How It Works

If this sounds good to you, here some other benefits of the Google option:
· The set up fee is only $5, considerably less than the $50 it costs to start an Overture.com PPC campaign. Minimum cost per click is $.05.
· An ad’s ranking (e.g., its position from the top of all the ads appearing) is determined by the maximum you are willing to pay per click and how often your ad gets clicked. The more effective your ad is in generating clicks, the less your maximum "bid" needs to be in order to be positioned at the top.
· Google's built-in AdWord Discounter program automatically makes sure you pay the minimum amount to stay on top, so you don’t have to spend as much time monitoring your ranking as you do with many other PPC models. Google constantly compares your maximum bid and click-through rate with that of your competitors and adjusts your click-through cost accordingly.
· AdWord ads start showing up within 5 minutes of registration. It take three to five days for your site to show up on Overture.com searches.
· You can set a daily budget at Google, which allows better control of your marketing costs.

It only takes about four steps--and about 15 minutes--to get your targeted PPC ads working for you on Google.
1. Choose your target countries and languages. You can have your ads delivered in more than one language, great for those working with international buyers or a niche of non-English speakers.

2. Create your ad and choose your targeted search phrases. You can create multiple ads and link them to as many search phrases as you want

3. Specify your daily budget. One big advantage of Google is that you can chose a set daily amount you want to spend--for example, $5 a day--to have prospects click through to your site. On other pay-per-click search engines, you could theoretically go through your entire monthly ad budget in just one day. You establish a daily budget and designate how much you’ll pay per click. You can monitor the results and change that amount through your account. To ensure that you won’t use up you entire budget in the first hour, Google’s internal program spreads out the number of times your ad appears throughout the day.

4. Create your account. The site gives you password-protected access to all aspects of your ad campaign.

Google offers tips on how to write your ads in a way to maximize the number of click-throughs to your site. Google’s “Traffic Estimator” will help you decide your optimal budget and also give you an idea of your likely ad position, based upon the maximum amount you are willing to pay per click. This is about as close as you get to knowing what others are willing to pay for the same search phrase.

(For more suggestions on choosing key words, see Mr. Internet’s August “Tip of the Month .”)

After your ad is running, you can see how many times your ad was shown (number of impressions), the number of clicks those impressions generated, and how much money those clicks cost you by logging onto your account. Click here to see a great one-page overview of the whole AdWord Select program.

Pay-per-click is an awesome alternative to spending thousands hiring a search engine specialist to position your site, often without consistent results. Overture.com has done a great job of establishing the relevancy of this kind of search engine advertising model. However, Google has taken the idea and made it much better and easier to use than the typical pay-per-click search engine model. Also, Google's 150 million searches a day makes it a must in your arsenal of traffic-generating strategies for your site.


Tip of the Month

During the "good old days," each search engine produced its own search results. This meant you had to focus on each one separately to achieve any kind of high ranking across the board. For the most part, this is not true anymore. In fact, today you will find that most of the major search engines serve results to each other in rather Byzantine ways. This can ultimately work for you if you understand the relationships, saving you and your Webmaster time and money on search engine optimization.
Fortunately, I found a great resource that visually maps the relationships among search engines so you to instantly see "who serves whom" in the world of search engine results. By clicking on the graphic below you will open a PDF of this map that was created (and kept current) by Bruce Clay, LLC; a search engine optimization (SEO) company.




(Used with permission by Bruce Clay, LLC. May not be reproduced without the copyright holder's permission.)

By clicking on any of the nodes in the PDF, you’ll see a description of each search engine and how it relates to the others. This map also makes it immediately apparent that Overture.com is at the center of today's search engine universe, as I noted in my August “Mr. Internet” column.

There’s little doubt that the major search engines will continue to be a significant resource to drive new traffic to your site for the foreseeable future. Just remember you don't have to become a wizard of the black art of search engines to take full advantage of their business-generating possibilities. However, it certainly does help to have the lay of the land, and this tool is designed to do just that--at no cost to you!