Paid Search

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Mr. Search — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 02:56:56 +0000

Please email me at info @ clickpaidsearch.com if you’re interested in purchasing this blog. Thanks and enjoy the paid search information.

Search Optimization

Mr. Search — Sun, 18 Dec 2011 07:00:00 +0000

Search Optimization and SEO Marketing professionals

The core element of success in the website marketing is Search Optimization/Marketing. It can assist your online business website to achieve top Search Engine Optimization rankings on favorite SE’s such as Bing, Google, and Yahoo.

If you desire to generate more and more profits, clicks, leads, traffic, queries, and sales for your corporate website then clients must think about SEM Marketing/Optimization.? You should also engage a trained SE Marketing/SEO Services Firm which could assist your Company website to attain higher Search Engine Optimization rankings. The expected? organic SEO rankings of your online business website would be dependant on the competence of Search Engine Marketing/Optimization Services Firm you are deciding to take into service.? So, clients must engage righteous SEO optimization companies for your online business website.

It is necessary to ensure that you have promoted your website for right SEO keywords on both natural search results as well as paid search results (Pay Per Click/Google Adwords). For instance, , if your online business website is offering lawyer services within Alabama State, then clients must target all the correlated keywords which can generate more and more revenues, clicks, leads, traffic, queries, and sales for your online business website.

Pay Per Click/Google Adwords is one of the necessary paid SEO Website Marketing marketing method which can assist your website to straightly Publicize business services/consumer products in the vicinity of top SEO results of favorite search engines such as Bing, Yahoo, and Google. Natural search results on the other hand is a steady promotional strategy which can ingest around 4-9 months or higher (depending on number of targeted keywords/search engines).

SEO optimization can be defined as a elaborated promotional strategy and it can ingest whole lot of resources. So, clients must make sure that your SEM/Search Engine Optimization Services Firm has competence in bringing higher organic SEO rankings for your web site . Companies should request for previous/existing client references. You might perceive numerous Search Optimization/Marketing service companies laying claim to have worked for 100 satisfied clients, but if you request them to provide reference of even one single client they would appear to avoid.

So, Companies must make sure to engage an SEM/SEO Service Company which could assist your online business website to achieve top Search Engine Optimization rankings. Your Company website should be effortlessly available to users/clients searching online and it must be ranking near the top SEO results of favorite search engines such as Bing, Google, and Yahoo.

Clients, Business owners, and Consumers who are looking for search engine marketing services must make sure that SEM/SEO Online Promotion Services Firm they are deciding to sign up works committedly towards delivering top organic SEO rankings of your online business website. If any SEM/Search Engine Optimization professionals who would profess to know some “furtive” SEO methods then you should never hire with these SEO optimization firms.

If you desire to engage top SE Marketing/SEO Optimization consultant for your web site then Companies must follow some of these important guidelines prior to hiring any SEM/Search Engine Optimization Services Firm.? Attaining highest organic SEO rankings is imperative behind the online success of any Company website. Your SEM/SEO (Search Engine Marketing/Optimization) Services Firm will assist to generate more and more earnings, clicks, leads, traffic, queries, and sales by bringing highest organic SEO rankings on favorite SE’s such as Bing, Google, and Yahoo.

Benefits of CPM Marketing and How It Is Completed

Mr. Search — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 00:08:00 +0000

Benefits of CPM Marketing and How It Is Completed

CPM is a kind of on the net promoting that has next to nothing to do with the motion that a user can take on the website of the publisher. The term CPM stands for price per thousand. C stands for cost, P stands for per and M stands for thousand due to the fact in roman numerals the value of M is 1000. What does thousand stands for in this formulation? Thousand is the banner impressions. So if you are an advertiser who prefers to purchase marketing using CPM then you will have to spend for each and every thousand times a publisher exhibits your advertisement on his site.

