Guide to PPC Ads
Pay-Per-Click advertising is advertisement of websites in search engines by placing text adcopies in search result pages.
Pay-Per-Click advertising was pioneered by Overture which was later taken over by Yahoo and renamed as "Yahoo Search Marketing". Other top search engines offering pay-per-click services are Google, MSN and Lycos.
The PPC product of Google is known as "Adwords". MSN has proclaimed its PPC product as "Adcenter".
To witness PPC advertisements carry out a search at Google for the keyword 'SSL'. You would be viewing PPC ads above the organic search listings and to the right side of the search result page. As the name suggests, an advertiser has to pay for every click he receives on his adcopies. Advertisers are free to choose the keywords they think are related to their business. After having chosen the keywords, advertisers have to set their daily budget and enter bids for the keywords. An advertiser using Google adwords to spread his offers is benefitted by the fabulous "adwords discounter" program. google has publicized its generous character by innovating "adwords discounter" program.
Adwords discounter program automatically reduces the CPC (Cost Per Click) by forcing in a combination of factors to influence the pricing of a click. combination of factors which influence the CPC is popularly known as "Quality Score". Advertiser need not pay the full bid amount set for a keyword. Google takes only one cent extra than the next lowest ad. Adwords discounter program works in this way.
Max CPC multiplied by quality score = adrank
Ad position is determined by adrank. If the adrank is good enough to trigger an ad it will be eligible to participate in the auction. Now the next step is to fix the CPC which is calculated as follows:
Adrank of the next lowest ad/ Our Quality score + 1 cent
To gain high quality score to reduce the CPC the advertisers have to
1) Increase the CTR
2) Make the adcopies relevant to the keywords triggered
3) Improve the quality of the landing pages and loading time
4) Improve historical keyword performance
Google provides a sophisticated keyword suggestion tool to facilitate easy selection of keywords by advertisers. Advertisers would be able to make out the best keywords by glancing at the avg. search volume the keyword has under its belt. More search volume means more people will visit your site for the keywords. Advertisers having high search volume keywords are bound to receive good volume of clicks.
In my opinion Google Adwords is the the fore runner in PPC advertising. Since the launch of Google Adwords in 2004, Google has kept itself busy with it roll out of innovative features in adwords.
Google is quite intelligent to understand only innovation can make them stay in the victory zone. You can sign up for Google Adwords here for only $5. Please note that there is no monthly minimum spend. You are free to set the budget and trust me you won't be charged more than the set budget.