PPC Advertising

A pre requisite of earning money online is to generate sufficient traffic towards your website. Apart from website content, online advertising is the other major means of generating traffic. Increasingly online advertising is being driven by a PPC model. In the article, we will have a look at the some of the major FAQ’s regarding PPC advertising.

What is the meaning of PPC advertising?

The term PPC stands for Pay per Click. Under this model an advertiser pays for every click his advertisement gets on the given website. Hence every click is considered a source of earning money online. This arrangement, though major deviation from the fee based model of the traditional media is a normal in the online advertising world.

Number of Global and Local monthly searches

Along with the level of competition, an important indicator of the popularity of a keyword is the number of user searches. Along with the level of competition, the number of global and local monthly searches is also displayed. These figures are the average of last 12 months user searches. Also under keyword ideas the number of global and local monthly for matching phrases is also displayed. Generally if you are a small business limited to your country then global search data may not be of much use. However, if you are an export oriented small business global search data becomes vital. It also helps local business planning to go global.

What are the different modes of PPC advertising?

There are basically three modes of PPC advertising. The first model consists of a direct tie up between the advertiser and a particular website .However this mode, though initially popular is becoming less and less popular due to the limited coverage which the advertisement gets.

The second method consists of a tie up with a PPC agency .Such agencies have in turn tie ups with a number of websites and you can choose from a targeted group. For instance, in case of a financial website, you can tie up with an agency which has a focused list of popular financial websites.

The above two methods suffer from the limitations of a limited reach, impairing the process of earning money online. The third model which consists of search engine based ppc advertising overcomes this limitation. Some popular search engine based ppc models include google ad words, Microsoft ad center and yahoo search marketing. Search engine based ppc works in two ways. Firstly you can choose to have your advertisements displayed on related websites.Proprietory algorithms are employed by these firms to ensure proper placements. Secondly you can choose your advertisement to appear as a paid link on the top or right of the page in every user search. This is by far considered the most efficient model of facilitating earning money online.

What are the costs involved?

The ppc advertising model can either be based in a flat rate or on a bid rate. The flat rate model is generally applicable in case of direct and agency based tie ups mentioned above. However the more popular search engine based ppc advertising works upon a bid rate system Advertisers submit the maximum amount they are willing to pay for a bid and their maximum daily advertising budget. Based upon this information and other criteria such as popularity of the keyword in question, estimated daily clicks etc, the bid is either accepted or rejected. Placing a higher bid typically ensure more visibility on search engine as well as on relevant websites.

A proper understanding of the ppc model will definitely increase the coverage and impact of your advertising.