Pay-Per-Click Advertising

The pay-per-technique is used on web sites, advertising networks and search engines.

As the name suggests, you only pay when a visitor clicks on your ad. Ads are typically placed in a special column offset from the content of the web page and are often referred to as "Sponsored Ads."

Keyword terms are an important part of pay-per-click advertising. In many pay-per-click arenas, advertisers are asked to bid on terms in order to achieve a certain placement of their ad in the sponsored ad column. The more popular a keyword term is, the more the advertiser must bid.

Sometimes, pay-per-click programs are converted by brokers into pay-per-placement programs. Ad brokers research a given term and guarantee that ad's position at a fixed price per month. This allows advertisers to conduct their advertising campaigns with more certainty about what expenses they will incur.

Things to consider:

• Is your web site depending upon generating new business from search engines?
• Pay-per-click advertising compliments search engine optimization.
• Do you have flexibility in your advertising budget? If not, you may be more comfortable with a pay-per-placement ad campaign than a pay-per-click campaign.