Inside Adwords Pay Per Click

A Double Edged Sword

There are many different ways to get your website into the top ten results on SERP’s (search engine results pages). Some of the most popular techniques include SEO (search engine optimisation) and PPC (pay per click). Whilst the objective of these two techniques remains the same, their methods differ.

When using an SEO strategy the objective will be to make material changes to a website in an effort to improve its visibility on search engines and thus its ranking in organic search. Resources are directed towards lasting and long term improvements to a websites design, code and content.

PPC on the other hand is a paid form of search engine advertising, in which guaranteed placement is purchased for a given fee. The fee is determined by the market demand for your chosen keywords as well as relevance between the keyword and the content of your site. All major search engines offer some form of PPC service. Some of the most effective pay per click services available include Google AdWords, Yahoo Search Marketing and MSN AdCenter, however since Google is the most popular search engine today, it stands to reason that their AdWords offers a greater pay per click reach than any other advertising medium available.

Although there are numerous benefits to using pay per click it is a double edged sword in that it produces both favourable and unfavourable results.

Some of the advantages include:

Immediate results
The pay per click campaign process is as simple as one, two, three. One, create an advert consisting of one title line and two content text lines. Two, set a budget, select your keywords and decide where you would like your advert to be displayed. And three, have your advert appear on the first page of Google results for your keywords.

Pay only for results
You set a budget which will only be debited each time someone clicks your advert and is connected to your website. No other advertising medium guarantees that your advert will be seen.

Targeted reach
Pay per click offers accurate targeting. Provided you select your keywords intelligently, your advert will only be visible to those users who are specifically in the market for your products and/or services. You are also able to direct your advert at specific regional target markets using AdWords functionality.

Local business ads
Link your advert to Google Maps to display your geographic location, contact information as well as an image depicting the nature of your business.

Some of the disadvantages include:

Cost
Certain keywords, depending on how much online competition exists, may be quite costly to secure.

Continuous investment
Pay per click requires that you continuously direct resources towards this method. If you consistently direct resources towards pay per click and fail to make long term improvements to your website using other Internet marketing methods you will create for your business an unhealthy reliance on this method of advertising.

Uncertain market share
It is possible to gain market share through the long term use of pay per click advertising. However because this market share is based on paid placement, it is volatile and could be purchased by a higher bidder.

Every marketer’s objective is to obtain maximum marketing value at minimum cost. Depending on the market in which your business exists and the level of Internet marketing competition, a PPC campaign could provide quick results for a reasonable fee. On the other hand, it could prove costly in the long run and fails to deliver lasting results.
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