The PPC mistakes explained and advice on how to best manage your pay per click campaigns

1) Having all your keyphrases in one ad group and/or campaign

When you set up your first PPC account you are taken through a step by step process where you set up one campaign and one ad group. Many users add all their keyphrases into this one ad group with just one ad. This can often contain many unrelated keyphrases.

Recommended PPC ad group structure

You need to divide your keyphrase into discrete ad groups of very similar keyphrases that relate closely together. This means it will be easy to create a relevant ad that has text and a landing page that matches your keyphrases. Using this PPC strategy you will be rewarded with a higher quality score (Google’s measure of relevancy) and a higher click through rate or CTR (% of clicks as a proportion of the number of times the ad is seen or impressions). A high quality score and click through rate means that you will achieve better positions and pay a lower cost per click.

2) Bidding on generic keyphrases or only using broad match

When companies want to be found for as much search engine traffic as possible, they often bid on very generic phrases. For example they may provide a plumbing service in Birmingham, so they bid on the word Birmingham. In addition many new users do not understand the different “phrase match” types, so they enter all the phrases using the default “broad match”. This means that you will be found for any search term combination as long as it contains your original phrase. This will result in unwanted phrases; for example a company bidding for lifts could also be found for someone bidding on face lifts!

Recommended PPC keyphrase selection strategy

When you use the PPC keyword suggestion tool ensure that you only select exact match phrases, ie so you will only appear when the exact phrase is typed in. It does take longer to identify all the different variations, plurals, word orders and miss-spellings, but it will mean that you are only found for the phrases that you want to be found for. If you want to be found for more search engine traffic then have a broad match version of each phrase and make sure you use negative matches for the words you don’t want to be found for.

Generic phrases are less likely to result in conversion (enquiries or sales) and can often be more expensive then the highly specific phrases. When your ad copy is displayed for a generic keyphrase it will appear less relevant than for a phrase that is specific to your product and service. This will result in a low click through rate and poor quality score. If a phrase has a click through rate of <1% style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">3) Poor PPC bid management - Setting your maximum cost per click too high or too low

It is essential to understand the importance of keyphrase relevancy and quality score, as this determines your position in the PPC search engines and the amount you pay per click. Some companies will decide to bid high (in order get position 1-3) and inadvertently enter a bidding war with other competitors. Other companies will bid a low cost per click, irrespective of the positions they achieve. If this results in a positions outside the top 10 then your PPC ads may not be seen! Searchers rarely scan down more than a few pages - resulting in low impressions and click through rates (CTR).

Recommended keyphrase bidding strategy

If you have a very relevant well written PPC ad you can still achieve a good CTR at positions 4-7, without paying excessive amounts to outrank your competitors.

Bidding too low is normally a false economy as it will reduce your CTR’s; it is best to achieve low cost per clicks by having highly relevant ads and great quality scores. Use the PPC estimator tools to set a bid to achieve positions 4-7; then optimise to increase your CTR. This will result in a great quality score; so you should be able to lower your maximum cost per click and still maintain a position in this zone.

4) Starving your PPC advertising budget so your ads are seen intermittently

When you allocate a low pay per click budget to a campaign Google will either show your ad intermittently throughout the day or you will use your entire PPC advertising budget in the morning. Both these options are unsatisfactory as users will often browse a number of websites before coming back to register or buy. However, you will not get any conversions if they can’t find you again!

Recommended PPC budget setting strategies

One common cause of having inadequate PPC advertising budgets is that a company is bidding on too many non-specific keyphrases. This can often result in some keyphrases consuming the entire budget even when these phrases do not result in any conversions.

Another cause is a poor understanding of how the PPC estimator tools work or how to use the recommended budget feature. You should use these tools to set your pay per click advertising budget; if it is higher than you expected then you may have to delete the phrases that do not convert or those with the lowest click through rate.

Companies that limit their PPC advertising budget often do not understand the cost of acquiring a sale (cost per acquisition or CPA) and how much margin they have when selling their products or services. Once you have calculated your CPA (see below) you should set your monthly PPC budget to achieve the amount of enquiries or sales you need.

5) Including content and search networks in the same ad words campaign and/or retaining the content network when it does not perform

Most of the PPC search engines automatically show your ads in their content network. This means that unless you manually switch off the content network your PPC ads will be displayed on a huge range of third party websites and portals. The content network generally has a lower click through rate and conversion rates. So having all PPC networks in the same campaign can be confusing. It can also mean that there may be insufficient PPC advertising budget left for the better performing search network.

