PPC or pay per click advertising is an Internet advertising model where advertisers only pay when visitors click on their ads. These types of ads are typically found in search engine sponsored listings such as Google AdWords, Yahoo! Search Marketing and MSN adCenter, but can also be found in many advertising networks as well as content networks for the search engines. Here are some terms and concepts you should be aware of if you’re considering PPC advertising:
- keyword bidding – Many ad networks and search engines use keyword bidding to help decide which ads should be shown for a particular keyword. Usually you can set a maximum bid for what you are willing to spend.
- CPC (Cost per Click) – How much it will cost per click. Set either through keyword bidding or a rate card.
- Clicks – How many times your ad has been clicked on. Visitors clicking on your ad should go to a landing page (see below).
- Impressions – How many times your ad has been viewed. Impressions also have value since there is some branding effect so make sure you include your company or product name in the ad.
- CTR (Click Through Rate) – The percentage of clicks you are getting related to the number of times your ad is viewed (impressions).
- click fraud – Abusive clicks by competitors or others intended to drive up the cost of the ad in question. Most PPC ad vendors have sophisticated anti-click fraud systems in place, but this is something you should verify before advertising with any vendor.
- Content targeting or Contextual Ad – PPC ads also show up on websites near content (a content network). Ads which relate to content being seen are more likely to be clicked upon.
- Search Engine Marketing (SEM) – Attempts to increase the visibility of a website on search engines through multiple methods, including search engine optimization (SEO) and paid inclusion (PPC).
- Landing Page – To run an effective PPC campaign, you need to send the traffic from the ad to a landing page which has all the information the visitor needs (make sure you cover what was in the ad), as well as some sort of call to action (this is where you offer them something free in return for their contact information – lead or directly to a sale page). Your landing page needs to be specifically tailored to the ad in question, don’t just dump people to your homepage – they’ll quickly leave and you’ll be paying for it.
Did we miss anything? Please submit any terms or concepts we missed in the comments. Thanks!
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