Advantages to the publishers

This technique is money-making to equally publishers and advertisers but it might be far more money-making to the publishers simply because he will be compensated for each and every thousand web page views that his web page receives. This technique is also independent of the user action on the web site of the publisher since if a visitor has opened the website of the publisher displaying the advertisement then this will rely as a web page see and the earning of the publisher will raise. It indicates if a visitor going to the internet site of the publisher don’t click on on the advertisement then also the publisher will be paid. So this way CPM is additional worthwhile to any publisher obtaining higher web page views on his web page.

Positive aspects to the advert owners

This approach may possibly or may possibly not be valuable to the ad owner simply because the advert owner will be paid only if a visitor viewing the advertisement also clicks the advertisement and purchases some thing in his web site. So an ad proprietor can advantage in this method only if his web page gets higher URL clicks from the publisher website and his very own website also has the substantial conversion ratio. An advert operator advertising his merchandise should be additional mindful in doing his individual web site because his web site should be capable of turning optimum interested guests to consumers and his ads ought to be printed on the relevant internet sites. If an advert operator fails in this tactic then this process can only deliver him loss.

How to commence CPM advertising?

This strategy of promoting is not only restricted to the web but other media these as tv also utilizes this variety of advertising. So the maximum instances an advertisement is shown on the tv, the optimum will be the expense compensated by the ad owners. An advert owner who would like to advertise a products or service employing this strategy ought to first put together the message that he desires to give to the targeted viewers. These commercials can then be shown as banners, pop up, aspect bar or the skyscraper advertisements. An advert proprietor may well also get aid of some service suppliers who specialize in the task of advertisement creation. Soon after an advertisement is prepared, the ad operator should make a decision the media he desires to use to publish his advertisement. An successful advertisement can bring in hundreds of new buyers whereas an advertisement with a mistaken message may get away the existing buyers also.

Cpm Advertising

Mr. Search — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 06:59:00 +0000

Cpm Advertising

What is CPM Advertising?

This type of advertising is the reasonable method of buying or selling announcing. This is because instead of acquire a click through, a lead or a sale, the only thing that is being exchanged is views. CPM stands for Cost per thousand impressions. The M is the Roman numeral for 1000. Therefore M=1000. Whether or not someone clicks is beside the point. Views are what are for sale, not whether or not the advertiser is going to get any traffic on the site.

CPM based announcing can be cost effective alternating to CPC deals. For example in CPC based advertising you pay for each click your ad receives. Let’s say that you are spending $1 for each click and you get 10 clicks, then that is going to cost you $10. In CPM based campaign you may pay $3 for each 1000 impressions. If your ad receives a click through ratio of 1%, you’re paying $3 for the same 10 clicks.

CPM Advertising and the Internet

In the internet announcing world, there are many ways in which websites can display. One of the most widely used method is CPM Advertising. This type of displaying on the internet can be scrutinized to the kind of announcing in a magazine. They don’t sell vows that sales will be made but what they do promise is that your ad will be viewed. This is the same thing that happens on a website. They don’t promise that a click will occur but that the ad will be viewed. CPM Advertising is an inexpensive way to get ads on a website. This typically only works for large sites as they can provide a ton of bulk impressions, so for announcing they are more interested in buying there. CPM Advertising is one of the oldest forms of announcing online and the reason why it’s still around is because it’s economical for the advertiser and possibly very paid off for the publisher. That makes the concept of CPM Advertising very sensible. Many sites offer directed CPM- based displaying options and you should be able to find a aid that will mesh with your company’s presents.

The downside to CPM-based displaying is that the minimum shop for of impressions could be more than what your company requires. While $5 per thousand is very appealing but a minimum shop for of a million impressions can quickly scare off business.

What is CPM, CPC, CPA and CTR ?

Mr. Search — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 01:59:00 +0000

What is CPM, CPC, CPA and CTR ?

CPM

CPM means Cost Per Thousand. (M is the Roman numeral for thousand – and so Cost Per Thousand).

This is the amount you will pay the ad-network or website publisher to show your ad a thousand times on their website or across their ad-network.

Whether your ad is shown only once to each visitor (Unique Impressions) or any number of times – is something that you will have to work out with the nad-network or the website.

