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Bowling for Business: Clear the Clutter with Pay Per Click

Should you use Pay Per Click as the Cornerstone of Your Advertising Strategy?

By Kathy Bowling
Monday, January 11, 2010

Is it time to clear the clutter from your existing advertising campaign? (Photo by Fotolia.)

On the heels of the holiday season, our house looks a bit like a war-torn country. Half-eaten plates of cookies, broken candy canes and stale cinnamon rolls crowd the kitchen counter. Wrinkled tissue paper and abandoned gift bags pepper the living room floor. Opening a cupboard is like preparing for a bomb blast, requiring deft "duck-and-cover" maneuvers to guard against plastic Del Taco cups and Tupperware that fall like mortar.

The reason for the disarray is simple. We have too much crap. (Sorry for the vernacular. But there is really no other way to describe how much junk my small family somehow manages to accumulate.) Every January, to combat the onslaught, we schedule an informal "Clean up the Crap Day." We spend hours sorting through our possessions and arranging them into piles to throw away, donate or stow. And whenever we take on the task, I wonder how, in a single calendar year, one family could have possibly made so many trips to Wal-Mart.

After clean up day, we breathe a collective sigh of relief and vow never again to repeat the practice of letting things spiral out of control. We agree to live simply, cut out the clutter and streamline our household so that we won't have to spend needless energy sifting through excess in order to find what we really need.

In this economy, the same might be necessary for your current advertising strategy. It might be time to clear the proverbial crap. And if you're going to get down to brass tacks, consider implementing one of the best advertising options available today, Pay Per Click.

Also known as Pay Per Ranking, Pay Per Placement, Pay Per Position or Cost Per Click, Pay Per Click (PPC) is an Internet advertising model used on websites, in which advertisers pay their host only when their ad is clicked. When you enter a word or phrase in the search bar using an engine such as Google, Yahoo or Bing, two different sets of results are returned… organic (or natural) and sponsored (or paid). When I explain this phenomenon to Mountain Marketing Group clients, I'm surprised at how few are aware of these two very different categories.

Organic results are purported to be completely non-biased—meaning that the engine will not accept any amount of money to influence the rankings of an individual site. This is quite the opposite of paid advertising which appears in "sponsored" or "featured" search engine results, in which higher positions are rewarded to the companies willing to pay the most per visitor.

You can tell the difference between the two types of search results because sponsored keywords appear in shaded areas just under the search bar and at right. The nice thing about PPC is that you pay only when a searcher clicks on your listing and connects to your site. By using PPC, you pre-qualify your audience, since they were actively searching for your product or service or they never would have found it in the first place.

For Free—

Although it is not possible to advertise for free using PPC, I have managed campaigns for clients who have set campaign limits at $10, just to see if their keywords generate any activity. When you consider the cost of advertising using other mediums, where you have to pay regardless of the effectiveness of the ad, PPC is a great alternative. There are simply no hidden costs.

On a Budget—

Keywords cost anywhere between 5 cents per click and several dollars, depending on competition. The most expensive keywords relate to the mortgage industry, where people pay up to $40/ click. Our clients pay an average 75 cents per click. If your product or service is highly competitive, there are still plenty of ways for you to utilize PPC without having to pay an arm and a leg for the privilege. One is via Facebook, which offers PPC ads which are different than Google AdSense, Yahoo Search Marketing or Bing Search Ads. On Facebook, you can create an ad, which includes artwork, for free, set campaign limits, handpick your audience and leave thousands of impressions for only a few dollars per month.

The Sky's the Limit—

One of our clients spends $2,000 per week on Pay Per Click advertising. The reason he is willing to invest so much is because he is happy with the results. If an advertising strategy had the potential to change the game for you, would you consider it? PPC might not be the best marketing method for everyone. But, for many, the strategy is the single most cost-effective way to cut the crap.

Until next week, I'll be Bowling for Business.

This article was first published on Sunday, January 10, 2010 at 4:28 pm. This article has been viewed 799 times.

Kathy is the Chief Operating Officer at Mountain Marketing Group, a boutique advertising and public relations agency located in Lake Arrowhead, California. She has also worked as a staff member, public relations consultant and/or freelance writer for several non-profit organizations such as Azusa Pacific University, the City of Glendora, Foothill Presbyterian Hospital and St. Bernardine Medical Center.

Her writing has appeared in numerous regional and national publications such as A & U Magazine, Christianity Today, Woman's World Magazine, San Bernardino Sun, and Healthwise. Mountain Marketing Group clients include architects, builders, business developers, business consultants, church and para-church organizations, claims management corporations, contractors, financial advisors, real estate brokers, health care practitioners, health & beauty experts and more.

Kathy studied at Azusa Pacific University and the University of Colorado at Boulder, graduating with a BA in Communication Studies and a minor in Business Administration.

The views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of RIMOFTHEWORLD.net. This column is copyrighted by Kathy Bowling.