Pay per Click, popularly known as PPC, is an advertising model and as the name suggests, requires advertisers to pay only when their ads are clicked on the host websites. PPC is an effective traffic to a website by placing the ads of company on relevant online platforms comprising of all search engines, content sites or some other publisher.
Every search engine offers PPC Programs but the prominent ones include those by Google AdWords, Yahoo! Search Marketing, and Microsoft adCenter. They allow advertisers to purchase paid listings from where they can get the visibility and if the user clicks and then makes a purchase, the basic aim of the advertiser is fulfilled as it is able to generate the sales.
How does it work?
While using the PPC advertising of search engines, Advertisers choose relevant keywords that best describe their products and services and agree to pay a specified amount for each click.
When the user searches for information and uses the same keywords, the ads of the company will appear on the side of the search engine result pages thus increasing the chances of being clicked by the user. It is referred to as sponsored links or sponsored ads.
Also search engines place the ads on other sites whose content matches with that of the advertiser’s keywords, gain giving the direct exposure. This is known as content match.
In this way, the advertiser gets the maximum opportunity to create awareness about its company, products and services through paid means.
Deciding upon Cost per Click (CPC)
Cost per Click is the amount that the advertiser pays to search engines and other host websites for a single click. There are two ways for deciding the
Cost per Click:
Flat rate PPC– Under this model, the amount for each click is fixed as agreed upon by the advertiser as well as the publisher. The publisher usually has a rate card which contains charges as per the content on pages. Pages with capability of attracting more visitors have a high CPC.
Bid-based PPC– It involves bidding for keywords in an auction organized by advertising networks and is important for pay per click advertising. An advertiser should neither bid too low nor too high. Keyword bidding should be done keeping in mind the budget. The amount bid is what an advertisers pay for a click. Automated bid management systems are used to ease out the process.
April 22, 2010 at 9:30 am | Internet marketing. | No comment