Chew Valley Web

You want visitors to go to your new small business website. Getting your website listed on search engines such as Google is an important way to reach a new audience. Being listed in free (or “natural”) search seem like the best deal. You don’t pay for any advertising and vistors, hopefully customers, come flooding in. Well, that’s great but Pay Per Click (PPC) services like Google Adwords, have a lot to offer a small business and work better at getting new customers.

What exactly is Pay Per Click?

PPC advertising is provided by companies like Google and allows you to have your website details appear in the “sponsored listings” on the search results pages and other partner websites. They are priced using a bidding process that enables you to set budgets on a daily basis. You also decide how much to pay for each visitor that clicks on your advert to control your costs.

I have already used PPC but…

If you are a business that has already tried PPC advertising, you may have found it frustrating. Clicks keep ticking up, budgets used up and you don’t feel that your really got your moneys worth.

Running better Pay Per Click campaigns requires some knowledge and understanding of both the PPC process and your business and it’s customers. But how to improve your PPC campaigns is the subject of other articles.

Why is Pay Per Click better for my small business than free advertising?

• Pay Per Click is easier that Search Engine Optimisation - If you are running your own business website for the first time, it takes less specialist knowledge to run a half decent PPC campaign.
• PPC is immediate - Changes in your website can take months to be reflected in “natural” search results. PPC is better for quick results or short bursts of avertising for time limited offers.
• You have control - Paying for search advertising give you endless control over who sees your advert and when they see it. You can precisely target search terms to get a better chance of that visitor becoming a customer.
• Even more control - You can choose exactly what the potential visitor sees but writing carefully adverts aimed straight at them. Although SEO knowledge give you some control over what appears in free search results, you can never be sure what will appear. Or if will look better than your competitor.

So, Pay Per Click advertising is better because it is easier, quicker and gives you complete control. Getting free advertising on the web, via search engine optimistation and natural search is personally satisfying (who doesn’t like getting something for free?). Every website I have promoted has started life in free search but as a business grows, good service has a price that’s worth paying for.

A good PPC campaign is the kind of highly targetted marketing that used to only be available to big companies with large marketing departments. Don’t let the opportunity of gaining customers slip away for a few pennies.

About the Author:

Rob Sayer is an internet marketer who specialises in small business websites. He provides both Search Engine and Pay Per Click Optimisation and enjoys writing articles that help start up businesses to get on the web.