PPC Frequently Asked Questions
Courtesy of Take Aim Search

1. What is Pay per Click (PPC) advertising?

If you’ve ever done a Google or Yahoo search, you’ve seen Pay Per Click (PPC) advertisements. Also known as “sponsored links,” these ads appear at the very top and along the right side of search results.

In brief, here’s how it works:

• Advertisers bid on the terms (“keywords”) that they anticipate searchers will use in conducting a search.
• The more money an advertiser bids on a term, and the more relevant his ad is to the keyword used, the more prominently his ads are displayed.
• When a searcher clicks on one of the displayed ads, he is taken to the advertiser’s site.
• Advertisers pay only when their ads are clicked (that’s why it’s called “Pay Per Click”).

2. How much does PPC advertising cost?

PPC cost is based on an auction model and as a result, PPC ads are priced based on whatever the market will bear. Specifically, you pay one penny more than it would cost to be in the next lower ranked position on the results page.

In absolute dollar terms, B2B clicks typically range between 10 cents and a few dollars, depending on the particular keyword.

3. Who is PPC best suited for?

PPC works well as a lead generation tool for most B2B marketers. It is especially effective however, for small to mid sized companies whose smaller budgets often preclude them from mass market advertising and promotion.

PPC’s ability to target ads precisely (by keyword, demographic and even geography), control spending on daily basis, and provide data on exactly which dollars are the most productively spent, make it very well suited to the needs of small and midsize firms.

4. When do I pay?

As its name suggests, advertisers only pay for PPC ads when a searcher clicks on one of their ads. Accounts are typically billed to a credit card on file, at the end of each month.

5. How do I control the cost?

Expense control is a key benefit of PPC advertising. The various search engines let advertisers set maximum dollar amounts – both for the amount they are willing to pay per click, as well as the total amount they are willing to spend each day. Most of the time, your costs will be well below your maximum settings. Also, these maximums are easy to modify, so as results come in, changes can be made continually.

6. Where do my ads appear?

PPC ads appear in a number of places. On Google and Yahoo pages your ads will appear in a designated “sponsored search section,” above and to the right of “natural” search results.

Your ads can also be distributed across Google and Yahoo partner sites, including AOL, Ask.com, Compuserve and others.

Finally, your ads may appear on “content sites” (in addition to search result pages), such as The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and numerous other B2B online publications.

In total, Google and Yahoo will give you exposure to over 90% of PPC searches.

7. What determines the position of my ads on the results page?

Ad position (first, second, third, etc.) is based on two things:

1. The amount you are willing to pay for a click on a particular keyword, and
2. How often searchers on that keyword have clicked on your ads in the past.

The more you are willing to pay and the more popular your ads, the higher your position will be on the results page, relative to competing bidders.

8. How long does it take for my ads to appear?

Unlike their free search listing cousins, PPC ads start appearing within an hour or so of account activation and begin generating sales leads immediately.

9. Which search engines are the most effective for B2B advertising?

Google AdWords and Yahoo Search Marketing are the clear winners in B2B search. A 2004 study of B2B search usage conducted by Enquiro found that over 90% of B2B decision makers considered either Google or Yahoo to be their search engine of choice.

What’s more, both Google and Yahoo were listed among the “top ten best business to business advertising venues” in BtoB Magazine’s 2006 Power 50 List.

10. How do I know if my PPC program is working?

Unlike many offline advertising programs in which it’s difficult to know precisely (or even generally) how well your ad dollars are performing, PPC allows you to quantify ad response and ad effectiveness. Reports can be custom configured to demonstrate ROI down to the specific keyword, as well as rolled up into overall program results.

11. What geographic targeting options are available?

You have the option of targeting ads by country, region or city. You can even specify hyper-local ads based on radius around a business location or specific territory using map coordinates.

Unlike broad-based advertising in which many of your dollars are wasted on those beyond your geographic reach, PPC allows you to spend only in those areas in which you do business.

12. In what languages do my ads appear?

You can choose from among dozens of different languages when setting up ad campaigns. These selections are then matched to the native languages of Google and Yahoo users, ensuring that your ads are delivered only to those who will understand them.

13. Can PPC help me generate business in foreign markets?

Yes, it’s the exact same business model and PPC mechanism, except that your ads appear in a different language in a different part of the world. If you’re considering entry into a specific foreign market, PPC allows you to target your advertising accordingly.