Recommended PPC campaign structure

You will need different campaigns for your search and content networks (and for any geo-targeting where your ads are displayed in different languages or locations - see below). You can create new keyword-targeted campaigns manually and then you adjust the targeting and networks within the “Edit campaign settings”. However if you want to clone your current campaign and all its ad groups, then we recommend that you learn how to use the offline tool “Google Editor”. MSN also offers similar flexibility and will shortly have its own desktop tool to allow you to manipulate your MSN Ad Center accounts.

Once you have your content network running in a separate PPC campaign you will be able to see whether it is performing and your cost per conversion. Depending on your budget and objectives you may decide to switch off the content network if you are not getting a good ROI. With significantly lower click through rates and conversions rates, the content network can be less effective. However, with fewer companies bidding on the content network it is generally cheaper per click and can still work for companies wanting maximum levels of visibility and website traffic.

Note the low click through rate of the content network will not adversely affect the quality score of your search terms.

6) Selecting the wrong landing page and/or not tracking conversions

Some companies spend their online marketing budgets driving search engine traffic to a website with a poor design, content and functionality. Dissatisfied users will hit the back button; so there are no sales or enquiries generated from the site, even though the site received lots of traffic. Even when a site is well designed, PPC ads are often pointed to the homepage rather than a more specific page within the site.

Recommended techniques to measure and improve the conversions on your website

Once the user clicks through to your site you have already paid for this traffic. It is therefore essential to maximise the number of conversions by taking the potential customer to the most appropriate page (which should match the keyphrase they entered). So if they are looking for a specific product you take them to page where they can buy the product. If your site is a brochure site rather than eCommerce site, then you need to take them to a page with interesting content and give them an incentive to contact you or register to receive further information. This will allow you to market to them again, for example using email newsletters.

Once a customer carries out a conversion (a sale or registration) they should land on a thank you page where you can add tracking code from your PPC search engine. This will then feed the data back to your PPC account so you can see which keyphrases result in conversions and the average conversion rate. If you have a conversion rate of 1% and you can only afford a cost per acquisition (CPA) of £25 or $25, then you need an average cost per click (CPC) of less than £0.25 or $0.25.

Once you have PPC conversion tracking on place you can optimise on conversions, for example by deleting keyphrases that consume your budget but have low conversion rates, or by testing different versions of your landing page

7) Failing to optimize your PPC account (to improve your click through rate (CTR) and quality score)

You should not continue to bid on phrases with a low click through rate or leave your new PPC account too long without checking it. This can result in a poor Google quality score, which will result in poorer positions and you will pay a higher cost per click.

Recommended techniques for optimisation of PPC campaigns and bid management strategies

Google quality score takes into account a number of factors that attempt to measure the relevancy of the ad copy and landing page for each keyphrase. One of these factors is the historic click through rate of the individual keyphrase (by match type) and the CTR of the account as a whole.

As soon as an account goes live, a very generic phrase can clock up large numbers of impressions without any clicks. This will immediately have an adverse effect on the CTR of the whole account. It is therefore essential that any keyphrases with high numbers of impressions and a CTR of less than 1% are deleted as soon as possible. This will be easier to spot if the keyphrases have already been divided into very specific ad groups (as discussed above). In addition you should test different ad copy to try and maximise the CTR of the ad group to more than 2%. This will vary by sector and type of phrases, for example brand and product names should achieve much higher click through rates.

8) Displaying your PPC ads to customers in the wrong geographical location or including all countries/regions (and languages) within the same Ad Words campaign

Different types of companies can benefit from using the geo-targeting features offered by the PPC search engines. However when users set-up their first campaign they often:

* use the default settings ignoring the geo-targeting options
* lump all the languages and countries within one campaign.

Both of these strategies can result in poor performing campaigns and the ads being seen by the wrong customers.

Recommendations for using PPC geo-targeting

The key strategy for setting up geo-targeting is having an account structure that allows you to have different campaigns for each target market (with different budgets for each). If you are a company selling a local service you can select cities, or use the mapping functionality to select an area on the map (eg 20 miles from your office). You may also want a national campaign to target customers outside of your area but are using location-specific phrases for a service or product in your area. For example a landlord based in London that needs a plumber for his rental property in Birmingham.