CPM rates were once (pre yr 2000 bubble-burst era) as much as $75, but have now dropped to as little as $1 CPM.

CPC

CPC means Cost Per Click. This is how much you would pay the ad-network or website every time a visitor clicks on your banner. CPC rates can be as high as $3 per click or as little as 5 cents per click. It depends on your product and your market – amongst other factors, the more competition there is – the higher you will probably end up paying as you compete with competitors.

CPA

CPA means Cost Per Action. The Action could be any of the following types of actions – A visitor clicking on your banner coming to your site and filling up a simple enquiry form (CPR – Cost Per Registration) , or if the visitor makes a purchase (CPS – Cost Per sale). It could be a flat fee or a percentage commission of the sale made. Affiliate-Networks like commissionjunction , linkshare and clickbank have very good software systems in place to track all this and provide statistics to online merchants and publishers on their network of websites.

I have explained in detail what an Affiliate Network is, in another section. They basically, allow publisher websites to sign up for free so they can start earning commissions on sales arising out of the traffic they send to online merchants. The Affiliate Network tracks all this using their system and code merchants and publishers are required to place on their website. Publishers can sign up for free mostly, and in some cases online Merchants are required to pay a one time setup fee and possibly a monthly fee with commissions – eg. As in commissionjunction. A very popular site that is free to Merchants is Clickbank network.

CTR

CTR is Click Through Rate. This is the percentage rate at which people click on your ad banner. If your banner ad is seen by 100 people but clicked by one person – then it’s CTR is 1% or .01

Similarly, if your ad banner is seen 100,000 times and in the same time period it is clicked 2000 times – then your banner CTR is 2% or .02 .

This is how we calculate CTR …

(Number of Clicks / Number of impressions) x 100

Example, for above case it would be -

(2000 / 100,000) x 100 = .02

CPM, CPC or CPA … which is best for my ad campaign?

Your choice will depend on various factors. Sometimes companies such as Pepsi, would just like to enforce their brand and be seen across many websites, without any need for the user to click on their banners. This is a brand hammering strategy, and a CPM deal would be preferred.

Apart from the above mass branding effort, the decision to go for a CPC, CPM or CPA ad becomes a calculated decision when you have a product that you want to sell on your website.

Would you pay the publisher for only visitors he sends you? or would you pay him for every thousand ads he displays for you?or would you pay him a commission on sales from visitors he sends you?

This is tricky. You may need to read the paragraphs below slowly, or even several times over to get the gist of what I am saying …

To help you decide, you should first run a pilot CPM campaign that will help you gauge results. Your CPM campaign and number of Clicks on your banner, will let you know exactly what your CTR (Click through Rate) is for your banner.

Your CTR will help you decide your campaign type – CPM or CPC ? If your CTR is high, you should go in for a CPM, if its low you should go in for a CPC.

The reason for this is simple. If you have a low CTR then you would rather only pay for the low traffic that comes to your site. If your CTR is high , then you don’t mind paying CPM – because your cost will not escalate for more and more visitors that come to your site, but will remain the same.

I will explain the above, with a couple of examples -

Example 1

Lets suppose a website that you want to advertise on charges a CPM of $5.00 and a CPC of 50 cents.

And, you need to decide if you should go in for CPM or CPC ?

Lets suppose you first buy 1,000,000 impressions.

This works out to $5000 ($5 per 1000 impressions x 1000)

Now lets suppose your CTR is not good and is 0.2 % (or 2 clicks per 1000 ads)

Now, you need to calculate the amount you will pay of you had bought a CPC.

If your CTR is 0.2% and you display 1,000,000 ads, then this works out to …

.002 x 1,000,000 = 2000 clicks.

So essentially you have paid $5000 for 2000 clicks or $2.50 per click!!

This means that I am better of buying on a CPC basis, because one click there costs me only 50cents! And if I go for CPC, then I will get 10,000 clicks for $5000 … which is 5 times more than the clicks i get in the CPM model (2000).

