PPC is an abbreviation for ‘Pay Per Click’ and refers to the advertised search results that appear in a coloured box at the top of search results pages.

Roughly 10% to 30% of purchases which originate from search come from pay per click ads.

Google Adwords is currently the largest pay per click search engine available.

 

With pay per click marketing you buy search engine traffic, based on relevant keywords bought in an auction model. You pay for every click so targeting is important.

Pay per click search engine marketing is risk-free aside from the money spent to purchase the clicks. The recurring costs for PPC marketing can be expensive, as advertisers pay every time someone uses their mouse / cursor to click on your advertisement.

The trick to doing well in Google AdWords is encouraging a high click-through rate which will lower click costs. Google offers advice on how to use AdWords effectively.

Many successful marketers and webmasters use both PPC as well as SEO. The only way to be sure of the value provided by each is to test and track the results.