If you want to export or target international customers then you need to set-up different campaigns in your own language to target specific countries. If you want to target customers in foreign languages, then you need campaigns for each of the different language/country combinations. However you will also have to choose keyphrases, write ads and have landing pages in each language – in order to ensure high click through rates and quality scores.

9) Using scheduling to turn your PPC ads off so your ads are not seen in the evening or at weekends

Many companies try and pre-empt their customers’ search behaviour and turn their ads off out of office ads – particularly when they are trying to reduce their costs. They are then surprised when they have good traffic to their sites but lower conversions than they expected.

Recommendations for using PPC scheduling

Using the reports functionality in your PPC account it is possible to view the searching behaviour of your customers by time of day. You can compare this to your registrations and sales. Depending on the sector it is very common for people to search at different times from when they act. Peak internet traffic is on a Monday – when people return to work and use the internet. So many people search during work hours but they are not necessarily able to get their credit card out to purchase goods, or they don’t have time to complete an online registration. They will often transact online when they are in the security of their own home. Many people work from home or in the evenings - so even a pure business to business service may still benefit from “staying open” out of office hours.

The PPC scheduling tool is very easy to use but we recommend that you run your campaign 24/7 and test when the traffic peaks and when people convert. If you run your PPC campaigns when your competitors decide to turn theirs off, then you may achieve higher positions and lower costs due to the lower levels of competition.

10) Not integrating your pay per click advertising strategy with your search engine optimisation (SEO) and other internet marketing techniques

Pay per click is often used as a quick fix to drive traffic to a new site or a site that is not search engine friendly (eg because it has been built using technology such that cannot be spidered). Other companies will try search engine optimization (SEO) as well as pay per click, but they do not integrate their strategies.

Recommendations on integrating your pay per click and search engine optimisation strategies

We believe that your SEO strategy should be fully integrated with your PPC strategy. In fact we often recommend that companies carryout some form of pay per click test campaign before undertaking an SEO project. This has a number of advantages

* to quantify levels of traffic and to determine which keyphrases drive traffic and which convert
* to prioritise keyphrases – so we focus on phrases that are costly to purchase through pay per click or have good levels of traffic
* to identify keyphrases that are not worth optimising – that is phrases that are very specific or very cheap so that they do not warrant creation of new optimised content
* to find any weaknesses in the site – such as poor landing pages, weak calls for action etc

Once you have the target list of phrases you will need to go through a step-by-step process to create optimised content for your site (including an ongoing link building strategy). You can then review your positions in the search engines and determine whether you can switch off you PPC ads as your organic traffic increases.

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THE SECRET ON HOW TO LOWER YOUR COST PER CLICK AND GET A MAXIMUM ROI ON GOOGLE ADWORDS:

Everyone and his dog can claim to get you great pay per click campaign results and maximum ROI, but can they back it up? In short- no. Why's that you ask? Answer; Many companies will not do the research it takes to drive a truly successful ppc campaign and many of the companies that do the research may not be monitoring and managing your ppc ads effectively!!

Here's a few tips for what's involved in doing the research BEFORE you launch a pay per click advertising campaign:

* Do the research first!! If you are guessing at what keywords to use then this is bad! Why? Because there may be hundreds of keywords that you are missing and you may be using only the most expensive keywords which are driving up costs (cost per click). We treat preparation for pay per click as we would for search engine optimization. This involves doing an in-depth keyword analysis using software tools such as WordTracker, Yahoo Keyword Selector Tool, Web Positon Gold and/or many others. These software tools are invaluable to ppc keyword analysis and generation!! They will give you a list of the most popular and searched for keywords on most of the major search engines!

* Do more research!! After you've generated you wonderful list of popular search terms (keywords) for your new pay per click advertising campaign, it's time to do a little more work! If you want to save some money on your cost per click (same as pay per click) then you should run a competitive analysis. This is a great way (and crucial) to narrow down your extensive keywords list to niche, money making keywords! So what's involved with this analysis you ask?

Here's an example: Type in the keyword "website promotion" into Google and hit search. Now look on the right hand side and you will see that it says something like "Results 1 - 10 of about 228,000,000 for website promotion". Well the 228,000,000 is the number of web pages that are relevant to the keyword "website promotion" - that's allot of competition!!! That's a bad sign, because the higher the competition, usually means the higher you cost per click (ppc) is! This is where you begin to narrow things down and find a more targeted "niche" keyword. Now try typing in the keyword "web site traffic promotion" and see what comes up. You should see something considerably less like "Results 1 - 10 of about 69,400,000 for web site traffic promotion". It's still high, but much less than before and once you launch your pay per click campaign, your cost per click should be much lower as well.