Example 2

Lets assume that your banner ad turns out to be very good and gets a very good CTR of say 5%

Now you need to decide ..CPM or CPC.

Lets analyze as above -

I paid $5000 for 1,000,000 ads at 5% CTR

That means 5% x 1,000,000 ads were clicked on , which equals

= .05 (5%) x 1,000,000 = 50,000 clicks!

So for $5000 i got 50,000 clicks.

Now, if I had bought on a click basis, then at the CPC rate of (50cents) I will pay

50,000 x $0.50 amount for 50,000 clicks, which is $25,000 (5 times what I would pay with CPM, for the same traffic)

So, I am better of buying with a CPM system for this banner ad campaign

What about CPA ?

I have dedicated a separate chapter for this. This system is gaining popularity slowly. It seems to be the fairest system of all the three methods – specially when you are selling a product or service. Both Google and Yahoo are leaning towards taking their CPC system into a more fair and measurable CPA system. Google has recently launched Google Analytics and Google’s version of PayPal (Google Checkout) – that is a positive and firm step towards its CPA plans.
Selling ad-space on your website – how much can you charge?

Nowadays CPM rates have fallen from highs of $50 to $10 to $2 in many cases.

If you have high traffic you may approach ad-networks, and they will serve out the ads for your website. They will give you a piece of code to insert into the pages of your website. You will get a Username and Password to login to a control panel area on the ad-networks main website, to see how your site is performing. Ad-networks pay you based on CPM or CPC, depending on what their client (the advertiser) opt for. They will take from 40% to 60% commission. This is acceptable, considering the fact that they get you the clients and revenues, and they have to manage all the advertising technology and payment systems.

Most of these ad-networks require that you have a certain number of impressions per month to qualify to become part of their network of websites. For example, DoubleClick requires at minimum 5 million monthly page impressions. There are many mid sized networks, like Advertising , fastclick , ValueClick (only CPC, owned partially by DoubleClick) and even smaller ad networks like, burstnet . You should visit adbalance to get a complete list and brief on popular ad networks.

Banner Management Software

If you would like to manage your own Clients and their banner ads for your website, you will need to develop an ad-serving engine or license a third party engine and install it on your website. You can get a list of free and paid software scripts that you can install on your website from cgi-resources.com or hotscripts.com

Advertisement Acronyms Defined: CPM, CPC, CPA

Mr. Search — Sat, 10 Dec 2011 14:31:00 +0000

Advertisement Acronyms Defined: CPM, CPC, CPA

When starting a new online advertising campaign, there are a number of different ways it can be done. If you are looking to have a banner or a text link presence, you will typically be charged following one the four following methods. Each have their pros and cons, but understanding the difference between each method is vital for your advertising success:

1) CPM: CPM stand for Cost per 1,000. It will typically mean that for every 1,000 impressions of your ad on the publisher’s site, you will be charged a certain few. Contracts can be negotiated for several hundred thousand impressions, even millions.

The advantage of this method is that you can easily estimate how much it will cost you, since the traffic figures of the publisher’s site are typically available, determining fairly accurately how many impressions you will get during a given period. The main downside is that the performance of your ad does not have an impact on pricing. You can have nobody or thousands clicking on your ad for the same price. Depending on the CPM rate, this can end up being a bargain or a bad investment, but its always a gamble.

2) CPC: Cost per Click, or CPC, is another method used by advertising companies to sell ad space. In this case, you will pay every time someone clicks on your ad. The CPC can be fixed and predetermined (for example, you buy an ad space that will cost you 0.05$ per click on your ad) or the price can be based on offer and demand for the given space.

Lets say a publisher has 4 ad spots, The first being in the best location, the second in the second best and so on, he can decide to offer the best spot to whoever offers the most per click, the second spot to the next best offer, etc. Google Adwords works that way. The more you are willing to spend per click, the better your ad visibility will be.

