PPC stands for Pay-Per-Click. Its a very popular and, for many, profitable advertising technique online. Found on websites, advertising networks, and especially on search engines, PPC Marketing involves sponsored links that are typically in the form of text ads.
These are usually placed close to search results, where an advertiser pays a particular amount for each visitor who clicks on these links or banners and land on the advertiser’s web page.
If you are a top bidder for your keywords/phrases, you are sure to be on the number one spot on the first page of search results. Effectiveness ad copy will ensure the most number of clicks to your site, or affiliate link.
PPC advertising can increase traffic, leads and sales and overall conversions.
PRE-QUALIFIED TRAFFIC. All visitors of your website are already considered as a qualified visitor, in that they are searching for a keyword directly associated with your ad.
INSTANT EXPOSURE, IMMEDIATE PROFITS. PPC search engines enable you to get traffic Fast. You can be attracting clicks within hours of launching your campain.
CONSISTENT TOP LISTINGS. This is to get your website on top of the sponsored search results for free. You just have to choose the keywords related to your site and business and place them within your web pages. After this, you are done.
The most well known, and likely the biggest, PPC network is Google. But there are many many other networks worth working with, such as MSN, yahoo, etc. Setting up an account with most advertisers is free, but you’ll need to pay when your ready to start advertising.
Learning to develop a PPC marketing business, like any business, requires a fair bit of work at the start. There is market research, keyword research, product research, setting up your ad groups and bidding campain and monitoring and tweeking. There are lots of folks out there that will teach you tricks and secrets to find niches with low competition that you can profit from.I agree that finding a ‘hidden’ niche is a great plan. Trouble is, there are really a LOT of marketers. So finding that hidden niche is tuff.
I am thinking an easier way would be to just target the popular niches. Figure out what other marketers are doing, wither they are successful, what keywords they use, etc. Basically, instead of reinventing the wheel, copy what the successful advertisers are doing.
Numerous tools and services have been developed to help marketers ’spy’ on other advertisers. One that was quite popular some time ago was UnderGround Profits. This system charged a HUGE monthly fee for this service. Quite a number of folks bought it and were very happy with the service (ie they made money). I just found a tool that does the same thing, tracks keywords, monitors ad networks, etc.
To ensure the highest chances of success, one should do some homework. Do some reading, learn as much as you can on your own. Coolaborate and learn with others. A great service that is currently unavailable is PPC Classroom. This site is one of the best sites online for training in PPC marketing. They have a huge community, tools and resources. Currently they aren’t accepting any new members. But I have been in contact with them and they are looking at opening this back up.
PPC marketing is not as scary as it seems initially. You can easily cap your daily spending as you can your bid per keyword. Careful planning and you can profit without having to put a whole lot up out front. None the less, do be careful. The goal after all is to make money, so don’t spend it all!
Cheers!