Chapter 56
Pay-Per-Click Advertising
Would you spend 50 cents to speak with a qualified prospect?
You'd be crazy not to. That's the cheapest sales strategy available! So what if you could pay the same price to bring someone to your website? Is that a good deal? If you've followed the advice in this book and built a website that speaks to its visitors and leads them down a path to provide value and build trust, it might just work. Pay-per-click (PPC) advertising allows you to display an advertisement to people who use search engines to search for specific keywords that you select. You can also position your PPC ads on related-content websites. If you sell Persian carpets, for example, you can select those words—“persian carpets”—and have your ad show up for precisely those people who are searching for that. Once again, unlike the offline world, you can target your audience with unparalleled accuracy.
The other cool thing about PPC advertising is that you only get charged if someone clicks on your ad and lands on your website. If they don't click, it doesn't cost a penny. The Google PPC program is called Google AdWords. Yahoo! and MSN offer similar programs but this chapter focuses on the Google AdWords program.
Does every click cost 50 cents? No. Some cost more and others cost less. This chapter explains the basics of the system and how it works. The cost to have your ad show up for a particular keyword phrase depends on how many people are competing ...
