However, pay-per-click advertising ("PPC") is not as simple to use as the search engines would have you believe. Be prepared to do quite a bit of research into keywords, headlines, content, and establishing a budget for your campaign. Also, if be prepared to test a number of adds to track your results or you could loose a lot of money very quickly.

If you do your research it can be a very effective advertising medium.

How does it work

1.Choose the keywords when you would like your ad to appear

2.Write the ad

3.Nominate your bid for that keyword

Keywords

For an effective PPC campaign, you need to know the keywords that you will target. For example, if you're selling office products, you might want your ad to appear when someone types 'photocopier' or 'printer'. But if you specialize in and make more profit from Canon Printers, that would be a better keyword.

You should run different ads for different keywords, so that each ad is specific for the particular words you've chosen. To take that a little further, you might test the keywords 'Printer' and 'Canon Printer', but then you might also really want the people looking more specifically at 'Canon Printer Sales' or 'Canon Printer Sales in Brisbane' or 'Cheapest Price Canon Printers'. Aspedia can help you work out what keywords will work for your business.

Writing the Ad

The content of the ad is extremely important because it needs to capture the attention of the person searching. Write a concise, compelling heading, and then content that highlights the benefits and advantages of your products.

Write a very specific add for the particular keywords you have chosen. For example with 'Canon Printer' your heading might be: Largest range of Canon Printers in Brisbane

This will ensure the people who are looking for printers and haven't decided exactly what they want would look at your site. However, once the consumer has decided on a product, they might now type in the 'Best Prices for Canon Printers', when you heading might change to: Cheapest Prices on Canon Printers in Brisbane

Having a number of different ads will benefit your campaign and you can test which ads are getting you clicked on and which are getting conversions.

The body of the ad is not as important as the heading, because consumers won't read that unless the heading has captured their attention, but it should still be compelling with specific information about the products or special you are offering.

Aspedia recommend that you use your keyword in the heading to help with click through rates. Also don't use the word Free, if you want to sell something, otherwise you'll be paying for clicks with people on the lookout for free stuff. See some more advice on writing good headlines from Aspedia.

You have to nominate the amount you are willing to pay each time a potential customer clicks on your ad (usually in US dollars). The larger search engines don't charge you your maximum bid amount; rather they charge just one cent more than the bid lower than yours.

However, with Google you don't know what the other bids are whereas Yahoo and MSN you can see the other amounts your competitors have bid for the specific words or phrases.

You have the ability to also limit the amount of money you want to spend each day or even each hour, and the search engine will take your add away until the time frame is up, when it will allow you ad to appear again. You can also nominate how often you want your ad to appear per thousand ads displayed.

Aspedia recommend you bid less on the words where potential customers are just surfing and checking out information and put more emphasis on the adds that you've tested where the consumer converts on your site either by purchasing, signing up, booking an appointment or other method relevant to your business.

Page Placement

Having the highest bid doesn't necessarily mean you will appear first. The search engines put the ads in order of what will earn them the most money. You would think that if you are wiling to pay more you would be first. However, if you've written an ad that people don't click on, you will keep getting dropped down the page. So you need to ensure your heading is captivating, and that people are clicking on you to stay up high on the list.

Publishing

When you place a Google ad it will go live within minutes. With Yahoo, MSN and other search engines actually have a person check the add before publishing it, so it can take up to two days before it goes live. Keep this in mind if you're running an ad for a special day.

As you can imagine there is a balancing act between how much you are willing to pay per click, keeping your eye on what the competitors are doing and updating your headings if you're getting no clicks.

If you would like Aspedia to manage your Pay Per Click Campaign contact us now on 07 3620 7444 or go to http://www.aspedia.net