Pay Per Click

Pay Per Click(PPC) networks provide a shortcut to achieving high rankings on Internet search engines, irrespective of site layout, design or content.

The ‘network’ allows us to bid for search engine placement in its search results on terms that are relevant to you. Pay per click or pay for position (PFP) search engines run a different commercial model to most other search engines and directories. With the latter, websites are in the hands of the engines to be ranked, whereas with PPC engines, sites can pay for their position. To achieve number 1 spot on such engines, all you have to do is out-bid the opposition.

PPC results are usually situated at the right hand side of an engine’s results and are boxed off from the natural search results on the left hand side. In some instances these PPC positions can also occupy the top 2 or 3 positions above the natural results.

These networks use an auction style bidding system to determine who appears at the top of the results. The results from top to bottom are solely determined by how much you are willing to pay with the highest bid first, down to the lowest bid last.

The cost associated with each click is varied by industry and is entirely dependent upon how much a competitor values that term for its business, i.e. how much they are willing to pay to get a prospect to click through to their site.

It is important when managing a PPC campaign to remain totally focussed on the objective and not to get drawn into a bidding war where you compete for top spot with a competitor just for the sake of being number 1. Where ROI is the single most important factor it can sometimes mean that occupying less aggressive positions prove to be more fruitful in terms of cost effectiveness.