PPC Search Engine Marketing – What Is It?

If you’re new to internet marketing and have been doing some research on tactics to drive traffic to your web business, one of the methods you may have heard about is PPC Search Engine Marketing.

PPC is an acronym for Pay Per Click, meaning that any time a potential customer “clicks” on your advertisement, you’ll be charged a set rate for that click. A successful PPC advertising campaign can bring a nice return on investment when these “clicks” lead to a “conversion” via a sale, a sales lead or other desired outcome.

PPC advertising is based on buying ads that consist of ‘keywords’ or ‘key phrases’ that briefly describe what you have to offer.

For example, if you operate an online fishing supply website, keywords that you might consider would be “Buy Fishing Lures” or “Discount Fishing Gear.”

Both of these keyword phrases give a short description
of what a visitor can expect to find if they click on your ad. It’s always a best practice to send your potential customer to a web page that has what it says it does, since you want this person to convert. If you don’t really offer what you advertise, your visitor is likely to leave your website without generating any revenue for the click.

Pay-Per-Click search engine marketing is a service that’s offered by search engine marketing companies and search engine marketing consultants, but it is also something that you can do on your own – if you’re so inclined. Larger PPC programs include Google Adwords, Yahoo! Search Marketing and Microsoft adCenter and there are numerous smaller PPC programs that allow you to pay on a “per click” basis.

One of the downfalls of PPC advertising is that there is little ‘longevity’ to this type of advertising. Once a click is exhausted, it has no other search engine benefits. PPC advertising should be used as a part of a well rounded internet marketing campaign to increase sales and conversions across the board.