As the free search engines become increasingly competitive, not to mention complex, pay-per-click (”PPC”) advertising can be ideal for the small business operating in a niche market.

Study the workings of the PPC search engines and you’ll bo on a fast-track to success. Conversely, poor knowledge can put your business on the slippery slope to ruin. Listen to me carefully now! Learn how to operate PPC search engines and you will have a great advantage over your competition.

Advertising on the PPC search engines can be a bit like attending an auction where you can bid for the top ranked positions on the keywords of your choosing. Every time a visitor reaches your website by clicking on your advert at that search engine you pay the value of your bid. Bid values typically start at five cents but can be several dollars for certain highly-competitive keywords.

Let’s talk about the pros and cons of PPC advertising.
First the pros :

1. Only when someone clicks on you advert are you required to pay.

2. Can be an inexpensive method of attracting targeted traffic to your site.

3. Absolutely anyone can attain the top ranking advertising spot if they are prepared to outbid their competitors.

4. You can usually have a PPC advertising campaign up and running in a matter of minutes, and making sales almost immediately.

5. If the results aren’t all you expected then you can simply cancel the campaign with immediate effect.

6. You can test your advert, making amendments quickly and simply.

Unfortunately there are some disadvantages we have to discuss too -

1. Not everyone who clicks on your advert is a potential customer. You will have to pay for these junk clicks though.

2. Competition over that top spot can result in a bidding war, driving up the cost per click.

3. Your advert may be subject to a strict review prior to approval. This can delay the start of the campaign
considerably, and you may not like the final advert they approve.

4. Poor or misleading ad copy may attract visitors but not generate sales. Without a cap on your advertising budget, your business could be on the slippery slope to ruin.

So how do you tip your toe in the water with PPC advertising? Before you do anything else research the
keywords that your target market are searching on. You wouldn’t want to bid for traffic on an irrelevant keyword would you? The methods for carrying out this research are a fully fledged topic in their own right, which I’ll cover in a future article.

Another essential piece of knowledge you require before entering the bidding fray, is the monetary worth of a
visitor to your website. By this I mean the average revenue generated by each visitor. This will be your guide to how far you can push it in the bidding process.

Admittedly in cases where a site is new and you have no visitor experience you may want to use PPC advertising to test your sales copy - but be careful to monitor costs and sales closely. Also set yourself an initial daily budget that you can afford to lose if the worst happens and no sales are made. You can always increase this if your copy is converting like crazy.

You’re just about ready to dip your toe in the water. I’ve simply given you an outline here and this is only my
interpretation of PPC advertising, which I suggest you use as a stepping stone to finding out more for yourself.

Wishing you every success with your online advertising.

Author - Mark Vandorone

Mark Vandorone offers specialized online advertising campaigns at Five Marketing . Not happy with your results from the Pay-Per-Click search engines? Pay Mark a visit at http://www.fivemarketing.com or contact him by e-mail at support@fivemarketing.com