Definition “Pay Per Pick (PPC)”: PPC is an Internet advertising model used on search engines, advertising networks, and content websites, such as blogs, where advertisers only pay when a user actually clicks on an advertisement to visit the advertisers’ website. (Source: Wikipedia)
Pay Per Click advertising is a great way to use search engine traffic to find new customers and also a way to test the viability of your products or services.
PPC advertising campaigns are most commonly used by targeting keywords and keyword phrases in search engines, so that when a search engine user types in a specific keyword or phrase, ads targeting those words will appear in search engine results for those terms.
In the image above, you can see common forms of PPC advertising, appearing as sponsored links in Google’s search results pages.
Items in the “Premium Sponsored Links” box tend to be higher-priced and could possibly clicked more than the less-costly sponsored links on the right.
What are Some Pay Per Click Networks?
The most widely-known PPC advertising network is Google Adwords, which allows you to post your ads to Google’s search result pages and also into content pages that are displaying Google Adsense ads.
Other popular PPC networks include:
What You Need to Start a PPC Campaign
Before starting a Pay Per Click advertising campaign, businesses should:
- Identify the product or service they wish to advertise
- Explore keyword phrases web searchers may use to find the product or service
- Investigate the appropriate PPC ad networks
- Devise a budget for the PPC campaign
- Set metrics the campaign should hit for a successful campaign
- Optimize your website’s landing pages for your specific keyword phrases
