or services. Search engine companies may fall into more than one category. More models are continually evolving. Pay per click programs do not generate any revenue solely from traffic for sites that display the ads. Revenue is generated only when a user clicks on the ad itself.
Keyword PPCs
Advertisers using these bid on "keywords", which can be words or phrases, and can include product model numbers. When a user searches for a particular word or phrase, the list of advertiser links appears in order of the amount bid. Keywords, also referred to as search terms, are the very heart of pay per click advertising. The terms are guarded as highly valued trade secrets by the advertisers, and many firms offer software or services to help advertisers develop keyword strategies. Content Match, will distribute the keyword ad to the search engine's partner sites and/or publishers that have distribution agreements with the search engine company.
As of 2007, notable PPC Keyword search engines include: Google AdWords, Yahoo! Search Marketing, Microsoft adCenter, Ask, LookSmart, Miva, Yandex and Baidu.
