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Over the last few years, pay per click advertising (PPC ) has leapfrogged free search engine listings and banner ads as the preferred method of online advertising. PPC is essentially the process of writing an ad, selecting various keywords, and paying a set amount each time a person clicks on your ad (and gets taken to the page you specify on your website).

The most popular exponent of PPC advertising is Google AdWords .  Do a search for something in Google and have a look on the right hand side of the page – those little ads you can see are pay per click ads.  This means, the advertiser will pay Google if you click on their ad!

Here’s an example of a typical PPC ad:

Brand name tennis racquets.
Wilson. Prince. Head. Yonex.
Free can of balls with every sale.
www.tennisracquets.com.au

The sort of keywords you would use for this ad could be “tennis racquets”, “tennis racquet”, “cheap racquet”, “wilson racquet”, “cheap prince racquet”, “racquet Australia”.

The most popular (and still the best, despite its imitators), is Google Adwords . You can set up an account and create an ad campaign in about 15 minutes, and be generating traffic to your website within minutes of the campaign launching.  Each click will cost you a minimum of AUD$0.05, but you could pay AUD$15 for a very popular key word!

You decide whether to pay more than the minimum to increase the ranking of your ad.  Depending on how competitive each individual key word is, you could be anywhere from No 1 to No 100!

Obviously, if you are out of the top 10, the chances of your ad being seen will diminish quite rapidly.  But, don’t feel you have to pay a ridiculous amount of money to be no 1.  It is not worth it.  For a whole lot of reasons, the optimal position is between 3 and 7.

here is a whole science involved in Google Adwords .  Many people have written ebooks about how to maximize your advertising dollar by getting the best return from Google.  The best Google guru around is the fabulous Perry Marshall.  I was lucky enough to see him live at the X10 Seminar and the guy is brilliant!

y the way, I have recently received his Advanced Google course with Dan Crowther – and it really is awesome: filled with sophisticated tips and tricks to take your Google campaign to the next level.

The other major Pay Per Click competitors in Australia are:
•    Overture (www.content.overture.com/d/AUm/ays/index.jhtml )
•    Sensis’s Bidsmart: (https://bidsmart.sensis.com.au/odi/index.jsp )

Keyword Research: A Very Cool (and Free!) Tool

Tags: PPC