Guest Blog Post by Ron Durant, CEO, e-Nertia Marketing

As small businesses shape themselves around the trends of e-Commerce and online marketing, it is imperative for owners and entrepreneurs to optimize their planning and execution for the year. This includes discovering how their businesses can make the most of the relationships they have with the advertisers who share space on their websites.

As partners with the goal of creating revenue, advertisers and entrepreneurs must have systems in place that accurately determine the effectiveness of their marketing partnership. An important utensil with this marketing partnership is the Pay Per Click (PPC) system.  Many online businesses use this advertising option, but are missing out on how to maximize its revenue production. With 2012 as an indication of the future, 2013 promises to be a big year for e-Commerce. Pay-Per-Click (PPC) systems will be a significant factor in how businesses design their websites and choose their marketing partners. It is critical to get ahead of the game and prepare your 2013 marketing plan with these important Pay-Per-Click (PPC) tips.

1. UNDERSTAND THE TACTIC : Pay Per Click (PPC) is fairly straightforward and simple to understand. Pay Per Click (PPC) advertisement is typically carried out in one of two ways. In one scenario, a specific set of online advertisements are placed in online forums frequented by a set of online users whose profiles match the content of the advertisements displayed. For example, a webpage with the theme ‘interior design’ will most likely have Pay Per Click (PPC) ads featuring items such as curtains, fabrics, paint and home decor. Visitors going to that website to check out the latest posts will ‘click’ on these ads, which creates revenue for the page host. Cost per click ads are also used on search engine results pages according to the search criteria entered by the online user.  For example, if an online user searches the words ‘Real Estate Atlanta,’ a variety of ads about available land and homes in Atlanta will most likely appear together with (before or after) the general information provided by the search site.
2. SELECT THE RIGHT LOCATION : Just like developing a web page optimized to include specific key words for more effective searches, the same development must take place when choosing where and when to place advertisements on the world-wide-web. Some advertisers seek websites and search engines with heavy traffic from users whose age, lifestyle, income, and other variables are diverse, in order to spread their brand to as many as possible. Savvy entrepreneurs who want to make the most amount of money from Pay-Per-Click (PPC) by placing advertisements where they are likely to be clicked most frequently and converted to leads or sales want their ads placed where they can be seen the most by their ideal customer.
3. RATES: There are two types of rates paid to advertisement hosts in the pay per click framework– flat rate, and bid-based. In the flat rate method of payment, the advertiser and site host agree on a fixed rate per click on a specific ad. With the bid-based method, the advertiser agrees to pay the site host for clicks regarding current and projected popularity and traffic of that site.

When planning your online marketing strategy for the year, remember these tips in order to maximize Pay Per Click (PPC) as an effective online marketing tool.