3) CPA: Our last acronym, CPA, can stand for Cost per Action, or Cost per Acquisition. It defines the cost associated with each lead or sale created by the click on the advertisement, regardless of the number of impressions or clicks the ad gets. This is normally tracked by some special code placed on the confirmation page on the advertiser’s site, which is loaded when a lead or sale is generated. This method allows the advertiser to closely manage his ROI and advertisement costs, but tend to be more expensive.

If all else fails, you can also buy some flat rate ads, which will charge you x amount of dollars for a certain period, regardless of number of impressions or clicks.

Online Marketing

Mr. Search — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 19:12:00 +0000

Online Marketing and SEO Tips: Cpa, Cpc and Cpm ? Definition, Differences And Benefits

Before we begin this article, let us first define our terms.

CPA is “Cost-per-Action” (also known as Cost-per-Acquisition, or alternatively referred to as PPA, Pay-per-Action).

CPC is “Cost-per-Click” (commonly referred to as PPC, Pay-per-Click)

CPM is “Cost-per-1000 Impressions” (with the M representing the Roman numeral for 1000; this term may also be referred to as CPI).

All three acronyms refer to price models of internet advertising. Banner ads, paid search or email blasts can be paid for by using these methods, and each one allows the advertiser different benefits for different prices -? thus allowing the advertiser to be as cost-effective as possible.

CPA is where an advertiser will pay a publisher (web site owner, blogger etc.) a fee every time the placed advertisement generates a lead, a sale or some form of positive response pre-arranged between the two parties (Note: this model will operate similarly with email marketing). The advertiser, therefore, only pays money when the ad produces a form of conversion, which is perhaps the financially safest way to market online. It will first be pre-determined how many sales or leads must be generated before the ad stops running, so the advertiser knows exactly what their maximum spending will be. Overall, it is clear that the burden of risk falls firmly with the publisher, as they are by no means guaranteed a solid return. However, the cost for each action can be negotiated and, generally speaking, both parties are in a position to benefit financially should the ad prove enticing enough.

CPC is a more balanced approach and favors each party fairly equally. CPC operates on a click through basis, whereby the advertiser is only charged when a user clicks on the ad. Whether or not that same user provides information or creates business after the click is of no relevance, the click in itself is all that matters. This system, as with CPA, has a limit and a budget attached, such that the advertiser is not bankrupted overnight by excessive clicking. A potential drawback with this model is the presence of false clicking; for example where a competitor purposely clicks on an ad in order to waste the budget and undermine the ad’s success. CPC is the model utilized by Google Ads, and they have made significant steps to prevent this happening.

CPM is at the opposite end of the spectrum from CPA, providing the publisher with a guaranteed fee. It is akin to paying for traditional print media in the sense that one identifies a price for their advert space and then the ad is published without further clause or criterion.? Online, though, an impression is paid for in lots of one thousand apiece. An impression itself is a sole appearance of the ad on the web page. The ad of course will be withdrawn once the agreed impression total is reached. While seemingly an unattractive proposition to an advertiser compared with the above two approaches, CPM has proven very effective in generating brand awareness and is a popular choice for companies who are not yet in the market to promote or sell a specific product.

Relation between PPC and SEO

Mr. Search — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 20:43:00 +0000

Relation between PPC and SEO

Pay per click or PPC search engine promotion is the most reasonable kind of promotion available. PPC search engine promotion could be a flourishing business that is anticipated to reach $ two billion. PPC search engine promotion is regarding producing leads. Generating leads will help potential buyers notice the specific web-site that will give them with the merchandise or service they need.

However, PPC search engine promotion does not finish there. It is vital to perceive that although PPC search engine promotion generates leads, it is conjointly important for users to find relevant information at the net site they are directed to. Information is a valuable asset in PPC search engine promotion that is often left unchecked by several sites. Keep in mind that users are plenty of probably to buy merchandise or services from a corporation that provided them with the mandatory information they needed in the first place.

One in all the advantages of PPC search engine promotion is that it provides qualified traffic to a specific website. Users that click on a PPC commercial are those in search of a specific product or service. This helps eliminate unnecessary clicks from non-prospective patrons that only turn out expenditures not profits. PPC search engine promotion is additionally the quickest means to receive a reasonable come on investment.

