Breaking Down Pay Per Click

Pay-per-click advertising is the means in which advertisers use search engines as a vehicle for marketing products and services to a specifically targeted audience.

• With the market moving towards pay-per-click ads, an estimated $7 billion will be spent on this service by 2010. (Jupiter Research)

• Pay-per-click ads have demonstrated up to $10,000 in increased monthly business profits, for costs far less than standard marketing. (iEntry, Inc.)

A Pay-Per-Click service allows advertisers to use a search engine, like Google or Yahoo, to reach a targeted audience. Advertisers select certain keywords or phrases related to their products or services to reach the specific audience. An ad is then placed on the search page when the specific keyword or phrase is searched. Google reports that there is around 2500 searches per second on their search engine, and around the same on other search engines like Yahoo! This allows a company multiple opportunities to reach many different audiences with a PPC advertisement as multiple keywords and phrases can be selected to draw an ad placement on a search. Also, a report by Pew Internet and American Life Project says that 49% of internet users search daily. The report also says that online searching is the fastest growing activity online, and is becoming the main form of information gathering. PPC services only charge a company when an advertisement is actually clicked on and the website is viewed.

PPC uses specific keywords to direct customers to your ad, but only charge you if someone clicks on the ad to your website. (Once the customer reaches the website, it is then a companies job to keep them there and interested.) The ability to track the ads success rate allows an advertiser the option of tweaking the keywords and phrases that direct a customer to their website. Some companies have seen up to a $10,000 a month increase in revenue with PPC while spending less then they would with standard marketing. The PPC method is cost effective and profitable, increase the number of customers reached, and increases customer response.