Pay Per Click ( PPC ) Search Engine Marketing Guide

When you get search results from Google, Yahoo or other search engines, you notice ads on the right side along with main results in the middle. Those are sponsored or Pay Per Click ( PPC ) ads. Companies and individuals that place them pay each time someone clicks those ads to go to their sites.

Pay Per Click advertising is the only way to send targeted traffic to your site almost immediately. It takes Google AdWords just about 15 minutes to start displaying your ads. It may take longer for Microsoft AdCenter and Yahoo Search Marketing, but in any case your ads will appear in a very short period of time.

1.) How It Works

First, you register with Google AdWords, Yahoo Search Marketing, Microsoft adCenter or other Pay Per Click Search Engine Marketing Company. Then you bid on certain words related to the site you promote.

For example, your site sells used books. First of all you must find out words or phrases that prospective clients use to search for used books. ( Overture Keyword Selector Tool is a good source to find what keywords or search phrases people use ). People that look for your product would probably use following search phrases: "used books", "cheap books", "inexpensive books", "cheap used books"...

Then you create a small ad like those you see at Google and Yahoo on the right side of search results page. In our case, we will create the following ad.

Great Used Books Get Popular And Rare Books At Low Price. Fast Shipping.

Now you are ready to bid for keywords or phrases that you chose. Ideally you want your ad to appear on the first page. However if you can't afford to place your ad on the first page, you will have to settle for lower pages.

2.) Major Players In PPC Search Engine Marketing

Google AdWords, Yahoo Search Marketing and Microsoft AdCente are leading players in Pay Per Click marketing.

Google AdWords will place your ad at Google, America Online, CompuServe, Netscape, Ask Jeeves, AT&T Worldnet, EarthLink and Excite. They will probably generate more traffic than any other PPC search engine. Signing up for Google AdWords is quiet easy. You go to https://adwords.google.com/select/, register, pay $5 set up fee and then you are ready to start advertising.

Yahoo Search Marketing is going to show your ads at Yahoo, AltaVista, CNN.com and InfoSpace. You can begin marketing with them by going to Yahoo Search Marketing to sign up.

Another major player in PPC search engine marketing is Microsoft adCenter. They place your ad on Live Search network ( MSN ). Their registration page is at adcenter.microsoft.com.

There are smaller Pay-Per-Click companies such as 7Search.com but they generate little traffic in comparison to big three. You are probably better off working with Google AdWords, Yahoo Search Marketing and Microsoft adCenter.

Pay-Per-Click marketing is going to bring traffic to your site if you will run it properly. You must keep your eye on The Bottom Line. If your goal is simply to get more visitors to your site because you would like to bring attention to some issue or your hobby, then The Bottom Line is simply traffic.

However, if your goal is to make money, then The Bottom Line is Net Profit. You may generate a huge traffic to your site and still lose money. If this is the case, you have to change your marketing strategy or improve your web site in order to start making money.

P.S. If you want to learn how to achieve best results with Google AdWords, I suggest you take Perry Marshall's course. You can sign up for his Free 5 Day E-Mail course here. After completing his free course, you will decide if you want to purchase his comprehensive The Definitive Guide To Google AdWords.