Google™ Pay-Per-Click (PPC) Advertising

Unlike magazines, the press, radio, and any other media where you are charged up-front, regardless of success, Google™ Pay-Per-Click (PPC) advertisers are instead billed a nominal amount per individual ad response.

If you have zero response to particular Ad campaign you are not billed by the search engine provider. However, considering the recent growth in popularity, a zero response is extremely unlikely. Search engine advertising will normally prove to be the fastest and most effective way to generate guaranteed traffic.

With affordable setup costs, pay-per-click advertising represents minimum risk when compared to other forms of advertising.

Google Pay-Per-Click (PPC) ads are displayed above, below or alongside the natural search engine results.

If a search engine user clicks your PPC ad link, their response is recorded and you are billed for the individual click.

The cost of each Website referral can range from a few pence to several pounds, depending on the number of competing Website's, and your advertising click-through rate (CTR).

Advertisers must bid for individual clicks and set a maximum daily budget. The top position is awarded to the highest bidder with the highest CTR.

To achieve the best return, your ad text, keywords and Website landing page can all be fine-tuned by comparing activity figures before and after each minor adjustment.

Internet Advertising is the fastest growing form of advertising. It's overtaken Radio advertising in less than five years. On the Internet, the most popular, and arguably most successful way to advertise is to buy advertising space on the search engine results pages.

Google is by far the most popular search engine in the UK. According to Hitwise (June 2008) Google's UK market share has now reached 87%. Why is Google Adwords advertising so popular and growing at ever increasing speed? Simple, because it works, or at least it can work if set up correctly.

To reach the largest possible Internet audience, your Ads MUST be visible on Google™.

One reason Google Adwords is so popular is because it's so easy to use, at least at a basic level. Any Internet novice can set up an account and begin advertising within hours, which partly explains why there's so much competition among advertisers.

Unfortunately, the more competition you have the more you need to bid for individual clicks in order to remain visible on Google page one. To make your advertising more cost effective, and potentially save hundreds or thousands of pounds every month, your advertising strategy has to be smarter than your competitors.

Rather than why should I hire a professional, the question should really be When should I hire a professional?

If you are not yet advertising on Google, then an Adwords professional should be able to set up a comprehensive campaign from day one, covering all key business areas, targeting the most cost effective keywords, and set to reach the most appropriate local, regional or national audience.

If you are (or were) advertising but you're dissappointed with the quantity and/or quality of the leads, then an Adwords professional should be able to review your account to establish why it may not be cost effective.

Either way, if you need targeted Web traffic quickly then hiring a professional is certainly recommended before you begin paying Google.

Given time and resources your Adwords professional should be aiming to:

• Lower your cost per conversion per keyword on every Ad group.
• Identify and fix high traffic, high bounce-rate PPC Ad landing pages.
• Identify and fix bottle-necks in your Internet sales conversion funnels.
• Implement Google site search tracking to identify potentially lucrative advertising opportunities.
• Split test Ad headings and text to find the most effective combination in terms of click-through-rate.
• Localise your advertising where possible to reduce the number of competing Website's.
• Gradually reduce your overall cost-per-click to generate more traffic from your budget allocation.

By linking your Adwords account to the new Google Analytics tracking tool (launched December '07), an Adwords professional can help to accurately measure your advertising ROI.

If any of the above sounds complicated, then a good Adwords professional should also be able to translate the benefits of their actions into plain English, i.e. "you spent X and you earned Y"..