What is Pay Per Click Marketing?
Pay per click (PPC) marketing is a form of internet advertising offered by all of the major search engines. The two largest programs are Google Adwords and Yahoo! Search Marketing (formerly known as Overture). MSN recently developed their own program, called Microsoft adCenter. LegalPPC's primary focus is on developing Google AdWords programs so the information in this section is specific to the AdWords platform.
If you've ever performed a search on one of the major search engines, you probably noticed that the results included "sponsored links".
These are small text ads that typically appear on the right-hand side of the search results page, although for some searches, there may also be sponsored links appearing above or below the main search results (also known as "natural listings" or "organic search results").
Example of a Google search engine result page (SERP).
How it Works
Advertisers bid on keywords that they think are relevant to the products or services that they offer. When someone performs a search on a keyword that the advertiser is bidding on, their ad is triggered. Advertisers only pay when someone clicks on their ad.
With the Google AdWords system, the position of an ad on the search results page depends not only on the amount that an advertiser has chosen to bid for the keyword that triggered it but also on its quality score (QS).
This is a measurement of how relevant an ad is to a searcher's query. Currently, QS is determined by a keyword's click-through-rate (CTR), ad text relevance, keyword relevance and landing page relevance.
Although AdWords does not disclose the actual QS of ads or keywords, a well-managed AdWords account always seeks to improve QS by testing new ads, fine-tuning keyword groups and optimizing landing pages.
Some of the benefits of a well-managed AdWords account include:
- Higher CTRs. When an ad is relevant to a seacher's query, they are more likely to click on it.
- Lower advertising costs. AdWords rewards relevant ads by showing them in a higher position on the search results page.
- Greater return on investment. Through careful ad targeting, strong ad copy and relevant, well-designed landing pages, searchers are more likely to convert into clients.
LegalPPC can help you manage your PPC marketing. Find out more about our services or contact us now for a free costs estimate.