Pay-per-click (PPC) advertising, also known as cost-per-click (CPC) advertising, is one method your company may choose to advertise online. As the name implies, PPC advertising rates are based on how many viewers of your ads actually click on your ads and visit your website. The following are the basics of PPC advertising in 10 easy tips:

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1. Spend a few hours understanding how PPC advertising really works. PPC advertising involves bidding for the maximum amount you will pay for each click. Each time an advertising spot comes open, all of the advertisers who have bid on that keyword are eligible for the space. The highest bidder typically gets the spot; however, there are other factors that come into play, such as the quality of the ad.
2. Determine how much you’d like to pay per click. Think about each click as a potential sales lead. The people clicking may be sincerely interested in your product or website or they may simply be curious. Consider what your expected conversion rate is to help pinpoint a PPC rate that will work with your company.
3. Determine how much per day you’d like to spend on your campaign. Advertisers typically will allow you to determine how much you’ll spend on a daily basis. So, if you bid 10 cents per click for an ad, and you want to spend $20 per day, then you will receive up to 200 clicks per day.
4. Choose your keywords carefully. To determine when/where your PPC ads run, you’ll select which keywords you’d like to associate with your ads. Although more general keywords get more searches, there are also more advertisers vying for these keywords, so the PPC rates can be higher. A keyword like “shoes” might also not convert people who click into customers as well as something more targeted like “inexpensive black dress shoes.”
5. Use your keywords in your ads. Improve your PPC ads’ quality scores (a measurement of your ads’ quality) by including the keywords you’re bidding on in your ad copy. This will help your advertisements appear higher than other PPC advertisers for the same keywords.
6. Use your keywords in your ads’ landing pages. Ensure the keywords you’ve targeted for your PPC advertising are not only in your ads, but also incorporate them into the copy on the landing pages people are directed to when they click on your ads. This helps give them a sense of continuity in their experience and also improves your ads’ quality scores.
7. Track your conversions. Just as with any traditional advertising campaign, only by tracking results can you tell if your money is being well spent. Some advertising platforms, like Google and Facebook, offer conversion tracking tools to make it easy to tell how often a click turns into a customer.
8. Fine tune your ad copy. Again, just like with traditional advertising, you should continuously fine-tune your PPC ad copy in order to ensure it is as effective as possible.
9. Fine tune your PPC bids. Don’t just set your bid amounts and forget about them. Additional competitors could start bidding for your keywords, meaning you won’t get the ad space you need or want. Competitors could also leave the niche you’re bidding in, meaning you’d be paying too much per click.
10. Work the numbers. Compare your conversion rate and advertising costs with your profit per conversion. If you’re spending more money than you are making on your advertising, something needs to change. Try different keywords, refine your ad copy or revamp your landing pages.

Though he is a co-founder of an SEO training firm, Randall Davidson knows that a successful online marketing campaign needs to incorporate PPC advertising. Randall’s company, SEOTraining.info, covers this and other topics in its SEO training workshops held throughout the United States.