It's well known by advertisers that even a small change can have big results with prospects. This is the reason that most advertisers feel the need to test various advertising platforms and packages, but of course one of the big concerns with this type of testing is finding a cost efficient way of doing it.

This dilemma becomes especially important for those advertisers relying heavily on a Search Engine Optimization (SEO) marketing campaign. They need a tried and true method when deciding what keywords and/or key phrases actually work and which ones need that little extra tweak to increase page ranking and by proxy sales.

Luckily for such cases there is such a litmus test and it's called Pay Per Click (PPC). Experts all agree that PPC is an excellent way to test your advertising campaign in several different ways.

First off, with PPC testing the target audience is large enough that you are ensured of accurate results because you can increase and decrease the test size as needed. Usually 30 clicks is the least amount of clicks you need to see if this keyword or key phrase is converting better for you.

The size of the test audience ensures that any results you get can be counted on and not just considered some kind of regional fluke. As well, the reactions of the prospective customers are easy to track with the PPC system. Using it as your benchmark for any particular keyword or key phrase that you hope might make a difference in your SEO marketing campaign, within only hours you're able to see either increases or decreases in the click through rates which tell you how a particular ad is doing.

As a corollary to that notion, the PPC system is highly flexible. You can come up with and try new ideas almost instantly, and see very quickly what ideas are working and which ones aren't. This of course becomes essential as you try out new keywords. With PPC there's no need to look beyond your own screen to evaluate what is working and what doesn't in the realm of search engine optimized content.

And the experts suggest that PPC testing is very effective but time consuming as well. They stress that the person hoping to get the most from this marketing tool needs to spend the time to monitor it to make sure it works. They suggest the best results are obtained by a constant tweaking process, and that if you'd don't have the time to spend monitoring its progress, it might be best to try another form of advertising.

Also keep in mind that high clicks doesn't ensure high conversion. Track you ad clicks all the way to conversion (actual sale). So if 30 people clicked on Ad for Keyword Phrase 1 and 2 converted to a customer then this is better then if 60 people clicked on Keyword Phrase 2 and only one of them bought. Always remember your goal is minimum CTR expense and maximum profit per visitor. Ultimately the only way you'll be able to beat your competitor is to make each visitor to your website worth more which will allow you to spend more then your competitors for each customer.