A bidding method is used to decide the worth of a specific keyword. In general, the budget for PPC search engine promotion could be a $50 to $200,000 depending on the amount of keywords used. These prices can skyrocket in basically minutes as additional and additional sites bid for the same keyword thus inflicting the prices to jack up.

Pay per click ads are placed alongside search engine results to that they are relevant. The highest bids for a specific keyword or phrase gets prime billing on the search engine results page. Getting prime placement provides bigger odds for a PPC commercial to urge clicked by a qualified searcher.

Pay per click search engine promotion contains two essential elements; constant monitoring, response analysis and refinement because the essential factors concerned in PPC search engine promotion. Proper management of PPC search engine promotion will finish in large profits for a web-site.

Pay per click search engine promotion makes it feasible for sites to watch the productivity of every PPC commercial they place. This gives a site the chance to flip off any PPC commercial that is not working at its best. PPC search engine promotion provides the foremost economical manner for a site to promote on the World Wide Web.
The cost entailed in PPC search engine promotion is dictated by the clicks created on a explicit PPC commercial. The number of clicks created on a PPC commercial is subtracted from the preliminary quantity paid by the business to an exploration engine company. To minimize value and maximize return on investment, a business will ought to often monitor its PPC search engine promotion campaign.

Plenty of businesses are unable to induce the most out of their PPC search engine promotion campaign. PPC search engine promotion involves a heap over bidding on the very best keywords. Information is a main concern of the plenty of online users.

Providing online users with relevant info they need can help bring concerning a more long-term relationship with an online user that can more doubtless finish in a sale.

Info provided to online users may be in the shape of a newsletter or e-zine that online users would doubtless join up for. Sign-ups may be to cover the expenses of a PPC search engine promotion campaign.

Sign-ups also help generate leads for sites as they build opt in list from qualified online searchers who clicked their PPC commercial. Obtaining personal information from qualified online searchers can be done in the coursework of a variety of ways in which like giving freebies for surveys or signing up for newsletters.

Pay per click search engine promotion could be a permanent method that needs hands on supervision as well as a thorough understanding of PPC search engines. Businesses might opt to hire the services of a expert or do PPC search engine promotion with in-house specialists. Whatever coursework of action is selected, a business is definite to receive a immense come back on investment with PPC search engine promotion.

Five Super Tips to Pick the Right PPC Consultants

Mr. Search — Sun, 04 Dec 2011 20:52:00 +0000

Five Super Tips to Pick the Right PPC Consultants

Pay per click ad campaign may be a specialized tool to advertise. The simplest half of this ad campaign is because the name suggests the merchant pays solely when the visitors click the ad to visit the merchant site. Nevertheless this advantage of PPC will cause ad budget being drained without the specified result. The concept of PPC ad campaign could be a very dynamic one and wants dedicated manpower to yield desired result. PPC specialists have the specified skills to confirm a effective management of a PPC ad campaign. But then how does one select the PPC expert to manage ones PPC ad campaigns. There are particular key needs the merchant institution should rummage around for in choosing the experts.

The expert needs to sell themselves as well. To start with it’s advisable to possess a observe the web site of the PPC firm. These specialists can must right persuasive ad campaign for the merchant establishment. Hence if the firm can write persuasive ad campaign for themselves, then they’ll be reasonably expected to write down sensible ad campaigns for the merchant as well.

The PPC corporations dedicate account managers to manage the PPC ad campaign for the merchant establishment. Now before the correct PPC specialists is chosen the merchant establishment ought to acquire a truthful idea on what amount of your time the account manager who be devoting to management of the account. PPC ad campaigns are dynamic activity requiring constant review and readjustment.

Search engine optimization and PPC ad campaign management skills are typically not acquired over day or week. The necessity for expertise in management of PPC ad campaign is prime. Hence it is in the interest of the merchant establishment to hire PPC skilled who experienced in managing PPC ad campaigns and not just new comer to plug or a fly by night operator.