* Using Your Niche Keywords!! Now that you've learned how to find great niche keywords for your pay per click ads, it's time to put them to good use! If you've signed up with a good ppc management company (such as www.serversidedesign.com) then you will be able to add up to 100 keywords per ad. Yes, that is allot! But here's the secret- a little adds up to allot of $$$ and clicks for you! Start one ad campaign (one ad) by associating 50-100 niche keywords to the ad and set them to "exact matching" (Google Adwords only has the matching options). It is important that you set it to exact (or at least phrase) matching or else your niche keyword phrases will no longer be niche. I'll explain the matching options next. If you've created a strong niche keyword list using the above tips (first two bullet points) then you will see great results! Exact matching and niche keywords can be slower to get instant results, impressions and click-throughs but the power is in the numbers. If you have 50-100 niche keywords then you will get as many click-throughs as you would have IF you had used broad matching on non-niche, general keywords. BUT YOU WILL SAVE A TON OF MONEY THIS WAY!! And not only will you cost per click be much lower for niche keywords but you will get more targeted results and a better audience landing on your website. And what does that mean?? It means that your amount of conversions will increase and your ROI will get better! Isn't that the ultimate goal- save money and get higher conversions??

* Watch your matching options (Google Adwords Only)! Many PPC Advertising and Management companies will get lazy and not tweak the matching options in Google.

If you want to save money, hit a more targeted market and you plan on using many keywords per ad then "exact matching" is your best bet. Exact matching means that ALL of the keywords must be present when a person types a keyword phrase into a search engine and they must fall in that exact order.

If money is NO object and you are limited by the number of keywords that you can associate with one ad (most companies severely limit this, but our company is extremely generous) then broad matching is the way to go. Broad matching means that part or all of the keyword phrase may be present and in any order. This is extremely flexible but can deplete your budget quickly.

If you've found some great keyword phrases that are niche and best suited for exact matching but your results are not great, then you should try and experiment with "phrase matching". With phrase matching all of the keywords must show up in a search but can come in ANY order.

This should be enough information to give you a great and profitable start on you pay per click campaigns. But if this is too overwhelming then you should consider hirring a professional and qualified company such as ours to do all the work for you! We will be happy to create a successful pay per click advertising campaign for your company. If your 're interested then please fill out the short form below.

Here’s some of our PPC Management strategies and techniques:

1.Eliminate “dead” or non-active keywords.
2.Create less ads to increase your click-through rate %.
3.Turn ads off during low performing times of the day. I.E. Turn off ads from midnight to 6:00am.
4.Geographic targeting (city, state, region, country).
5.Analyze and optimize website landing pages.
6.Optimize ad copy.
7.Take some ads off Google “content network” to avoid click fraud and un-targeted traffic.
8.Lower bids on Yahoo content matching.
9.Set some listings to lower than #1 position to save money.
10.Utilize keyword matching options on Google: Broad, Phrase, Exact and Negative.
11.Use image and video ads.
12.Pick and choose websites to show ads on Google content network.
13.Track conversion statistics and ROI.
14.Use traffic/budget estimator on Google to predict spend and clicks.
15.Daily monitoring of ad performance.
16.Daily bid level adjustments.

Pay Per Click Advertising and Pay Per Click Management Procedures:

1. The first step in setting up your pay per click advertising campaign is to review your website and extract your most vital keywords and keyword phrases. Next we take these keywords and perform a deep statistical analysis to ensure we are using the most popular as well as niche keywords for your pay per click advertising campaign. This will give us a strong and efficient keyword list with great performance that will produce higher traffic and conversions (sign-ups) on your site.

2. The next step involved in pay per click advertising is for us to implement conversion tracking code on to the necessary web pages on your site so you can see your true ROI (return on investment) and conversion statistics.

3. Once all of your keywords are generated and your conversion code is in place, we will write your PPC ads. These ads are custom written to include your most valuable keywords. We pay close attention to detail when writing these ads so they are optimized fully for the search networks. We will make them targeted and persuasive enough to gain the quality traffic that you need in order to get valuable conversions. We also write your pay per click ads to include your top level keywords so they are "optimized" for the network and get higher rankings because of it.

