What Is Pay-Per-Click Advertising?

PPC is an online advertising model in which advertisers pay each time a user clicks on one of their online ads.

There are different types of PPC ads, but one of the most common types is the paid search ad. These ads appear when people search for things online using a search engine like Google – especially when they are performing commercial searches, meaning that they're looking for something to buy. This could be anything from a mobile search (someone looking for "pizza near me" on their phone) to a local service search (someone looking for a dentist or a plumber in their area) to someone shopping for a gift ("Mother's Day flowers") or a high-end item like enterprise software. All of these searches trigger pay-per-click ads.

In pay-per-click advertising, businesses running ads are only charged when a user actually clicks on their ad, hence the name “pay-per-click.”

Other forms of PPC advertising include display advertising and remarketing.

How Does Pay-Per-Click Advertising Work?

In order for ads to appear alongside the results on a search engine (commonly referred to as a Search Engine Results Page, or SERP), advertisers cannot simply pay more to ensure that their ads appear more prominently than their competitor’s ads. Instead, ads are subject to what is known as the Ad Auction, an entirely automated process that Google and other major search engines use to determine the relevance and validity of advertisements that appear on their SERPs.

Need help with your PPC ad campaigns? Check out our free, all-star playbook to online advertising.

How Keywords Work in Pay-Per-Click Advertising

As its name implies, the Ad Auction is a bidding system. This means that advertisers must bid on the terms they want to “trigger,” or display, their ads. These terms are known as keywords.

Say, for example, that your business specializes in camping equipment. A user wanting to purchase a new tent, sleeping bag, or portable stove might enter the keyword “camping equipment” into a search engine to find retailers offering these items.

At the moment the user submits their search query, the search engine performs the complex algorithmic calculations that the Ad Auction is based upon. This determines which ads are displayed, in which order, and by which advertiser.

Since you have to pay for each click on your ads, it's imperative to only bid on keywords that are relevant to your business, so you can be sure to get ROI from your ad spend. A keyword tool can help you find the right keywords to bid on that are both likely to drive sales or conversions, and are not prohibitively expensive.

WordStream: Actionable Insight into Your Pay-Per-Click Advertising Campaigns

Although the basics of pay-per-click advertising are simple, managing a successful paid search account can be anything but. Many advertisers simply cannot devote the time and effort required to stay abreast of developments to Google AdWords and Bing Ads, and many are missing valuable opportunities to grow their business through PPC.

WordStream can help.

Our suite of free tools, as well as our trusted WordStream Advisor software platform, demystify pay-per-click advertising management and allow you to focus on what really matters – growing your business and helping your customers. WordStream’s tools can help you every step of the way, whether you’re an experienced PPC advertiser or are new to the world of paid search.

WordStream’s free search marketing tools connect securely to your Google AdWords and Bing Ads accounts, enabling you to see, at a glance, a wealth of data from your campaigns that would be otherwise difficult to access in one centralized location. Based on this data, you can take steps to optimize your AdWords and Bing Ads campaigns to increase conversions, maximize return on investment, and grow your business.

We can provide insight into actionable data, including:

• Keywords, including top-performing search terms
• Negative keywords that can save you money
• Conversions
• Ad performance information
• Bid optimization suggestions

 

Pay-per-click (PPC) is a web based promoting model in which a publicist pays a distributer each time a notice connect is "clicked" on. On the other hand, PPC is known as the expense per-click (CPC) model. The compensation per-click model is offered principally via web indexes (e.g., Google) and informal communities (e.g., Facebook). Google Advertisements, Facebook Promotions, and Twitter Advertisements are the most famous stages for PPC publicizing.

How the PPC Model Functions:

The compensation per-click model is essentially founded on watchwords. For instance, in web crawlers, online promotions (otherwise called supported connections) possibly seem when somebody look through a catchphrase connected with the item or administration being publicized. In this way, organizations that depend on pay-per-click promoting models research and investigate the catchphrases generally material to their items or administrations. Putting resources into significant watchwords can bring about a bigger number of snaps and, at last, higher benefits.

The PPC model is viewed as helpful for the two sponsors and distributers. For sponsors, the model is favourable in light of the fact that it gives a chance to promote items or administrations to a particular crowd who is effectively looking for related substance. Moreover, a very much planned PPC publicizing effort permits a sponsor to save a considerable measure of cash as the worth of each visit (click) from a potential client surpasses the expense of the snap paid to a distributer.

For distributers, the compensation per-click model gives an essential income stream. Ponder Google and Facebook, which offer free types of assistance to their clients (free web searches and person to person communication). Online organizations can adapt their free items utilizing internet publicizing, especially the PPC model.

Pay-Per-Snap Models

Usually, pay-per-click promoting not really set in stone utilizing the level rate model or the bid-based model.

1. Level rate model

In the level rate pay-per-click model, a sponsor pays a distributer a proper expense for each snap. Distributers for the most part keep a rundown of various PPC rates that apply to various spaces of their site. Note that distributers are for the most part open to exchanges with respect to the cost. A distributer is probably going to bring down the proper cost assuming that a sponsor offers a long haul or a high-esteem contract.

2. Bid-based model

In the bid-based model, every sponsor makes a bid with a greatest measure of cash they will pay for a publicizing spot. Then, at that point, a distributer attempts a closeout utilizing robotized devices. A closeout is run at whatever point a guest triggers the advertisement spot.

Note that the victor of a sale is by and large dictated by the position, not the aggregate sum, of cash advertised. The position considers both how much cash offered and the nature of the substance presented by a promoter. Subsequently, the pertinence of the substance is just about as significant as the bid.