The merchant establishment wants to figure on on how much the PPC campaign allocation ought to be in order to possess a right tradeoff between the PPC spend and business profit. The hiring price of PPC specialists wants to be calculated as well. Since the hiring cost can be a integral half of the ad campaign budget and rent the hiring cost of the specialists lower will be the allocation left for PPC spend. In turn this will create the PPC bid management process inflexible.

The merchant establishment when appointing a PPC management firm ought to check on the credentials of the firm in terms of how often the campaign will be reviewed. The frequency of review and how frequently the mathematics of conversion will be done wants to be set at the onset. Based on the transient whether or not the PPC ad management firm will prepare customized campaign manifesto and structure wants to be ascertained before appointment. Since on clicking the ad in search can land on page of the merchant website PPC management firm should have requisite skills to optimize the landing page thus on retain the visitors for business transaction.

The Last Word in PPC vs. Article Marketing

Mr. Search — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 18:12:00 +0000

The Last Word in PPC vs. Article Marketing

There is always a big discussion when it comes to comparing two of the best ways to advertise online: PPC (Pay-Per-Click) advertising and article marketing, otherwise known as ?organic? or ?natural? search engine optimization.? There is no denying that both methods can be effective.? However, which method is better?? Which gives you a bigger bang for your buck??

You may get varying statistics on this issue, depending on which website you visit for information.? Oh yes, this matters, because you have to consider the source of the statistics and who is sponsoring the article.? For example, two sources of information (respectively, the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) and ComScore) recently produced studies indicating that PPC advertising was more cost-effective on average.? However, did the fact that Yahoo/Overture and Google were sponsoring this major study play any role in determining the final outcome?? Of course it did, those are the two biggest PPC companies on the net!

In figuring out which of the two is better, you have to consider cost-effectiveness as well as click-through-rates and direct conversion from visiting user to paying customer.? We are going to review some statistics a little bit later on.? For now, let?s consider some logical points that illustrate how PPC and article marketing differ.?

Search engine listings display more listings than PPC results, which does have a psychological effect on the user.?? For some users seeing ten search results (each one relevant to the search) is enough to convince them that there is enough web information on the subject and that ?fishing? PPC ads might not be necessary.? The catch is that in order to actually rank in the Top 10 SEO results for your keyword, you have to have relevant website content, not to mention technical prowess in programming HTML.? Search engines will be focusing on proprietary algorithm, or the most relevant websites based on the search term queried.? There is no ?bribery? here, whereas in PPC, it is quite the opposite: whoever bids highest for each word usually gets the top listing.? Quality algorithm definitely plays a part in PPC, but in the end money talks.? In article marketing, we haven?t quite come to the point where ?money talks? yet.? The best websites still win the search engine contest and that is an important factor to consider in your marketing campaign.

Even PPC proponents will admit that Pay-Per-Click is largely style over substance.? With PPC advertising you are trying to grab attention in just a few loud and occasionally obnoxious words.? You direct the user to a carefully crafted page that ?sells? the idea.? This operation contrasts with article marketing, which doesn?t necessarily sell an idea on a single page, nor does it grab attention with a few words.? With article marketing, there is an entire article waiting for the visitor, which uses a methodical and ?indirect? approach.? Assuming you are listed in the Top #10, your listing means that the search engine agrees that your website is the best authority on the keyword subject?for the time being.? People in a hurry or on a whim will probably click on PPC.? People on a mission will be looking for relevant content on their chosen keyword.

Therefore, the question now becomes which methodology works better for your business?? Are you appealing to the fast clicker or the thoughtful user?? Let?s now consider two sources of statistics for a clearer view of the issue.? First, one in favor of article marketing, the next in favor of PPC.?

