Search Engine Marketing

One form of Search Engine Marketing (SEM) is Pay-Per-Click (PPC) where you bid on keywords and phrases in auction.  If your advertisement has the highest bid, it will appear at the top of the Paid Listing result page (on the right hand side of the search results page).  If your bid is the second highest, it will appear second, and so on. 

When search engine visitors click on your PPC ad they are sent to a page on your website.  As an advertiser, you are only charged when a visitor clicks on your ad to visit your site.  Typically, the average bid is between $0.05 and $2.00 per click, but can be as high as $50.00, although few bids reach that level.

The top four bid positions, for the major search engines, are the ones that receive the highest amount of distribution and give you the greatest exposure and click traffic. Our advice for bid management is to initially plan your bid so your ad appears third with the best targeted keywords.  The fee is usually a little lower yet the click through rate remains quite high.

Those who employ both SEO and PPC tactics will report very positive results, although a well executed SEO strategy can, over time, deliver more visitors than the lower cost PPC campaign.

Here is an example advertisement if you sold widgets.

Shop for Widgets
Over 2,000 kinds of widgets in stock. Hundreds of widgets for home and work including western and exotic widgets. Shop online. Secure ordering. Same day shipping.
www.widgets-r-us.com

Pay Per Click Internet Advertising offers you the ability to control how much you want to spend and where you want to be ranked. And, perhaps best of all, you only pay for actual traffic that clicks through to your web site!
It is estimated there are over 300 Pay Per Click Programs, but really the top 10 have about a 90% reach across the Internet.

Similar to Search Engine Optimization, designing, developing, and PPC campaign management takes time and labor, but the benefits are undeniable:

• Instant visibility & traffic: The more you bid, the higher you are listed and the more traffic you will receive.
  
  
• Quick to launch: Although some PPC campaigns require editorial review before they are active, some do not. Even with editorial review, a pay per click campaign can be active in a few days.
  
  
• Easy to Implement: PPC does not necessarily require expert knowledge to set up, although experience with search engines is definitely an advantage.
  
  
• Easy to track and measure conversions: With tracking code & metrics in place and data being gathered by the search engines, tracking a campaign's success is easier than it ever has been.
  
  
• No content or Web design changes necessary: Although you might want to make some changes to create a really effective campaign, none are necessary to get you started. Your existing Web site or Web page will work.
  
  
• Keyword conversion testing: You can use a PPC campaign to find out if you are targeting the right keywords by running a PPC campaign to see how well they will convert. Then incorporate the best keywords into your SEO (search engine optimization) campaign.