PPC, Pay Per Click, PPC Management for Profits

 

Pay per click, or PPC, which is an advertising model, has become an integral part of Internet marketing. The idea behind PPC is that advertisers only pay when someone browsing the web clicks on an advertisement to go to his or her website. Keywords get bid on by different marketers, who have done a large amount of keyword research in order to gauge which keywords and keyword phrases their target audience will use during a web search for a specific product or service. If a user types a keyword in for a web search and it matches a marketer’s keyword list, then that ad will be shown. The ad might also appear if the user just looks up a page with relevant or similar content to the service or product the ad is trying to sell.

 

Such an ad is referred to as a “sponsored link” or “sponsored ad” and will generally appear next to or above the organic results on the search engine’s results page. These pay per click ad’s get used not only on search engines, but also on advertising networks, content websites, and blogs.

 

As of the year 2007, the three largest pay per click networks remain Google Adwords, Yahoo! Search Marketing, and MSN adCenter, though many other companies compete with them. The costs per click, which are sometimes called CPC, vary according to the search engine. However, the minimum can go as low as $0.01. However, more popular keywords and keyword phrases can cost more on search engines such as Google, Yahoo!, and MSN. A few of their competitors include: Ask, LookSmart, Miva, Yandex, and Baidu.

 

PPC and search engines fall into multiple categories due to ever-evolving models and software. However, there are a few types of PPC engines that can be classified. One would be a keyword-based PPC engine, sometimes called a sponsored match. This displays a listing on the search engine itself. Another type is called a content match PPC engine. The difference from the sponsored match is that content match ads appear on publisher sites, in newsletters, and in emails. Other PPC engines deal with different products and services.

 

However, no matter what the pay per click model, revenue does not come from any site traffic for the website where the ads are actually posted. A user has to click on the ad itself to generate revenue.

 

A few examples of other pay per click and search engine types include: online comparison shopping engines, service engines, pay per call, and pay per delivery. Product PPC engines, or online price comparison shopping engines, pull up links to different advertisers for a particular product for any search results page. This gives more prominence to marketers’ who pay more.

 

A service PPC engine is similar to a product regarding a search engine results page. Marketers who paid more will have their advertisements and links featured more prominently. This increases the chance of the visitor being directed to their landing page. Still, users will sort though the results by price or by whatever method of their choosing.

 

Pay per call follows the same model as pay per click. Publishers charge advertisers on a per-call basis for lead or call they get based on the ad listings in Internet search engines and directories.

 

Another variation on pay per click is pay per delivery (PPD) wherein email marketing campaigns get charged only when emails are successfully delivered.