Stand Out in Pay-Per-Click

Shakespeare asked famously of his character “To be or not to be? That is the question.” The question for the new media set is “to pay or not to pay…ahhh…per click.” It doesn’t quite have the same existential ring to it that Shakespeare does, but an important question for any business advertising on the Internet nonetheless.

Advertising on the Internet is all about visibility. People don’t have time to look through 1078 pages containing the keyword they searched. The consumer trusts the search engine to cull from the vast dump of information out there, to find the needle in the haystack. In this type of environment where you rank on the listings is often as important as important as the information you choose to put out there. You don’t want to be the proverbial tree falling in the forest.

Pay-Per-Click enables you to list your site at the top of search engine results by advertising on keywords that best describe your product or service. Generally, PPC is a dynamic marketplace, the higher you bid, the more prominent your advertisement. However, with Google AdWords, your ad placement is dependent on a score that comes from Google’s calculation based on keyword bids, ad copy, landing page relevance and more. A good thing is, you only pay for clicks or click throughs, this means you only pay for the traffic to your site; there are no other hidden costs.

Here are some helpful tips to follow for a Pay-Per-Click campaign:

Do not necessarily go for the number one spot. Some people click on the top spot automatically, even if it clearly does not provide the information they are looking for. The conversion rate for the number 2 and 3 spots, i.e. the number of actual buyers per click-through, may be higher.

Remember that a PPC listing is a text ad. As for all ads, good copy sells. Make your site description enticing. Remember though, that a PPC search engine like Overture will not accept false advertising or pure hype.

Advertisers need to be wary of PPC search engines that offer clickers money or incentives to click through their results. Our advice is to steer clear of these search engines or programs as the clicks you pay for may not be the best quality.

If you are bidding on Yahoo! Search Marketing (formerly known as Overture) you must be in the top 3 to get listed on the first page of results on the major search portals. Note, however, that the US Yahoo! portal, will list new Yahoo! Search Marketing results on the second page of listings, meaning that you may get some valuable traffic from that directory, even if you do not reach the top spot. Also, those positions are less expensive.

As long as you pay for click-throughs only (and not ad views), you may bid for as many variants of potential search queries as possible. Rare keyword phrases are much cheaper than the most popular queries. Moreover, they are often more targeted, meaning that the searcher is more likely to find what he or she is looking for.