Is Pay-Per-Click right for me?

Pay-per-click (PPC) advertising is still one of the quickest and effective ways of promoting your business online. Some call it keyword auctioning, and if people are bidding high prices to get on the major search engines and other top web properties, then you know it's a profitable place to be.

Many potential advertisers make the mistake of thinking that since they "just ignore the PPC ads" themselves, that others do too. However, as Google's recent record profits show, many people do see the ads and click on them.

While some advertisers have difficulty converting click throughs to sales, many others do. For them, PPC advertising is a blessing. It is possible to get a paying customer at your web site for 5 cents. While it's nice to have high organic search engine rankings, those rankings may not be achievable for some time even with the help of an SEO company. PPC ads can be live in a matter of minutes.

How can I attract new customers to my site?

First you must register with the search engines. For maximum exposure, some services will submit your site to hundreds of search engines covering every conceivable topic. Then you will need to optimize your site for search engines placement. At its most basic, this involves giving your Web pages accurate titles, using meta tags that describe what's on your pages, and placing key information at the top of each page.

How should I  set my daily budget for PPC Advertising?

The budget is where so many advertisers fail. So many users new to Pay Per Click quickly see their budget eaten up and dismiss the whole Pay-per-Click system as expensive and not for them. When in truth if they understood the system better and made a few small changes they would see their campaigns improve and their budget drop.

Start with a high per click bid and get your ad shown the maximum number of times. This will build your click-through-ratio (CTR) and you can then gradually lower your click bid without effecting your position. Some Search Engines reward good CTR by better positioning a good performing ad. You may want to spend less to begin with but a better attitude is to spend smarter.

Successful advertisers typically turn the daily budget up to the “max” in their campaign settings area, based on a Search Engines suggested daily maximum. Cost control is then achieved through pausing poor-performing ads and groups, or lowering bids – not by cutting your daily budget. If you’re not appearing on the front page for a search you can’t measure ROI accurately for your keywords.  But you must also be careful not to appear in the No.1 spot as this can attract the casual clicker. Spots 3-5 are the prime spots. The viewer clicking here has at least considered your ad copy before doing so.

After initial testing if you’ve written a good ad and you're getting good CTR then you should see your ad hold it’s own when you lower your per click budget.  But don’t underbid your Ad group because you’re thinking of your “maximum bid” as your actual bid. The average cost per click on the group is the figure you should watch.

Are all Pay-Per-Click Search Engine's effective?

There are several factors that contribute to a PPCs effectiveness, but the 3 main things to consider are traffic, technology, and service.Some PPC engines claim they can deliver thousands of clicks to your website. But where are all these clicks coming from? Remember, you are paying for everyone and need them to convert into sales or you are wasting your money.  So always check what the sources of a PPC engines traffic are - if the engine has a distribution network that uses it results, try to find out who their biggest partners are.  A small amount of quality traffic - that leads to sales - is preferable to a large quantity of clicks that yield no ROI.The technology of a PPC engine is to make setting up, refining and managing your advertising as easy and quick as possible. If the technology doesn't do that, you'll have to spend more time at the engine than you might at its competitors. If you have a limited budget, consider this factor if choosing between two engines. The service guidelines advertisers must meet about relevancy, style etc should be clearly presented on the website and easy to follow. Turnaround times should be clearly stated too. Any problems or queries - for example a request for rejected keywords to be reconsidered - should be dealt with quickly and consistently.

What is click fraud and how does it affect advertising campaigns?

Click fraud as malicious or artificial clicks and clicks not conducted in good faith. Those who have been known to engage in click fraud are competitor businesses, unscrupulous search engine affiliates (who set up their own sites and then click away on affiliate sites pocketing fraudulent commissions) and those who deploy deceptive software to artificially click away PPC ads. Evidence is mounting that click fraud is plundering 20 – 50% of PPC ad campaigns.

While most search engine ad vendors say that they protect their advertiser’s against click fraud by employing screening/detection processes and techniques, those who pay for the PPC ads must rely on their own fraud detection technology, such as services like WhosClickingwho.com.  Otherwise, you are relying solely on the technology of the ad provider – the very same company from whom you are purchasing your ads.