#13 Online Marketing a Closer Look at Pay Per Click (PPC)

Online advertising payment model in which payment is based solely on qualifying click-throughs. In a PPC agreement, the advertiser only pays for qualifying clicks to the destination site based on a prearranged per-click rate. Popular PPC advertising options include per-click advertising networks, search engines, and affiliate programs.

W6M: Most marketers think no one clicks on the paid listings, this is not true. Most people prefer the natural organic listings, but data shows that people do click on paid links. Since getting ranked in the top organic results is often difficult, PPC is an easy way to get your site listed at the top of the search results right away.

If you look at "car insurance" and similar related insurance products/terms, Progressive always Ranks at the top. They have an army of employees and an endless budget. For certain terms they may spend $5, $10, and maybe $25 per word. If you are competing in this market, keep in mind that being 2nd, 3rd or 4th position will still get you a substantial amount of traffic. You might only pay a fraction of what the top bid is. Keep in mind that if they are spending $10 per bid and they have a $1,000 daily spend, their budget will run out quickly and you will move up in the rankings.

Also, know when and where your customers are buying. If you only sell products from 5 pm - 8 pm, then you should day part your campaign to only run during those hours. If your customers typically work all week and shop on the weekend, then only run your campaign on the weekend.

If you know where your customers are you can also GeoTarget with PPC. If you are a "Cleveland Pizza" place, PPC allows you to geographically target people close to your location.