The Basics of How to Make Pay-Per-Click Advertising Work for You

Step One: Don't limit your advertising dollar

• The three leading search engines are: Google, MSN, and Yahoo! 
• Try to advertise using all three. 
• Each has different audiences and advertisers.

Step Two: Start Advertising

• There is a $5.00 activation fee for all three major search engine Pay-Per-Click programs.
• For each keyword (ie. Tommy Hilfiger, Prada Jeans, etc) you will have to place a minimum bid for each click.
• Google charges 1 cent minimum bids for each keyword
• MSN charges 5 cent minimum bids for each keyword
• Yahoo! charges 10 cent minimum bids for each keyword
• Determine your advertising budget and split it among the three search engines.  You can set a daily and monthly limit to avoid large per click bills.

Step Three: Determine Your Placement

• For all three, the highest bid gets the highest position.
• Google and MSN also adjust the highest position based on the highest click through rate.

Step Four: Clicks vs. Conversions

• Clicks are when a potential buyer clicks on an advertising link to your website.
• Conversions arew when that same buyer completes a purchase on your website.
• To determine your advertising success rate, count conversions.  Each search engine has free conversion tools that will determine how much each keyword makes or losses.