Have you ever been channel surfing at 4 AM, landed on a commercial, and wondered to yourself, Am I the only one in the world watching this ad? You may have even felt a little sorry for the poor guy who paid to have that ad run. After all, you might have been the only one to see it, and sorry, but you just weren't interested in purchasing one of those plant watering glass balls.
Pay Per Click (PPC) advertising is a form of marketing on the internet that eliminates the plight of those late-night commercials that no one sees. With PPC, you have the opportunity to advertise in a way that reaches only interested parties. And the best part is that if the advertisement never generates traffic to your website, you never have to pay for it! Holla!
How It Works
Whenever you perform a Google search on a product, you are likely to see a little list of "Sponsored Links" over on the side of your screen. (Go ahead, try it! Google anything -- "plant watering glass ball" even works nicely!) See those short blurbs on the right with links? Those are PPC ads.
The companies that designed those ads paid nothing to set them up. They even told Google what keywords an internet user should type in to make them appear. And then, when someone types in those magic words - boom! The ad shows up right on the side of his page. And so far, not a dollar has changed hands.
The only time these ads actually cost money is when the ad appeals to a web surfer enough to make him actually click on it. But at that point, you've got him on your website. And since he was googling something you've decided is relevant, chances are he's interested in buying or at least heavy browsing. Nifty, right?
You can even set up temporary PPC ads that focus on a specific promotion or sale that you may be running. Do you have a home improvement business that's running a special this month on vent cleaning services? Add that as a keyword and make a special little ad promoting that particular service. Then, when the sale is over, you can stop it and make a new ad focusing on something else.
So as you can see, PPC is an awesome tool that allows you to advertise to real, interested people. And when you know your advertising money is being well spent, you can rest easy. And turn off the late-night TV.
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