PPC and CPC
The hard facts about PPC and CPC and how to utilize them to make millions.
Pay Per Click Search or Lost Per Click Search?
While many companies exist in this pay per click search space, the two largest search engines Google and Yahoo! are the largest network operators as of 2006. Microsoft (MSN) has started beta testing their pay per click search services – MSN adCenter. Depending on the search engine’s market reach, minimum price per click varies from one cent to fifty cents. Common search terms can cost much more on popular engines. Very popular keywords that draw lots of prospective customers are probably well known to other businesses in your industry. With everyone vying for the same keywords, the price can be jacked up to several dollars per click! However, most pay-per-click (PPC) programs are plagued by claims of click fraud. Abuse of the pay-per-click advertising model can result in click fraud. Fraudulent clicks are usually not well detected by smaller PPC engines.
Major pay per click search engine programs, Google AdSense and Yahoo! Search Marketing (formerly Overture, Go-To) have publicly admitted that click fraud is a problem that is a significant threat, not just to their “business model” but to their overall success. In their recent IPO S1 filing this year Google admitted: “We are exposed to the risk of fraudulent clicks on our ads. We have regularly paid refunds related to fraudulent clicks and expect to do so in the future. If we are unable to stop this fraudulent activity, these refunds may increase. If we find new evidence of past fraudulent clicks we may have to issue refunds retroactively of amounts previously paid to our Google Network members. If we are unable to remain competitive and provide value to our advertisers, they may stop placing ads with us, which would negatively affect our net revenues and business.”
However, pay per click search can actually pay off. Increasingly, small and medium businesses find it necessary to pay for search engine ranking and advertising in order to boost their sales. The primary goal of the advertiser is not to generate thousands of clicks, but to attract a potential customer or actual buyer with each click-through. The largest search engine on the web, Google, does rewards with higher or more frequent placement for the ads that generate the most click-through. As of 2005, notable pay per click search engines included: Google, Yahoo!, Miva (formerly FindWhat), SearchFeed, Enhance (formerly Ah-Ha), GoClick, 7Search, Kanoodle, ePilot, Kazazz, Pricethat, Search FAST and others.
A Modern Day Fairytale: Pay Per Click Search Engine
Introduction
Based on its recent share price, pay per click search engine, Google, now has a stock market capitalization of about $107 billion, more than the combined stock values of stalwarts like Boeing, Ford Motor and General Motors! Its closest pay per click search engine rival Yahoo! has a market capitalization of about $45 billion. So what’s so good about these pay per click search engine that has catapulted them in the Fortune list of America’s most admired companies.
To get to the root, you first need to understand the pay per click search engine programs. Even though Google AdSense and Yahoo! Search Marketing Solutions, like many PPC programs, are plagued by claims of click fraud; they are clearly an effective revenue source for many reputable web businesses. Publishers or webmasters insert a java script into their web site. Each time the page is accessed or displayed, the java script pulls advertisements from these programs. These ads are targeted and related to the content contained on the web page serving the ad.
At its most basic level, advertisers do not pay anything for the ads displayed until someone actually clicks on them and gets redirected to the advertisers’ website. Thus, advertisers are paying-per-click for potential customers who have actually arrived at their websites. This concept of pay-per-click has been around ever since evolution of the Internet and the rise of search engines. However, this type of online advertising in its current form began in 1997, when an entrepreneur named Bill Gross developed an idea for the first-ever pay per click search engine GoTo.com.
Conclusion
What has happened in the search-engine marketing arena over the last couple of years, is a paradigm shift from the traditional means of online advertising to a previously less-employed option called pay-per-click advertising. Because pay-per-click (PPC) has plenty of advantages, and only few shortcomings, many more companies are beginning to experiment with this type of advertising, thus fueling its growth. The introduction of localized search to the mix is the decisive, convincing factor that further sways small and medium businesses to consider this form of online advertising.