Pay per Click (PPC)

Updated: Thu, 07 May 2015 by Rad

PPC - Pay per click, sometimes called cost per click, is an Internet advertising model used to channel traffic to websites via paid advertising and where advertisers pay the publishers (website owners) on every advert click. PPC model is part of Search Engine Marketing (SEM), term which now refers solely to paid search.

Websites that utilize PPC ads will display an advertisement when a keyword query matches an advertiser's keyword list.

The PPC advertising model is open to abuse through click fraud, although Google and others have implemented automated systems to guard against abusive clicks by competitors or corrupt web developers.

Search engine advertising is one of the most popular forms of PPC. It allows advertisers to bid for ad placement in a search engine's sponsored links when someone searches on a keyword that is related to their business offering.

PPC Factors

Very popular if not the most popular PPC system in the world is Google AdWords. AdWords operates on a PPC model - users bid on keywords and pay for each click on their advertisements. Biding system is partially automated and user is able combine various settings in order to control budget spending.

Main factors determining successful PPC campaign

Keywords relevance
Landing page and its quality
Quality score
Targeted audience
Budget

A Pay Per Click (PPC) campaign is a popular way for attracting targeted visitors to a web site and converting them into buyers. Integral and the most important part of any PPC campaign is keyword research.

PPC networks

Google Adwards
Yahoo! Bing Network

Google AdWords is the leading search engine for PPC campaigns and an essential tool for any business who wants to get involved with paid search advertising. With 67% market share and significantly higher impressions and click through rates than other search engines.

In 2009, Yahoo! and Bing merged to create the Yahoo! Bing Network in which Bing would take over control of Yahoo!'s search operation. On average, Yahoo! Bing Network's cost per click is 50-70% less than Google AdWords and the impressions vary in cost from 76-90% less. There is also 36% less competition on Yahoo! Bing than on Google AdWords.

Dangers and risks of PPC

PPC is risky: With poor management, you can spend a fortune, generate many visits, and end up with nothing to show for it. In order to run your campaign successfully avoid some general mistakes and misconceptions.

Poor ads damage your clickthrough rate (CTR). Characteristics of poor adverts:

Ads that aren't relevant
Missing call to action
Lack of testing
Lack of ad extensions
Not following Ad creation best practice
Not creating mobile friendly ads

The Cost per Click (CPC) on U.S. Google AdWords text ads has increased an average of 40% across 9 major industry categories between the first quarters of 2012 and 2014. Average Cost per Click for Google AdWords in Q1 2014 was $0.77USD in Shopping and Classified, while for The Yahoo! Bing Network it stood at $0.39USD.

Advertisers have also been spending more on mobile and tablets. Total spend on tablets increased 79.8% year over year, and total spend for the same period on smartphones jumped 109.5%.

Read more: http://www.marketingprofs.com/charts/2014/24251/q4-paid-search-trends-cpcs-rise-bing-falls#ixzz3ZQh0I1Gj

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