What Pay Per Click Advertising can do for your business

The recent new that Google's advertising income in the UK has surpassed our second largest TV station, Channel 4, represent a significant milestone in the development of online advertising.

Besides the obvious fact that Google is fast becoming one of the richest and most powerful media companies in the world; is the fact that their anticipated £900 million turnover is not from a few dozen blue chip companies paying tens of thousands of pounds for a few minutes of exposure; but thousands of businesses, large and small who have discovered one of the most powerful and effective mediums available, in other words pay per click advertising.

So what is pay per click advertising and how difficult is it to get started? PPC advertising is an advertising system where advertisers pay a known amount for each click to his or her site. Small ads are displayed on advertising networks and search engines and these are called "sponsored links" or "sponsored ads".

The ads only appear when a visitor conducts a search using a keyword tied to the ad. There is only a charge when the visitor clicks on the ad. There are three main companies currently delivering these services. The two biggest are Google Adwords and Yahoo Search Marketing. Recently they have been joined by Microsoft with their Adcenter.

Getting started is actually very easy. First you need to setup an account and then enter payment details so the account can be activated. Then it's time to setup your first campaigns and ad that will appear when people search. All three providers bend over backwards to help you get started, with freephone telephone numbers and extensive help centres.

One of things people often have difficultly with is writing the ads. In fact it is quite easy. You just need to take the same approach as writing a newspaper ad. Focus on the benefits your product or service will offer people and an easy way for them to get in touch. All of the PPC companies will check and approve or disapprove the ads anyway. If there is a problem they will let you know.

The other consideration is the keywords. These are the words that people use when they do a search, and if you choose the right keywords, they could bring up your ad over others. I've found the trick with keywords is to choose quite a few to start with and then revisit the campaigns a few days later and delete those that aren't doing any good. Finding good keywords is now a lot easier as all of the main provider's offer tools that will find relevant keywords that will get you going.

You need to make sure that you website is properly supporting visitors who come via pay per click. Remember these are qualified visitors, who have searched for your product or services and so should be easy to convert. Make sure the contact information is clear and if you have an ecommerce site ensure that the ads you create are pointing to the right product pages.

So pay per click advertising could be working hard for your business, delivering sales or leads in a very cost efficient manner, all you need is to put in a little work and things will be up and running in no time.

About the Author

David Howlett works in the field of online marketing and specialises in managing clients pay per click accounts. He has developed three affordable PPC Packages for his clients. Learn more at:http://www.davidhowlett.co.uk