Just as advertisers buy advertising time on TV programs during which they run their ads, Pay Per Click (PPC) enables website owners to buy space in search results to promote his business- that is where Pay Per Click campaigns must begin. The website owner has to pay the search engine for the location of his listing – just at in newspapers where front page ads cost the most, the PPC listing get more expensive the higher in the results they are. When a person does a search using one of the well known search engines, the page of results that opens has two categories of results – the general search results that fill most of the page and the highlighted ones that occupy a prominent and eye catching position on the page. It is these “special” results – the ones that are noticed fist – that are PPC listings.
Being so prominently placed on the search result page means that your listing will attract eyeballs with a larger likelihood of people clicking your link as compared to those in the general results. But not all PPC listings are equal; there are usually a few of them and here too the ones at the top of the list will get the most responses. Just like paying more for an ad on the most popular pages of the newspaper, you will need to pay more for a PPC listing that is high on the list – the higher up, the most expensive it will be is the thumb rule of Pay Per Click campaigns .
PPC has the advantage of being more targeted than conventional advertising – you do not pay a fixed sum for a PPC listing – you will pay the search engine only for each person that clicks on your link to visit your website. While this does not guarantee sales, it does mean that you are paying only for the people who follow your PPC link – the ones who are interested in what you have to offer and who are, in turn, the most likely to buy from you. The great advantage of PPC is that you will know how many people clicked on your link since you will be billed for this and you are not paying for search engine users who have not visited your site. Knowing how many people followed your PPC link and balancing that against the increase in sales will allow you to judge how effective the Pay Per Click campaign has been and if the returns do not justify the expenditure, you can stop and think of other options.