Guest post by Brandon Clay

“The man who stops advertising to save money is like the man who stops the clock to save time.”

–Thomas Jefferson

Our commercial culture is awash in advertising. Whether or not city-dwelling consumers are actually exposed to 5,000 ads per day, as claimed by the New York Times Magazine (Feb. 2007), the premise of the research is true. We see lots of ads. From radio spots on our morning commutes to Google-served ads as we search for stuff, we are bombarded at all hours with advertising. Advertisers never stop trying to pry-open our wallets and to get to our credit cards.

Fact is – advertising works. If you have a decent product or service, you have a budget, and you’re good at advertising, you’ll get the lion’s share of the business. It’s that simple. If you’re missing any one of those components – you might get a mouse’s share. Advertising is often the difference between a thriving business and bankruptcy. Online businesses must advertise to make it.

The Key To Online Business Success is PPC Advertising

One of the primary ways to advertise your online business is through pay per click (PPC). PPC advertising is also referred to as search marketing, online advertising, search advertising, and other things. Whatever you call it, PPC is the best way to get top placement on the internet. Sure, you have to pay for the spots – no advertising is free. But it’s one of the most cost-effective methods for introducing your product or service to potential customers.

Most of the world’s largest websites accept advertising. According to the Alexa 500, 18 of the top 25 websites in the United States accept advertising. Other than a few sites like Amazon and Wikipedia, you’re welcome to advertise your online business virtually anywhere your prospects can be found.

Not only that, but you can get top placement where those same prospects are. You don’t have to build up your own Yahoo or Facebook. Instead, you simply open an advertising account on the appropriate website and they start sending you visitors to your website. Sure, it takes time getting used to the interface – but it sure beats having to wait for prospects to stumble upon your website. These days, prospects will almost never accidentally visit your website.

PPC Advertising Formats: Text, Banner, Video and More

PPC advertisers use different ad formats – one size doesn’t fit all. The most common ad format is the text ad. You see these simple text advertisements on most pages on search engine results – usually at the top and right of the organic results. These ads usually include a headline, 1 or more description lines, and a URL pointing to the advertiser’s website. Many other websites besides Bing and Google also display text ads.

There are other types of PPC ads as well – often called rich media. Banner advertising – the once-despised format on the internet – has made a resurgence with better graphics, moving pictures, and less annoying quirks. Online video advertising now often resembles TV commercials – they’re that good. Popup ads continue to challenge our patience, while other ad formats that round out the mix. Online advertising is bursting with PPC opportunity for online businesses.

But you don’t need rich media ads to succeed online. Simple text ads usually work. After all, your goal is not the coolest commercial or a Madison Avenue award. Your goal as a PPC advertiser is for visitors to come to your site and enter your sales funnel – that’s it. Everything else is incidental and will probably waste your PPC budget.

Why PPC Advertising Works: Hyper-targeting

A perennial problem in advertising is speaking to the right people at the right time. The old direct marketing (a.k.a. junk mail) formula says that 40% of a successful mailing relates to the list. If you can talk to the right people at the right time, then a good offer will take care of itself – you’ll get sales.

That’s why PPC advertising is so effective.   It allows the PPC advertiser the ability to target people when they’re thinking about something your company does – like when prospects type a search term into Google or when they’re reading an article related to your business’s services. If your text ad or banner ad appears on the same page as a related action, that increases the opportunity for you to get a targeted visitor to your site. That’s good targeting.

There are also ways to optimize your PPC advertising . You can choose to advertise only on sites that send you quality visitors – and stop advertising on sites that send uninterested visitors. You can also only bid on keyword terms that historically send quality visitors to your website. These methods will improve the types of visitors coming to your site and bring you more leads and sales. That’s hyper-targeting.

If you’re not using PPC advertising, you’re losing your best prospects. When your competitors advertise their products and services, they’re capturing the valuable attention of paying customers. Needy prospects go to the businesses that will meet their needs – the way they often get there online is through PPC advertising. The net result is you lose the sale. To succeed in today’s competitive market, you must advertise – PPC is the way to do it.

About the Author: Brandon Clay is a professional search marketer and blogs at Search Traffic Pro. He specializes in pay per click, search engine optimization, landing pages, and pretty much everything else related to online marketing.