Pay-per-click advertising

Pay-per-click advertising (PPC) is also known as search advertising and is now used by many companies to 'buy' ranking positions within the sponsored results displayed on Google and the other main search engines. It can be a fast and flexible method of attracting search traffic from people who are actively looking online for your products or services.

PPC advertising has become such a popular form of online marketing because search listings can be achieved immediately, even for the most competitive terms - unlike with search engine optimisation (SEO) which can be a slower, long-term process. PPC is also highly measurable and a targeted campaign can be one of the most cost-effective ways of generating business online. However, the market is also becoming more competitive and costly, so it will usually require specialist management to achieve the best results.

The Web Search Workshop has planned and managed hundreds of PPC advertising campaigns since this first became a mainstream technique in 2002. Many of our clients now use this activity as a powerful marketing tool alongside their search engine optimisation work and can achieve an excellent return on investment.

If you've not used PPC advertising yet for your business, or have been disappointed with the results to date, you can use this section of the website to find out more about how to create and run effective PPC marketing campaigns and how we can help.

To find out more about what pay-per-click advertising entails, we explain in more detail how this online marketing technique works and what you need to consider. Then the section on pay-per-click strategy provides a more in-depth look at the strengths and weaknesses of this online marketing technique.

We often recommend that PPC should be used alongside an SEO campaign for a business website and the section comparing PPC against SEO looks at these two search engine marketing techniques and their relative advantages and disadvantages.

You can also find out more about the main pay-per-click providers, since Google AdWords isn't the only main option, despite having the largest share of the search market, and good results can also be achieved with Yahoo! Search Marketing (formerly Overture) and the new Microsoft adCenter tool, as well as Sensis BidSmart in Australia.

If you want to know more about how PPC advertising can work for your online business, then talk to the Web Search Workshop as we are experts at creating and running many successful PPC campaigns. Find out more about our PPC management service, or contact us for more information. Alternatively, you can request a FREE website assessment and receive a 'no obligation' review of your website, together with our proposals on what you could achieve with a successful search engine marketing campaign.