1.You don't need to be number one:

Sure, you might think you want to see your ad at the top of the Google Search Results Page. It might feel good looking at the Yahoo page with your company sitting on top of the tree. But I can guarantee you that it won't feel as good when you look at the red figures on your bank balance while your more experienced competitors are quite content sitting in lower positions. What they know is that to be successful in pay per click you have to match your bid to your conversion rate and to your site. How much is each visit really worth to you? Remember, this game is about bringing customers to your site, not showing off in search engines.

Anyone can buy the number one slot for a particular keyword in Google, but unless it's making money for you, you don't need to be there.

2. You need to work out a strategy

Not enough businesses devise a PPC strategy before they submit their campaign. The strategy of some companies amounts to little more than bidding more than their competitors and crossing their fingers. This is a recipe for disaster. Before entering the PPC arena, you need to work out how much you are prepared to pay for each visit, set a budget and stick to it.

Don't go into the PPC jungle unprepared. Work out your conversion rates, devise a strategy and budget and make sure you spend only what you can afford.

3. You don't have to swamp the market

If you're dipping your toes in the pay per click pool for the first time, then it's OK to start small. Too many companies see the different PPC networks available and decide they need to be in every one of them; not just the big players such as Overture (Yahoo! Search Marketing) and Google Adwords but the smaller fish such as Ask, MIVA, Mirago. Too many different campaigns, each of which are run according to different rules, each of which have different allowances and different funding, is too much to juggle for most new advertisers.

Walk before you can run. Run your campaign on one network first to get a feel for it, and when you feel more confident consider branching out.

4. Without a good site, you'll never convert your traffic into sales.

There's only so much that pay per click campaigns can do for you. Ultimately, no matter how wonderful your advert might be, if your site doesn't show your visitors what they want immediately then they're likely to turn around and find another site. If you owned a shop and you had a big poster outside advertising umbrellas then you'd want the umbrellas to be on display, not hidden at the back of the shop. Consumers are even less patient online so it's important to use landing pages to their full potential and give your consumers what they want.

Buying traffic is a matter of finding the right keyword and the right advert at the right price. But unless your site is ready, this traffic isn't going to convert into sales.