Focused and Controlled Advertising: Paid Listings and Pay-per-click Advertising

Category: Search Engine Marketing Guide

Search engine marketing has two primary methods: search engine optimization and paid listings. The most common form of paid listings are pay-per-click (PPC) advertising. Pay-per-click ads generally show up above and below the search “listings” or to the right of them. The location depends on the provider.

Focused and Controlled Advertising

Managing the ROI for paid listings and PPC advertising comes down to understanding the value of a visitor, as well as calculating the actual cost for the desired action. When managing paid listings and PPC campaigns it is important to analyze the cost per click, conversion rate, and therefore the net cost per desired action for each keyword phrase or keyword phrase group. Ad headlines, copy, and landing pages should be customized based on the targeted search term. Each should also be tracked and optimized separately.

The price per click can vary greatly for any given topic. It is crucial to mange the campaigns so that the keyword phrases chosen and the prices paid per click achieve the best results. This is accomplished by implementing and using tracking and reporting mechanisms to track the results of paid ads. Tracking all the details involved in the paid listings and PPC process is mandatory to determine the level of success for each campaign.