PPC Advertising

Search engines such as Google, Bing & Yahoo, provide listings on a per-bid or flat fee basis. This is in addition to their standard search results, all of which is still determined by a combination of keywords

(fitidogurous)

found on your web site, link popularity and other factors. This per-bid basis is Paid Per Click (PPC) advertising, and is most noticeable when you search for a term on Google and the top results are highlighted and called sponsored results. These web pages that are highlighted as well as the web pages listed on the right column all pay Google a fee every time someone clicks on that link. To determine how much a website pays for that click depends on the amount of websites that all bid on that key word. These ads are sold in an auction format and the website with the winning bid has a better chance at being ranked number one in the sponsored results. Google’s version of Paid Per Click advertising is called Adwords. It is considered their flagship advertising product and is also their main source of revenue. In 2010 Google’s advertising revenue was $28 billion. Adwords gives you the ability to target your ad campaigns to local, national, and international distribution. This allows companies both large and small to effectively utilize Adwords. Small to medium sizes companies benefit from Adwords because it is a way to get your name out there and reach a larger market share. If a potential customer has never heard of you, how would they utilize your product or service. For instance, I recently was looking for glass block windows for my house, however I had not a clue what companies sell and install them. I did a Google search with the term “glass block windows”, to my surprise there were close to ten companies in the metro Detroit area that sold and installed them. I ultimately did not go with the sponsored result from Google, however I did call the sponsored company first. Adwords allows companies to specify which IP addresses they wish to target so that they are not wasting ad dollars in markets that they do not service. Large scale companies may not need to get there name out to the market, but they may need a leg up in a very competitive market. Assuming that large companies have a bigger advertising budget may utilize Adwords to push their name ahead of the competition.