PPC: Generating Immediate Leads For New Businesses

Ever heard the term “pay-per-click” (PPC) and wondered what it was all about and whether it was something you could use in your small business? No doubt, as a small business owner, you are already finding there aren’t enough hours in the day, and you may not have yet found the time to research the benefits pay-per-click could bring to your business. Let us talk you through it, with a quick overview.

Although pay-per-click is often seen as a relatively new internet advertising tool, it has actually been around since 2002 when Google AdWords first introduced it. In essence, pay-per-click is an additional means by which to direct internet traffic to an advertiser’s (your) website.

Quite simply, you, the advertiser, pay the publisher (usually a search engine) each time the displayed ad is clicked on by a user or potential customer.

It is similar to running a print advertisement in a magazine. The advertiser pays an amount of money in order to have the advert content placed in a number of issues of the magazine. However, with PPC, you only pay when a reader shows interest in your ad by clicking on it to visit your website.

For the duration of the campaign, the agreed content in the pay-per-click advert will appear as a “Sponsored Link” or “Sponsored Ad” when a user enters the target keyword in the search engine. It typically shows up in a highlighted box adjacent to, or above, organic results on search engine results pages.

If the user commits and subsequently clicks on the link, the search engine will charge the advertiser (you) a sum of money and divert the user to your website.

PPC can be highly cost effective

There can be many benefits to adopting pay-per-click advertising. It is, first and foremost, cost effective and fair. You are only charged for the times your ad is clicked on by a potential customer, rather than paying for magazine space and hoping someone picks up the phone or looks at your website.

Not only can this be cost effective, but pay-per-click can also be a means to provide your small business with valuable market intelligence via the tracking options available. You can see which keywords were used by prospective clients who actually visited your website. You may also be able to analyse your “conversion to sales” statistics, which is a powerful tool when it comes to establishing how cost effective your campaigns really are and refining campaigns to improve it.

Pay-per-click ads can help to ensure that your website is visible in a prominent position on the first page of the search results immediately after commencement of the campaign. That means your website can be one of the first your target market’s eyes will see when they type in the keywords you have chosen to use. This can be very beneficial for a start-up, as it can generate leads immediately while you work on longer term search engine optimisation strategies.

Pay-per-click can be a highly effective way of ensuring your website has a prominent position when potential customers are searching for your product or service. It can however, be time consuming and complex for the busy small business owner. SEO for Small Business specialises in providing professional and affordable pay-per-click campaigns specifically created to meet the needs of small business.