Lots of new website owners find Pay Per Click advertising (PPC) tough to wrap their brain around at first. In theory it’s fairly cut and dry, open your account with Google or Bing, create an ad, choose keywords, and decide how much you’re willing to pay for each click. The search engines purposefully make it seem as user friendly and simple as possible. They boast that even a novice can begin to have PPC traffic sent their way. This is very true… you will indeed have traffic coming your way, however if you don’t educate yourself on the basics, you’ll find your precious budget has disappeared before you know it! I would estimate that 50% of my clients have experienced this first hand, and then turn to professionals such as myself to stop the bleeding so to speak.

How it works.

Someone searches for your keyword. A keyword is one of the “search terms” that you specified in setting up your campaign, that you feel best relates to your product or service. When somebody types one of your keywords into the search engine, the ad you create will be displayed. The position of this ad depends somewhat on the amount you’re willing to pay. Top position goes to the highest bidder. It is an auction system. The goal is to have your ad appear as high as possible in positioning to attract the most traffic. This is where the search engines can take your money faster than a loose slot machine at the casino! Although this form of advertising is called Pay Per Click the goal is not to get as many clicks as possible. The goal is to get as many potential customers to click as possible. I will re-phrase that… the goal is to get potential customers to click on your ad not to get the most clicks possible. Pay Per Click advertising is also referred to as SEM or Search Engine Marketing.

New advertisers who are unfamiliar with Pay Per Click Advertising don’t fully comprehend the auction bidding system, the factors that determine ads are ranks, or how much traffic their chosen keyword will get. The search engines count on this! Once they’ve attracted you as a customer, likely with “free advertising credits” they have you locked in and your credit card on file. While I am a huge proponent of PPC advertising, especially for small business online marketing, I don’t particularly like the way the search engines attract new customers. It often depleats what little budget they have allocated, but more importantly discourages them from using PPC advertising as the powerful small business marketing tool that it is.

Understand How Much You Can Pay for A New Customer.

CPA refers to Cost Per Acquisition, or in other terms, how much you will pay to acuqire a new custsomer or make a sale. This is important to begin to understand. If your goal is to get your ad to position 1, and it would cost you $5 for a click from that ad and you’re selling a $2 dollar product, you just lost money!

Think Like A Customer!

What do you think your customer would be searching for online in order to find your business. Keep that in mind. Business owners and managers often forget to consider their customer’s perspective when building their small business online advertising campaigns.

I suggest looking for a Google Certified Advertising Professional to help you launch your first campaign. Your costs to set up a campaign can be minimal with many services, but at least you’re have a good guideline to follow on your own.