Pay per click marketing (or commonly known as paid search, or PPC, and sometimes called SEM) is a method of Internet marketing where you pay search engines to list your site in the search engine results for a targeted keyword. Are you listed at the top? Maybe. We’ll go into more detail about that later. To clarify, you only pay the search engine when someone actually clicks through to your site (thus, pay per click).
Your link is listed in the sponsored links portion of the search engine results. Sometimes that is down the right hand side of the page, sometimes at the top of the page.
Different search engines have different rules, but usually, this doesn’t mean that if you pay the most money you will rank in the top position (that would be too easy). Instead, pay per click advertisers face parallel challenges to those targeting the organic search (having to satisfy the search engine’s algorithm).
At the very roots of pay per click marketing, are keywords (search terms). With the proper keyword research, you will make sure your advertisements target those potential clients and customers. Today, you can even choose what time of day your pay per click ad runs, what country/region/city and for how long. With some search engines, you can set them up to automatically turn on and off so that they only show when people are most likely to convert.
Why choose pay per click marketing over organic search engine optimization? If you need fast results, this may be your best option. Organic search engine optimization takes time, while pay per click results are immediate. So if you need to run a seasonal campaign or are about to launch your web site, pay per click marketing has that advantage. Sometimes, you just can’t rank in the organic results for the keywords you want (you don’t have the time to create great content and always update it and find great links), so PPC does the trick.
The really interesting question is, should you use a pay per click ad if you are already ranking high for the keyword in the organic results? Anecdotal evidence indicates that multiple listings – a couple in the organic results, one in the paid results – will increase your conversion and online sales enough to pay for the additional cost of the ad and then some. You should see a positive ROI, but as always, your site is specific to you and only you can determine what success means.
Still not sure if pay per click is for you? Give us a call or fill out our three-field form on the right. We’ll explain all of the opportunities and benefits from running a targeted pay per click campaign.
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