Pay Per Click
(PPC)

How it Works: Major search engines such as Google, Yahoo, and MSN/Live are some of the most highly visited websites on the internet. They all have advertising programs that can drive highly qualified users to your website.

Generally, these ad programs work in a similar way. 

First, you create your ad (similar in format to a classified ad).  You then attach the ad to a list of keywords.  Should a web user do a search on one of those keyword phrases – your ad will show or "pop" along with the regular search results. You also “bid” on what you’re willing to pay should someone see your ad and click on it. You only get charged if and when someone clicks.

Now things get further complicated.  Ranking of your ad can depend on factors beyond your “bid”. Additionally, you can choose where you want your ad to be seen. 

For example, you can have it be seen on the Google’s main search page, you can have it be seen on a variety of Google search partner pages, and/or you can have it be seen on websites that have signed up to display Google ads. You can have your ad be shown in an accelerated fashion or spaced out evenly throughout the day.  Viewer demographics are starting to come into play, too.

In-house or Outsource – to do or not to do: Should you hire an expert to assist you or should you learn it and do it yourself. If you have the time and want to gain the expertise, you may want to run your own campaign.  However, Bastion’s “Drive It” Service includes a comprehensive program to establish and maintain an effective search engine marketing and advertising program.

Focused Marketing – choose your targets: Pay per click advertising can be extremely focused, either by product, industry or geography, through selecting the right combinations of keywords and parameters. Some clients will target nationwide traffic. Others will narrow results to specific counties or regions (e.g. San Diego, Los Angeles) or even cities (e.g. Irvine or Anaheim, Orange County). Still others will focus on niches with industries (e.g. aerospace engineering).

Writing Ads: There is a definite skill to writing an effective search engine ad. With a very limited amount of space to write compelling and competitive advertisements, every word counts. Your choices here can go a long way toward the success of your overall online campaign. Additionally, it is important to properly match ads to keyword selection.  This will often mean the difference between success and failure on a profit basis.

Keywords – how to choose them: The engines provide tools to help you choose keyword phrases to "pop" for.  Of course, they want you to have as many keywords as possible. It’s often in your best interest to be selective in what you choose.  Additionally, you can dramatically raise your success by adjusting your keyword to ad ratio. Bastion Internet uses a combination of tools from both the search engines and independent sources to ensure the proper keyword selection. We also use a well defined strategy of matching the right number of keywords to the right number of ads.

Spending – how much, how to decide: The amount you spend on PPC ad campaigns can be determined in a number of ways.  We have clients that spend to a budget, to a position, or to a bid amount. 

Which style we recommend for you will usually depend on how sophisticated your measuring systems are and how long those measuring systems have been in place.  For example, if you are fairly new to it all, we might recommend you set a daily budget until we can determine some definitive click and conversion numbers.  If you have a strong idea on how much a new customer is worth to you and what the likelihood is that they’ll buy once they find their way to your site, we’ll likely recommend a spend to bid strategy.  Spending strategy is a definite key to success in PPC.  That’s why we almost always recommend and put into place a strong analytics and reporting plan.