What is Pay Per Click/ Sponsored Online Advertising?

Pay per click is a very targeted form of online advertising where advertisers do not pay a fee for an ad to be displayed but pay "per click" when someone clicks through to their site. The price paid per click is usually based on a bidding system where the highest bidder gets top positioning.

How does Pay Per Click / Sponsored Advertising work?

1.You bid on keywords and search phrases terms that fit your product offering or service.

2. When a customer searches for a product or service that you offer your ad appears in the search results on sites such as Google, Yahoo, MSN/Sympatico, AOL, Ask Jeeves, La Toile du Quebec and other search portals. The higher you bid, the higher your site appears in the search results and consequently the more likely it is that the customer sees and reads your sponsored listing.

3. Once the customers read your ad as being relevant to their search and click on your listing it brings them to a predetermined page on your site. You only pay for clicks on your listings.

Where will my listings appear on the search engines?

Your listings will appear, most often, at the top or right hand column of the page on most major search engines. Your listings will appear under headings such as "Sponsored Listings," "Featured Listings," or "Advertisers" etc. The headings under which your listings appear vary with each search engine.

What is the difference between Pay Per Click and banner type ads?

With banner ads, the advertiser pays based upon on the number of times the ad is displayed, irregardless of the number of visitors who actually click on them, and in some cases you will also pay for the clicks. On the whole, banner ads are unsuccessful at attracting visitors to your Website because, often times, the ads are not related to what visitors are searching for. In contrast, Pay Per Click or Sponsored Advertising is particularly effective given that visitors are only shown listings that are highly relevant to what they are looking for. In addition, a study conducted by the NDP Group concluded that Pay Per Click advertising outperforms banner and tile advertisements by 2 to 1.

Am I charged if they do not click on my paid listing?

No. When visitors type in one of the keywords you are bidding on, your ad will be shown. If they do not click on your listing, you don't pay. However, if they do click on your listing, you then pay the bid price for that particular search term.

Some interesting statistics:

• North Americans spend the equivalent amount of time online as they do watching television yet only 10% of millions of advertising dollars are being spent online
• 81% of online consumers find websites through the use of a search engine .
• Search engines create more visibility for Websites than all other advertising combined.