Offline advertising is growing by 7% per year, while internet advertising is speeding ahead with a 32% annual growth rate. Traditional media is losing its market share as companies increasingly move their ads to the online media, specifically in the paid search arena. Some time ago, Ford Motor Company moved 10% of its budget away from radio/TV to web advertising.



Advertising in online media has some definite advantages over offline media in terms of cost, reach, interactivity, targeting the right markets and measuring responses. This is why internet advertising is now becoming hot property for marketers!

Of all advertising (telemarketing, magazine advertising, newspapers, radio, TV, banner ads, email marketing, etc.), PPC advertising provides the most qualified leads and is proven to have the highest sales conversion rate. This is because, unlike other forms of advertising, your ad is only displayed when your prospective customer is searching for your products or services. This is why nearly 40% of all online advertisements are now pay per click campaigns.

The trend of advertisements within the online medium is fast changing too. While search engine optimisation is becoming vital for making your website emerge above competition, pay per click advertising is providing a very cost effective means to reach your target audience.

According to The Kelsey Group and ConStat, Inc, small-business PPC advertisers currently allocate on average 23% of their total advertising budget to PPC activities. Of these, 54% expect to increase their PPC spending the next year. Paid search has undoubtedly become the hottest means of online advertising.

What is a PPC Ad

Pay per click campaigns (PPC) are defined as the guaranteed placement of a small "ad" on the search results page for a specific keyword or keywords. Your PPC ads are displayed when a user searches for your services/products. This means PPC ads are targeting those customers who are actively seeking your product/services.

No matter what your budget is, you only need to pay for the customers who click your link. PPC campaigns are suitable for all types of businesses.

Major PPC campaigns

There are two major pay per click campaigns: Google AdWords, owned by Google and Yahoo! Search Marketing, which is Yahoo's PPC service.

Pay per click advertising is growing at a very fast pace. According to Forbes, by 2008, companies will spend $8 billion a year on PPC advertising. As a result, PPC is going to be more expensive and competitive in the future, which means campaigns will have to be even more professionally managed to ensure the best return on investment.

Advantages of PPC advertising over other ad media

Speed: PPC reaches its target market at a fast rate as compared to other online and offline advertisements. You can have an ad up and running in less than an hour.

Sales Lead: Pay Per Click advertising generates more qualified leads as compared to other advertising media, as it targets customers who are actively seeking out your products/services.

Track the lead conversion: You can track the lead conversion of a PPC campaign very easily.

Cost: PPC is a cost effective means of reaching global customers, much cheaper than traditional media, which is usually limited to the immediate audience within its reach (be it TV, radio or print). Only web marketing can give you global reach at such a cost effective rate.

Ongoing improvements: In a newspaper ad, if it contains bad ad copy, it is likely that no one will respond and all your money goes down the drain. The costs would include paying the ad agency for the ad and then the newspaper/publication for the ad space.

Similarly in the case of radio or television, if your ad campaign is not appealing or convincing, the whole effort and money investment is simply going to go waste. If no one clicks your PPC ad, you will not lose money as you wouldn't have incurred much of a cost, and you can tweak the ad copy, until you achieve results you want.

How do I make my PPC campaign get conversions?

The key to successful PPC campaign bid management lies in:

• Keyword research – any PPC campaign starts with effective keyword research. Selecting the best basket of keywords at the most cost effective cost per click is a specialised skill developed from running numerous campaigns;

• Writing compelling ad copy - similar to other media, ads need to be written in a way that encourages your target market to take action, i.e. click on your advert. Selecting appropriate emotional trigger words are crucial;

• Writing and designing attractive compelling landing pages - a task cut out for expert ad copy writers and web designers because this is the make-or-break page that the visitor comes to. If your ad copy can win their interest, you have a good chance of converting the sales lead.

Effective PPC campaigns require a lot of market research, keyword research, competition analysis as well as proper campaign management and monitoring. If you educate yourself and have enough time to focus on your campaigns there is no reason why you should not be able to achieve good results. Without the due focus, you can erode your budget in no time.

If you'd prefer to outsource your PPC campaign management to a specialist to benefit from their expertise, make sure the pay per click company has the skills and experience to effectively manage your PPC campaign.

Check out their processes, find out how they plan to manage your PPC advertising campaign step-by-step, and make sure they have a proven record of high conversion rates. For example, CleverClicks is a professional Australian web marketing company which provides a detailed step by step process of PPC campaign management. Whether you decide to outsource or not, with the right focus, PPC can bring phenomenal results to your company.