Pay per click - give it a go!

Search engine advertising, or Pay Per Click (PPC) is the placement of text ads on search engines that appear when a user enters a search terms that the advertisers "sponsors". From slow beginnings, in the last 3-4 years this form of advertising has grown massively and has been responsible for the resurgence of the Internet as a advertising channel. It now represents nearly 50% [check stats] of the market and has been directly responsible for the huge growth of Google, the leading search engine.

The success of PPC is based on it incredible targeting. Advertiser knows what the user has said that they are looking for, as they have specified it in their search term. The challenge is to work out whether that search either identifies them as someone who is actively looking for their product, or as someone who is in the target audience for their product.

The beauty of the system is that it is entirely governed by real-time market forces, which means that it represents a level playing field. The advertiser only pays when someone clicks on their advert and each advertiser will (or should) know what the value of that click is for them. The person who pays the most gets their ad listed in the most prominent position. The person who can afford to pay the most is the person for whom the value of the click is the highest. This means that small businesses can compete with larger ones, as long as the are generating value from their clicks. The fact that you have a very high degree of control over your budgetary spend means that the entry level to this form of advertising is very low.

Give it a go

It is very quick and easy to set up a campaign. Google claim that you can be serving your ads within 15 minutes of registering. (Visit Adwords to give it a try!) This is true, but as with most things the reality is more complicated. I would firmly recommend that you either consult and expert, or at a minimum read a good book, before you put any money into PPC that you can't afford to lose. We would recommend that you call us, or read Winning Results with Google Adwords by Andrew Goodman.

Tom Barnes 2007-12-05