PPC (pay per click) is often indentified as the core component within every SEM campaign. In a nutshell pay per click (PPC) is simply an advertising model used by all major search engines. It allows advertisers to display their adverts for pre selected keywords within the search results.

Advertisers only pay the search engine, once their website has been clicked on. Viewing the advert is totally free, until it’s been clicked on. Each time your advert has been viewed, this is calculated as an impression. In the past search engines would charge their clients on a CPM basis (cost per thousand impressions). Cost is dependent on the keyword you choose and the popularity of that keyword.

Cost can range anything from 10cent a click to 40 dollars plus. For every keyword you choose, you will be required to place your maximum bid per click.

Each day you allocate a budget. Once this amount has been spent, your adverts will simply be removed from the system, until the following day and the same cycle will repeat. Payment can be made at the end of the month via direct debit, or you can use the service on a pre pay basis. The initial option gives you greater benefits, should you pay on credit card, this can often be good for your businesses cash flow.

Where your advert is displayed on the results is dependent on various factors. The most common of these, being your maximum bid. In the past this has been the only factor. The higher a advertiser is willing to pay per click would generally determine the positions of the advert. As the search engines are now focused on driving quality results within the sponsored links section, this has all changed.

Search engines are now looking at the quality of the landing page to which the advert is linking to, along with the relevancy of the text on the advert to the search result. It’s now possible to get a higher position by paying less than a competitor, based on meeting search engine quality score criteria

If you are spending anything more than $10 a day on pay per click, it will always benefit you to have your online campaigns managed. Management costs online can vary in price. General rule of thumb being, you get what you pay for.

PPC Management, if done properly is time consuming. The goal of any managed campaign is to bring down cost and increase conversion. This is done by analyzing your daily traffic stats and regularly making adjustments to your adverts and bids.

PPC managed should never be an added cost, management is fundamentally there to save money and drive conversion.