4. Your landing page is very important to search engines even when it comes to pay per click. We will review you current landing page and make suggestions to you in order to improve your amount of conversions. Many search networks also critique your landing page and will award you a lower "cost per click" and higher ad ranking if your landing page is content rich and optimized properly.

5. The final step is where we provide full pay per click management of your ads. After our initial keyword analysis and generation, conversion code implementation, custom ad writing, and landing page assessment, we will launch your ads! Once your ads are launched we will begin manually adjusting bid levels for each individual keyword. This requires us to login in to your account daily so we can view your ads' performance and adjust accordingly. Not only do we adjust your bid levels for each keyword but we will revise your ad content when necessary. We will also delete and add new keywords whenever needed.

6. We will send you monthly reports of your pay per click advertising campaigns so you can see how well your ads are performing and if you are getting a good ROI. These reports will tell you exactly how many clicks your are getting, conversions and money spent.

Is a Pay-Per-Click Campaign the Right Investment for my Business?

With more and more consumers looking online for information on purchases and making more purchases online than ever before, and recent studies indicating that searches still rarely go beyond the first three pages of organic search results (an example being the iProspect Search Engine User Behavior Study of April 2006), engaging the user early on takes on even more importance. The highly relevant PPC ads results on the first search engine results pages (SERPs) can be a prime source for conversions and sales.

PPC ad programs are evolving and becoming easier for first-time advertisers online to understand and use. The programs are flexible, can handle anything from one keyword to thousands of keywords, offer a dazzling array of bells and whistles, and come packaged with analytics and reporting options that range from the simple to the complex.

The apparent simplicity can be deceiving. You can set up a PPC on a search engine with only a few steps and get results that will satisfy you, but if you want to milk all that you can from the PPC method of advertising, you need to be prepared to take advantage of every option and every advantage available to you. You need to investigate the details of the programs you are taking part in, keep an eagle eye on your bids and the performance of your ads, and spend time keeping up with the latest changes in the search engines to ensure your money is placed where it will do the most good. It takes time and effort, but it is not rocket science – at least not yet!

To help you, tools have been developed to automatically monitor and bid, track your Return on Investment (ROI), craft your PPC ads, and help you choose alternate keywords that may be just as effective but cost much less on the particular PPC search engine they wish to use. Reviews of many search engine tools and services are elsewhere on our website.

Once you've mastered the basics of PPC and have learned more about the options, tools, and search engines that offer this form of marketing, you will be in a position to fine tune your campaigns and perhaps try some of the niche-market PPC search engines, which offer lower keyword costs and may be more suited to your product/service.

Keep in mind that even companies with experience in online marketing struggle with the intricacies of the techniques needed to judge which PPC search engine to use and how best to play the bidding game.

And so we come to the bottom line - PPC sounds like a great option, but what does it really cost and is it worth it for my specific business? Each campaign is different, depending upon the bid amounts, number of actual click-throughs and the Return on Investment (ROI) generated.

Our main goal at PayPerClickUniverse is to help educate you to make the best choices by offering free, totally unbiased reviews of PPC search engines and the tools designed to be used in conjunction with the PPC process, both to help you with understanding the process and to evaluate its usefulness to you as a marketing tool. Different search engines offer different advantages and disadvantages, depending upon your needs and the amount of risk you are willing to take. But with a little investigation, it is not too difficult to begin to consider and evaluate the usefulness and efficacy of PPC advertising for your own products and services. The rewards can be great, and the risks can be minimized. It is definitely worth consideration for any online business today.

Key Tips to Keep in Mind While Running a Pay-Per-Click Campaign

There is sometimes fierce competition for specific keyword(s) on a given PPC search engine. Most PPC search engines automate the bidding process for you (stopping, of course, when they reach the maximum bid you have indicated), but personal involvement and the judicious use of third-party tools by the user is advisable to ensure that the tracking mechanisms built into the search engine's control panel are in sync with what is actually happening.

Up until quite recently, the general rule was that the business that bid the highest amount of money for a specific keyword would be ranked first in the PPC results, the second-highest bidder would be ranked second, etc. Over the last six months or so, an element called "quality score" has become the determining factor in Google AdWords listings, and has just been introduced into Yahoo! listings and there are indications it will also become a factor for MSN. Typically, PPC search engines limit the number of PPC ads on a results page to less than 10, and research has shown that unless you are in the first 3 or 4 of the PPC ads, you are much less likely to be investigated by visitors.

