From my experience as an online marketing assistant, I’ve realized that most small business owners are scared of the idea of planning a market campaign focused on pay per click advertising. I don’t know why because I think that the beauty of pay-per-click advertising lays in its simplicity of use.

The best part of this type of advertising is that you pay for what you get. John Wanamaker expressed perfectly every business owner’s fear: “I know that half of my advertising dollars are wasted … I just don’t know which half”. With pay-per-click advertisement this uncertainty is driven away because you never spend a dime on people that are not interested in your ads. What do I mean? Your pay-per-click ads are displayed in search queries related to the keywords you have chosen for them. For example, if you sell cars and one of your keywords is used cars in Marin County, when an internet user makes a search related to this topic, your ads will show on the search results page.  If that person clicks on your ad and lands on your web site, you will pay a sum of money from your advertising account. In case that person ignores your ad, you will not have to pay anything although the ad was displayed.

This strategy is not only cost efficient, but it also tracks to see if your marketing campaign is also efficient. In case you choose the wrong keywords, you will realize it after a period of time and be able to change them.

Seven Benefits of Using Pay-per-Click Advertising

1.  You pay only if people are directed to your web site.

2.  You only get qualified leads. People that click on your ads are interested in what you are selling.

3.  If you have a tight budget, you can limit your ads to be displayed to specific keywords or phrases. For Google AdWords you can also choose where your ads should be displayed.

4.  Your budget is wisely spent. If you have a local business, you can choose to display your ad to people that live in a geographical area.

5.  It’s easy to setup an account. You also get tutorials that explain what your next steps are.

6.  You can change your marketing plan at any time: change keywords, landing web site, display methods.

7.  In case figures show you that this type of advertisement is not suitable for your business, you can give up to it at any time.

There are three popular pay-per-click networks:

• Google AdWords

No matter what your budget, you can display your ads on Google and our advertising network. Pay only if people click your ads.

• Yahoo! Search Marketing

Advertise your business in search results on Yahoo! and other popular sites. You can  put your business in front of potential customers when they search for what you sell.

• Adbrite

AdBrite, “The Internet’s Ad Marketplace”, powers the world’s most trusted and transparent marketplace to buy and sell online advertising.

Pay-per-click advertising is a safe method to advertise your business online. There are cases when it doesn’t work for some type of businesses, sometimes because of the misuse of keywords, but it’s risk free.

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