The New Revenue Generators: PPC Search Engines

Pay per click (PPCs) search engines are a great way to generate income. Generally search engine optimization is a long drawn process. A Google sandbox optimization can run into several months of delay.

An online marketer whose industry by nature is very dynamic cannot afford to lose valuable time like this. This time gap can be bridged by using PPC campaigns. To effectively use this business model the basics of PPC should be clear.

The major search engines on the internet are Google, Yahoo, MSN and AOL. One feature which is common among all is that the search results are boosted by sponsor advertisements. When you run a search on any of these search engines on the right side of the page you get a listing of allied advertisements. This is where the money lies.

If you have your keywords aligned the keyword search tool shall pull you up in the listing of search results.

However while you are doing this work you could simply pay the search engines for a higher position in the listing. PPC search engine works much like an auction. The one bidding the highest gets the highest position. Though it sounds simple you need to watch out for the ROI (return on investment).

The major PPCs are Google Adwords and Overture. You need to open an account with any of these and register yourself. You have to provide your credit card number and deposit some amount of money. Next you need to develop ads with a title, body text and link to the main page. You have to try and include the keyword that you are promoting in the title. Now you bid for a place in the search result list.

A cost benefit analysis needs to be done before bidding. The ad should be in top 3 but never below 10. If I am selling a product which gives me a $10 profit I obviously cannot afford to pay $.90 per click! If my site is capable of converting 1 visitor out of 100 I will be incurring a $90 for every sale which is not feasible. A business with reoccurring revenue is a constraint.

If your site charges reoccurring monthly fee you might afford to bid in excess of the immediate profit margin.

However this is a risk venture and you need to analyze how long a person will stay on your site. If a person stays with you for 5 months on an average and you have $10 monthly profit your total profit is $50. In such a case you can afford to bear an expense of up to $30. However this assessment needs to be done every week for risk coverage.

If PPC is so simple why invest in search engine optimization? Primarily because PPC search engines are a cost centre and not a revenue generator. Secondly it is a fiercely competitive scenario and profit margins are low. About 20% of the people simply do not click on PPCs. Also there are a lot of people who may click but they have no inclination of buying your product. Perhaps they are trying to sabotage your advertising budget.

PPC search engines are a good bet for short term but for long term market superiority you need to invest in optimization. While you are at PPCs you need to keep a look out at the ROI and you shall be just fine.

Related posts:

1. Profiting From Your Business On Internet Search Engines
2. About The Keyword Search Tool
3. The Best Search Engines
4. How To Submit To Search Engines?
5. How To Use A Search Engine Submission Service