I have been involved in online advertising for over 10 years, and in that time I have seen Internet marketing techniques evolve exponentially. One Internet advertising vehicle I utilize is pay per click (PPC). As an Internet advertising strategy, PPC is a popular way of online promotion among a wide range of companies. Search engine based, PPC does not seek to drive high traffic to a particular website. Rather, PPC advertising involves the placement of targeted ads related to the keyword, or set of keywords, typed on a search engine site. For example, when an Internet user types "dog grooming" on Google, links defined as "sponsored links" appear, either at the top of the page or on the right-hand side. The other listings that appear are organic search listings, appearing because of search engine optimization (SEO) and other techniques. Advertisers do not pay money for having their link appear on every results page; they pay the amount they have agreed to when someone clicks on the ad leading to their landing page. Search engine sites that offer advertisers PPC ads display that advertisement only when a keyword query matches the advertiser's keyword list. PPC campaigns are often designed to end when a certain pre-paid advertising budget has been expended through a pre-determined number of clicks. In this way, advertisers know exactly how much campaigns will cost them. Bidding on keywords can cost advertisers anywhere from a few cents to several dollars, depending on the popularity of those keywords. For example, the term "dog grooming" is much broader than "Chihuahua grooming." The broader the search term, the more money a company needs to pay. Advertisers often bid on a keyword based on the perceived value, or "visitor value," of the search, as well as on the lifetime value of the customer. How much the company bids often determines the ranking its website is given on a keyword-triggered search results page. Websites like Google have also introduced a "quality score," which is an algorithm that determines how relevant the advertiser's website is to the Web search. This partially determines PPC rankings and makes it more difficult for companies to buy their way to the top.
