“Pay Per Click” or “PPC”
The quickest way to guaranteed search listings
The world of search engines has been through many changes over it’s relatively short lifespan. A large part of this change has been driven by a search for profitability. One of the few truly successful efforts has been “Pay Per Click” or “PPC”. Another term for this is “Pay for Performance”.
Getting listed “organically” in the search engines is sometimes a very tough proposition. Depending on how competitive of an industry you are in, it can be nearly impossible, no matter how well optimized your site is. At the very least, it can take a lot of time and work. With the advent of the PPC search engines, people now had another option to get found by the major search engines. The benefit of this is a relatively low cost of entry and excellent expense tracking. The other main benefit is that you receive the same coveted high converting search engine traffic that everyone is seeking.
The way the PPC’s work is that keywords and key phrases are bid upon on a “per-click” basis. What this means is that whenever someone conducts a search for that particular keyword or key phrase, then your listing is presented to that searcher. This part is called an “impression”. You are not charged for this. This is where the term “Pay for Performance” becomes true. Yes, your listing has been shown, but you have not actually had the opportunity to show that searcher your site. When that searcher decides to click through on your listing to visit your site, now it becomes a result and you are charged whatever amount you placed in your bid for that search term. You only paid when you received a new visitor to your site. It is now the job of your site’s design and content to convert that visitor into a paying customer.
One of the biggest benefits of using a PPC engine is the ability to control your advertising budget and track your profitability very concisely. With the latest tracking software, you can now see exactly what each of your visitors does while on your site and if they go to your purchase page. From this, you can actually input the amount of a sale from your site and compare that to the amount of money you spent on the PPC campaign to see your income compared to expenses. In the real estate market, this can be a huge benefit. So much of the advertising done currently is very costly with nearly zero ability to track the benefits of that ad campaign. An online PPC campaign can be tracked very closely and when one method proves to convert poorly, it can be changed instantly. Never before have we had such control over and advertising effort.
There are currently several PPC engines in operation. While there are two main players in the industry, the other PPC sites can deliver quality leads at a usually much lower price. The two major PPC engines are Overture and Google’s Adwords.
OVERTURE
Overture has been in the PPC game for quite some time now. Their model has been refined quite a bit and offers one of the best tracking methods out there. When set up properly, you can control your costs very strictly and the reporting is top notch.
Overture has recently been purchased by Yahoo! and powers all of their paid listings. Overture also has their listings displayed in several other prominent places, such as MSN and Alta Vista. Their traffic has proven to be of very good quality and they have some of the best coverage of any PPC listing service.
GOOGLE’s ADWORDS
Google jumped into the PPC game a couple of years ago with their Adwords campaign. Their approach is a little different than Overture’s, but the results are basically the same. You have the same control over the costs of your campaign and Google also provides tracking for your conversions. Google results also show up on other major search engines such as AOL Search, Earthlink, and Ask Jeeves.
Other PPC search engines
There are a few other search engines that are offering PPC terms. While they are quickly losing ground to the big two, there is still some good (and relatively cheap) traffic to be had. By the end of 2004, there is likely to be one more big name in the PPC arena. MSN is currently looking to launch their own search engine product (they are currently powered by Inktomi who is owned by Yahoo). Along with this new search engine, they are very likely to launch a PPC program. This would ad some serious competition to Yahoo and Google. This will also more than likely drive down the price of PPC advertising as the money starts to get spread around, so let’s all hope for a quick entry to market for MSN.
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