PPC ads can be found in the listings of the major search engines, usually in the right margin and labeled "sponsor listings". Also PPC ads can be delivered from standard Web page content if the Website owner participates in some sort of contextual ad network like Google Adsense.



Setting up a PPC campaign is simple. You must register an account with a publisher or search company and submit your ad in the format of headline and body. After you create your ad you will also need to select the specific keywords you would like your ad to appear for and then bid on these keywords.

In the case of PPC search engine promotion, your ads will only appear when a user searches on the keywords you specify. In the case of PPC ads displayed in standard Web content, your ads will be displayed within articles and blog posts that contain the keywords you have chosen. This formula means you'll be getting extremely targeted traffic.

You are required to bid a specific amount of money that will be paid for each click your ad receives. Priority is given to the PPC ads with the highest bid amounts.

For instance, you might decide you'll pay 0.10 for each visitor the PPC program sends you. Advertisers who bid 0.11 or more will have their ad shown higher in the sponsored listings than you, while advertisers who bid 0.09 or less will be lower than you in the rankings.

You will be required to enter your credit or debit card details into the ad system and then fund your advertiser account with an initial deposit.

PPC campaigns will almost always result in lost of traffic. This, of course, means your money will disappear pretty quickly, making the PPC game a little scary for new online marketers.

You can set daily budgets to avoid going broke, but even then your balance can be depleted within a matter of minutes.

Also many PPC providers have stringent terms of service, and it can sometimes be a real pain jumping through hoops to get your ad approved. I admit I've never had a problem but I know a lot of folks who have.

The ideal PPC program for a beginner will allow you to:

1. Test the waters without blowing a fortune in the process.

2. Just run your ads without being put under a magnifying glass and having to follow a manual of rules.

I recommend 7search.com for new marketers. This program serves PPC ads through a contextual ad network and on a variety of major search engines so you can get lots of good traffic from a wide variety of sites.

And their pricing is really good because they're not as advertiser saturated as Google. Plus they have only basic rules in place - as long as you're not advertising porn, hate, or illegal scams you're good to go.

As long as you can afford a reasonably competitive bid, you will definitely receive a good flow of traffic from PPC promotion. The only real question is: how long will it take you to tweak your ads and landing pages to the point where you are making sales or getting sign-ups?

This type of advertising requires a great deal of trial and error. If you're not willing to test your sales page, ad copy, and overall process extensively don't bother registering a PPC account. The payoffs can be well worth the initial workload, as most good PPC providers allow you to expose your offers to a huge audience of targeted prospects.