In Favor of Article Marketing

Jakob Nielsen, Ph.D. and principal founder of the Nielsen Norman Group (http://www.useit.com/alertbox/defaults.html) researched the behavior of users who found search engine results pages and noticed some trends.? Forty-two percent of users selected the #1 search listing for their result, leaving 58% that selected another Top 10 Result.? The #1 site listed held the majority of clicks.? This indicates that almost two thirds of Internet users were not content to choose even the #1 listing on a natural SEO search.? That means that these users (and the majority of all users) are actually using independent judgment in deciding what links are most relevant to their needs.? Other related statistics (with sources from ComScore, Webxico, iProspect, SEOResearcher and Hotchkiss, Garrison, and Jensen) concluded that 77% of search users choose organic listings over PPC ads.? There were also studies that suggested organic click-through generated 25% higher conversion rates than equivalent Pay-Per-Click (PPC) click-through.

In Favor of PPC Advertising

Now to be fair, we have to consider some advantages that PPC advertising has.? The best feature PPC has is that it gets instantaneous results.? SEO advertising takes time, especially if you have a new website just submitted to the all of the major search engines.? Yes, this can be frustrating.? PPC brings you immediate traffic and sometimes brings in thousands of users.? Seeing your Alexia ranking take a drastic increase certainly pumps up your adrenaline!?

ComScore recently published statistics in favor of PPC, stating that their studied users had an 18.3% click-through-rate ?paid? search results versus a 4.3% click-through rate for organic search results.? The conversion rate was also higher according to ComScore, stating that PPC had a 1.4% versus SEO?s 0.6%.

The Real Issue: Longevity

However, the downside here (even if you didn?t contest these suspicious results) is that instant and high volume traffic is, frankly, cheap and not as exciting as it first appears to be.? Remember that when you use PPC ads you are making a pitch and capitalizing on your audience?s curiosity.? When that curiosity fades, they forget your website?especially if it?s just a glorified advertisement.? PPC campaigns can also be costly and time consuming when you consider your duties as a manager.?

Another problematic scenario with PPC is that they have no staying power?unless of course you have thousands of dollars a month to blow in this recession.? With article marketing you get more quality traffic, and perhaps more importantly to you, you earn customer trust over time.? Internet users aren?t stupid, the popularity of Yahoo Answers notwithstanding.? Most users know that PPC ads usually aren?t relevant to their search?they?re just there because someone is consistently paying big bucks to get noticed.

You can consider article marketing as an investment that continually pays all through the life of your company (or until you shut the website down) since it generates traffic forever.? You can easily spend thousands a month on a brilliant PPC campaign and soon run out of money, meaning your ads go extinct.
Therefore, we can conclude that article marketing does have specific advantages over PPC, which are intrinsic because of the differences in operation.

?Article marketing generates traffic forever
?Article marketing improves your natural SEO ranking and backlinks
?Article marketing establishes trust?you appear as a professional in your industry
?Article marketing doesn?t cost you extra because of additional fees spend on websites, landing pages and superfluous domains

How About Return-On-Investment?

ROI is another key issue, as short-term and long-term profit must equal out.? Article marketing, by some authorities appears to have a slower ROI?(especially if you make money on CTRs).? However, studies suggest that organic ROI is more consistent than PPC.? Consider some independent research conducted by popular blogger Gord Hotchkiss who explained the situation in crystal clear terms.? Let?s say you have 50 high traffic search terms.? Now for these 50 terms, there are 2.8 million searches being launched in a month.? If statistics likes ComScore?s are correct and unbiased, that translates to 456,000 visitors thanks to PPC and 153,000 visitors thanks to article marketing.

The total cost of those 456,000 PPC visitors would amount to over $500,000 with an average CPC of $1.18.? Even if you work with an SEO company that charges top dollar ($10,000 a month, let?s say) you?re still paying $10,000 compared to half a million.? That means article marketing?s virtual CPC amounts to $0.07.? Even if you apply PPC?s higher conversion rate, 3,647 converted visitors, you are paying $147.08 for each individual person.? Compare that to 611 visitors you earned through article marketing?you are paying $16.37 for each visitor.? And in doing so, you are also earning a higher quality of customer and generating traffic until the end of days.

Does your final ROI number take into account your total expenses?? Absolutely!? While both methods of advertising have their place online, when it comes to earning quality traffic, article marketing gets the last word.