Because the competition is so fierce, most PPC search engines do not require a minimum amount of money be invested in a campaign - in fact, some will even give you a nominal amount of money to begin your campaign with. Some may require a deposit of a small amount (in the neighborhood of $25 to $50), but this money is then applied to your account.
For current offerings from some search engines, take a look at our Special Deals page.

Be sure to check out the fine print in the agreement to be clear on minimums required, deposits required, what happens if you decide to cancel your campaign. Be prepared to spend a fair amount of time monitoring your campaign, especially in the beginning.

Basic Steps to a Constructing a Pay-Per-Click Campaign

The first step in putting together a PPC campaign is to decide your budget and the level of risk you are willing to take. Both aspects help determine which PPC search engine(s) you ultimately choose to start with. As one would expect, the larger search engines are less risky endeavors, because they already have excellent market coverage and tend to offer a lot of assistance to their users. However, they also are the most expensive in terms of how much money you must spend to acquire a visible ranking.

The second step is to choose your keywords. There are plenty of free, independent tools available to help you research keywords. Many will also reveal current bids for specific words or phrases on different search engines.

The third step is the composition of the headline that will appear on the search results page, and a description of your product or service, or other promotional text.

Next, you must open an account with a PPC search engine. Be prepared to supply your name, company name, address, phone number, email address, and so on. As a rule, opening an account is free. No charges apply until you have bid on the search words you want and have funded your account.

You may have a number of alternatives for funding your ad campaign. For instance, you may fund your account with a credit card for a set amount, such as $100. When this amount is exhausted, all advertising stops. Alternatively, you may be able to set a monthly spend limit where your ad will no longer appear once the limit is reached. Carefully consider the consequences of the funding option you choose to avoid unanticipated draws on your credit.

Be sure to read the fine print in the agreement to be clear on minimum deposits required, as well as what happens to your deposit if you decide to cancel your campaign.

In general, the initial deposit for a PPC ad campaign varies between $25 and $50. Some search engines will even give you a nominal amount of money as a bonus to begin your campaign.

Now you can begin bidding for keywords. When you first register the keywords you have chosen with the search engine (and some large businesses will have thousands of keywords), you must specify the maximum amount you are willing to bid for those keywords.

The price of a keyword can range anywhere from 1 cent to a few dollars or more, depending on its popularity as a search term and the search engine itself. Naturally, advertisers who pay more appear higher on the search results pages.

Definition of the Pay-Per-Click Process and PPC Search Engines

Because it is a relatively recent phenomenon, many online business owners do not understand the meaning of the term “pay-per-click advertising,” nor do they realize its enormous potential for increasing their online presence and bringing more traffic to their websites. Even those who understand basic search engine marketing techniques sometimes fail to make the distinction between pay-per-click (hereafter, PPC) ad campaigns and organic search engine optimization.

Pay-per-click (PPC) search engines are those that offer the marketing option called "pay-per-click" to users. PPC advertising is the placement of a small ad on the search results page for a specific keyword or keywords in return for a specified payment when a visitor actually clicks on the ad. Advertisers pay nothing to appear on the results page per se; they only pay the amount they have agreed to (or bid for) when someone actually clicks on their ad and is taken to the landing page on their website. The term "pay per click" means just what it says: the advertiser pays each time a visitor clicks on the ad.

The most popular PPC search engine is Google; their PPC advertising program is called AdWords. The next most popular search engines are Yahoo!, MSN Live, and Ask. A large number of other search engines offering PPC advertising opportunities are available - ranging from metasearch engines that incorporate traffic from numerous other engines and online sources all the way to small, niche search engines that specialize in one or more categories or topics of interest. Here at PPC Universe, we have included reviews of what we consider to be the Top 10 Search Engines, as well as a section of reviews of other search engines that offer paid advertising opportunities.

Below are screenshots of a Google search engine results page and a Yahoo search engine results page, indicating the locations on the page where PPC ads are typically placed on each of the two engines.

A PPC listing on a search engine results page typically consists of a title, which is usually a short heading (around 50 characters maximum) and also a short (typically no more than 200 characters long) description of your service or some promotional wording, as well as a link to your website. Most PPC search engines strictly control the type of text that can appear in the listing, and sometimes include a manual review before approval; others automatically approve ads that are submitted.