Pay Per Click Advertising, AKA Sponsored Links / Listings

Because it is so hard to achieve reliable, consistent results in the organic search engine listings, the alternative is to use sponsored listings, otherwise known as pay per click (PPC) advertising. Such adverts, which are search-related and content-related, appear all over the web, on numerous websites as well as in many search engines. Many people say that PPC does not work. However, this is because a PPC campaign needs to be run properly - it requires day-to-day management to alter daily budgets, bid amounts, advertisement text, bid-words, etc etc.

Google Adwords and Yahoo-Overture are the really important providers of sponsored listings. Recently Ask Jeeves have developed their own sponsored listings system instead of using Google AdWords and Overture, but it is not yet available for UK customers. MSN are currently developing a PPC system so as to reduce dependence on Yahoo-Overture. There are also indpendent providers of search-related and content-related advertising such as Miva.

Fundamentally you are bidding for positions in the sponsored listings section of the search engines for certain search phrases which you choose. You produce a small advert which appears whenever the search phrase in question is entered by a user in the search engine. It is an auction for positions for search phrases. The more you are willing to "pay for a click", for a given search phrase, the higher your associated advert is likely to be placed above others when that search phrase is used. Clicks can cost as little as 1p (in Google) although normally there will be some competition for the search phrases so it is unlikely that a 1p bid will result in many visitors. However, it is still possible to obtain click-throughs for some search phrases for as low a price as this!

This seems in principle quite simple. However, it is a tricky affair to manage because:

You may have to keep adjusting your bids to rival the competition.
Your adverts need to be finely tuned in relation to the search phrases which they are related to, otherwise users will not click on them.
If users do not click on your adverts, the PPC provider may ask you to pay more for some of your clicks, ask you to modify some of your adverts, or forbid you from bidding on certain poorly performing search phrases.
You have to specify a maximum daily budget and when this is depleted your adverts do not show until the next day.
The pages on your website to which the adverts are directed must meet certain standards.
The PPC management interfaces can be quite complex and there are a plethora of options which can be confusing.

It requires a lot of time and attention and experience to handle these matters, especially in the first few weeks of your campaign. This is why I offer to do it for you, or to train you in how to do it yourself.

What are the advantages of using PPC over SEO?

Non Search-Related Advertising

What if People Do Not Normally Search for My Products or Services via Search Engines?

Your adverts can appear on many websites based on the actual content of the web pages on which they appear. For example, if you are bidding for the phrase "Scottish Herbs" this can appear not just on the search engines when that phrase is entered, but also on various web pages which host PPC ads, wherever the words "Scottish" or "herbs", or other related words, appear on those web pages. This is usually referred to as "Content Match", and payment is usually per click in the same manner as search-related advertising.

A more highly targetted form of content-matched advertising is also available known as "Site Targetting". Here it is possible to specify the websites on which your adverts will appear. Thus in our example, you could specify sites which are to do with alternative health, cooking, etc. Normally payment for such adverts is per impression rather than per click; typically costs will be around 15p or more per 1000 impressions, depending on the competition for advert placement on those sites. This can represent very good value for money if your adverts are well-written and thus receive a high number of clicks, because there is no per-click charge.

It is also possible to place image as well as plain text adverts on some websites using this kind of system. Therefore it can be a very valuable resource if your products or services have a strong visual appeal. The size of your image must be one of the following. Although I can resize and reformat them for you, it will be cheaper for you if you can provide me with them in the correct size and format to start with:

468 x 60 Banner
728 x 90 Leaderboard
250 x 250 Square
300 x 250 Inline
336 x 280 Large Rectangle
120 x 600 Skyscraper
160 x 600 Wide Skyscraper

Images must be maximum 50k file size and be in one of the following formats:

.gif
.jpg
.png
.swf

Google are also introducing video ads. These consist of a small window with a "play" button so that the user is not forced to watch the video if they don't want to - as users are often irritated by moving images on websites.

Image and video advertising on carefully selected sites can be a powerful marketing tool and I can provide this service on your behalf.

Highland Website Marketing, Old Corrie Industrial Estate, an t-Ath Leathan (Broadford), an t-Eilean Sgitheanach (Isle of Skye), IV49 9AB

Welcome to Highland Website Marketing Services!

Pay Per Click Advertising AKA Sponsored Links / Listings

Non Search-Related Advertising

What if People Do Not Normally Search for My Products or Services via Search Engines?