What Is Paid Search Advertising & How You Can Profit

Trying to spread your reach on the web? Everywhere you look someone is talking about Paid Search Advertising, or Pay Per Click Advertising (PPC), the latest and greatest way to market any website or business. So what is it really? Also known as Search Engine Marketing, SEM grows your web traffic through the placement of ads in search engines. In other words, if someone searches Google for ‘dog chew toy’, and you have pre-selected these key words as relevant to your product, the consumer is going to see your link at the top above the organic results. Try a Google search yourself, notice the links highlighted in yellow at top, these are all paid advertisements. Only the advertiser does not pay a penny until someone actually clicks the link, meaning you only pay to advertise to the costumers that walk directly into your online store. It’s not only Google that offers paid search advertising services; competitors Yahoo and Bing have their own pay per click programs as well. More recently social media sites jumped on the bandwagon too, granting even more marketing options. So which is the best platform for your marketing strategies, and how can you squeeze the most out of paid search advertising?

The Many Perks To Paid Search Advertising

Advertising can be extremely expensive, and yet you never know what results a certain magazine ad or television commercial will produce. Paid Search Advertising takes so much guessing out of the equation, you can start with a budget that’s under $100 and still get more perks than any other marketing campaign is going to be able to offer.

For starters once you set up an ad campaign with the conglomerate of your choice, you will be prompted for a title and a quick way to describe your business, this will appear as your ad. The great thing is, whatever you pick is not set in stone; you can change your title and descriptions as often as you want in accordance with consumer reactions. You will know how well perceived a certain ad is by tracking the clicks coming in, granting you a clear picture in real-time.

When you first set up your advertisement campaign you will bid on certain key words that are related to your product or service. When these chosen words are searched, your ad will appear. You’re not only paying for advertising though, included is valuable research that would cost thousands of dollars plus to generate independently. Google offers insight on your customers (and potential customers), by tracking alternative keywords your target audience is actively searching, including how many times words are searched and how often your site appears as a result. This search terms report grants you unmatched insight on exactly what your audience is looking for and how to fine-tune advertisements.

Make the Most of Pay Per Click Advertisements

Some people see the negative statistics and balk—it’s true that only 30% of people click the paid advertisement links, compared to the 70% who click the organic links below. Still, these numbers hardly matter because in the end A LOT of fresh faces will enter your site when you run a PPC ad, people who otherwise might never have found you. (http://www.prpd.org/Libraries/Digital_Media/An-Introductory-Guide-to-Paid-Search.sflb.ashx) The important thing to remember is that while paid search advertising can boost traffic and pump-up revenues, you’re still going to maintain other methods of advertising. If you are running a serious SEO campaign, or have always placed an ad in your local paper keep these traditions strong, and think of search engine marketing as the cherry on the cake—albeit a very delicious and fresh cherry!