PPC Advertising: What Exactly Is It?

As a follow up to my last post on Google payload and PPC advertising and arbitrage, I realized that some of the affiliate marketing newbies need a proper explanation of what PPC advertising is and how it applies to them.

PPC [Pay Per Click] is a popular advertising technique on the Internet. PPC Adverts are adverts placed on search engine results pages [SERPs], advertising networks and certain websites.

The ads are called pay per click because you only pay when someone actually clicks on your ad. You specify, when setting up your pay per click campaign, the maximum amount you are willing to pay per click

PPC adverts are typically in the form of text ads. The words of the ads are totally controlled by you and should contain keywords closely associated with your niche. These ads are then displayed when certain keywords, which you would have preselected when setting up your ad campaign, are typed into the search engine search bar. In Google, when you perform a search, the results displayed to the right side of the SERPs page under the heading 'sponsored links' are pay per click [PPC] ads.

The trick though is getting your ad to show up high on the sponsored results listings without paying a fortune

The PPC adverts are also placed on certain websites that are closely related to your chosen keywords. These are websites that the webmaster has applied for permission to display ads for a small part of the click amount. In Google, this is the adsense program

With regards to getting you PPC adverts on the SERPs to rank high, three factors are important

• Bid Amount: This is the amount you are willing to pay per click. The higher your bid amount the higher you will be in the sponsored links results if all other factors remain equal. It is easy to get carried away with your bid prices. This is a sure way to lose money ultra fast!!
• Relevancy: In the above statement I said 'if all things remain equal'. All things are not equal especially with regards to relevancy. The pay per click providers e.g Google adwords and Yahoo search marketing are quite strict about the wording of your ads being relevant to the page which you advert sends people to once they click. The less relevant, the higher the cost
• Click through rate: If you have a well worded PPC advert that has a catchy headline and a high click through rate, the amount you will need to pay per click will be less than a similar ad with fewer clicks. That is the amount you pay per click is linked to the overall performance of your advert. The better it performs, the lower your cost per click

Advantages of pay per click advertising to the affiliate marketer include

• Quick source of traffic to your website. If set up properly, a PPC advert can result in traffic to your site within an hour of setting up the campaign
• Targeted traffic: Because your PPC advert is set up to show only for certain keywords, and as a result of the wording of your ad itself, you will only attract visitors who are interested in your niche. As a result, your conversions could be higher
• Totally under your control how much you spend. You set your bid price, your daily budget and can even turn it off or pause it as you wish.

Disadvantages of PPC advertising

• You need to know what you are doing to succeed at this
• It is easy to lose alot of money doing PPC
• Everyone is doing it so competition is tight

Having said all this, there are people making a decent income from PPC advertising, but you need to arm yourself with good training to join this group.

You can get a free course on The Google Adwords Pay Per Click program by clicking here