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PAY PER CLICK ADVERTISING (PPC)

A method of delivering advertisements to website users in which advertisers are only charged when the advert is actually clicked.

Pay per click has become the dominant model for online advertising, following the success of programs such as Google's AdWords and Overture (now part of Yahoo! Search Marketing).

Payment Methodologies

Broadly speaking, there are two kinds of payment options: flat fee and auction-based.

Flat Fee

Under a flat fee model, advertisers agree to pay a set sum to a website whenever their advert is clicked. This is especially common for banner advertisements. A site will agree to show a banner on behalf of an advertiser, and the advertiser will agree to pay an agreed amount every time that banner ad is clicked.

Auction Based

Under other models, advertisers can set an amount they are prepared to pay per click, but the amount they actually pay is determined through an auction system.

This is particularly common amongst ppc systems that run on search engines.

Under Google AdWords, for example, advertisers place bids to appear whenever a certain keyword is entered into Google. If person A is prepared to pay £1 for every click and is the highest bidder for that keyword his ad will appear at the top of the sponsored results.

The price he actually pays is determined by the next highest bidder. If person B has the second highest bid - say just 75p - then person A's ads will be displayed at the top of the listings, and he wil pay 76p for each click.

Tracking and Reporting

Because the PPC model relies on the ability to accurately record clicks, good PPC programs provide statistical packages that allow advertisers to see how many times their advert or banner was shown and clicked. In addition, many people who are using PPC to advertise will also install tracking software of their own to check the validity of the reports they get from their providers.

Further Reading

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THINK TANK
  • Web Design Yorkshire - Local Maps Fail
    "I think they must have been reading! That spurious result is history as of yesterday...."
    Paul Carpenter
    Why I Don't Rank For Zoe Piper
    "Hi! Zoe's page has always been titled for 'Zoe Piper' (check the Google index for the page) so I'm guessing it must have been a momentary database fail or something when you were looking Atom. I don't think the 'use your name many times in the body' advice is going to cut the mustard though. It used to work once upon a time, but if it were that easy (and I guess you're hinting at keyword density here) then it would be *easy* to rank for anything and we'd all be millionaires :) The thrust of Zoe's point is that www.zoepiper.com is a content free holding page, with no links and essentially of no value for anyone searching for 'Zoe Piper'. Google could show any other result from the first page of the SERPS at the top and it would be more relevant and useful..."
    Paul Carpenter
    How to Reindex Your Website Quickly in a Search Engine
    "same problem i am having with my new site updates at http://www.tmc.edu.sg sheesh .... "
    BBC
    Google and UK Spelling: 'Optimisation' vs 'Optimization'
    "Australia supports your crusade! pufft realizing indeed"
    Ian
    Why I Don't Rank For Zoe Piper
    "Hi Atom, I should really check my meta tags - thought they'd populate by default tbh! It's interesting with something like this to see how different factors are weighted, from URL to internal links to meta tags etc like you say. Unfortunately I can't go overboard on my profile page, it has to be short and sweet so on-page content is pretty much a no-no! Ah well...if people want me they'll find me. Thanks for the comment :)"
    Zoe
    Why I Don't Rank For Zoe Piper
    "Hi Zoe, There are some major reasons your not ranking. Your Meta tags say ""My Default Keywords". Also your name appears once in your profile page and the other time it does it is an image so that doesn't help. I bet if you added your full name to your profile some more times it would put you up in rankings. Also LinkedIn will has your name on one page over 50+ times so you need alot more usage to compete. But that is the way it goes. This is only a profile so I am sure you're limited. Despite having loads of content linked to your profile, Google also wants to see the relevance of Zoe Piper on this page and is only seeing it once. "
    Atom McCree
    Web Design Yorkshire - Local Maps Fail
    "I guess they do have quite a lot of services no-one uses...."
    Zoe
    Web Design Yorkshire - Local Maps Fail
    "Yet another useless, half arsed service from Google. "
    The Floating Frog
    “Cloaking” Content for SEO (Or What Happens When Your SEO Company Isn’t Telling What They’re Up To)
    "I thought these techniques died out with Windows 98', these people need to find a new career. Nice writeup BTW"
    The Floating Frog
    Web Design Yorkshire - Local Maps Fail
    "I've noticed this a lot recently - stupid map results like this that basically hand over a big slice of the search market to one company on the basis of what is (presumably) a bug. Fortunately, long term we're repositioning as a 'digital agency' in Leeds/Yorkshire because our portfolio offering is much wider so who cares ;-)"
    Carps

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