People trying to get their websites to show up on the first page of search engine results should look into pay per click advertising.  The links in the right-hand column of a search listing page are pay per click, or PPC, advertisements.  Before a marketer can begin to work on PPC ads, he should be familiar with the working of PPC and how best to use it to its maximum potential in Internet marketing campaigns.

The position of the pay per click advertisements that appear on the search engine results page are determined by how much advertisers agree to pay.  Along with ranking on the search results page, the advertisers also bid on the keyword searches where they want their ads to appear.  The ranking of the ad in the search listing page will depend on the fees paid by the advertiser.  The larger bids get the top position and smaller bids get lower positions.  Advertisers are only charged when someone clicks their ads, not for views.

Even though a number of search engines utilize PPC advertising methods, Yahoo and Google are where most marketers go.  For this reason, a lot of website owners use the tools on these sites to greatly enhance their marketing plans.  For instance, marketers often use the Google Traffic Estimator to determine which keywords are highly searched so they can begin to develop their advertising plan centered on these keywords.

Once marketers have found the right keywords, they work on creating an attractive ad that will be linked to the keyword or phrase.  They must make use of excellent writing abilities to accomplish this step.  Marketers must link the keywords to what they are selling or offering to ensure the success of the advertising plan.  Surfers are far more likely to click an ad if it is perceived as extremely relevant to the searched term.

Research indicates that the majority of visitors to landing pages only stay there for about a half  a minute, so the landing page needs to be interesting and pertinent to the keywords as well.  To further enhance a landing page, marketers should provide a call to action and an incentive that will make the PPC advertising plan even more effective.  As an illustration, the landing page could provide a free ebook to all visitors who register for an email newsletter.

Marketers use a variety of programs to determine how well their PPC plans are working.  These tools give an overview of the success of the campaign by highlighting details such as the advertising cost per conversion and the keywords that are registering the most hits with search engines for a particular item.  Marketers can also use tools such as web optimizers in discovering the different ways that they can improve the direction and success of their campaign.  With the use of such tools, marketers can enhance the relevance of a landing page by linking it with the keywords that appear to be the most successful.  Marketers are also able to select a variety of highly-searched keywords and connect them to a variety of landing pages.

Given how effective these PPC tools are in evaluating the strengths and weaknesses of a company, some marketers have taken to enlisting the services of these tools during the design and organization of their marketing campaign, long before the actual advertising begins.  This way they are able to better guarantee the long term success of their site when it is launched.

Very few, if any, advertisers have retired off the funds they’ve garnered from overnight riches with pay per click advertising campaigns.  PPC demands quality research, relevant copy, and good tracking skills.  Powerful keywords, captivating ad copy, and convincing landing pages all help in turning the casual surfer into a visitor and finally into a customer.