Cost Per Click (CPC) advertising lets you have your website
link and description shown when a user types in a keyword
you have chosen to be found by. The more you pay per click,
the higher your listing will appear in the search
engines. For example, if you want to have a Paid Listing
for the word "Art", it might cost as much as $20 per click
for a top listing! That's with no guarantee of business.
The more specific you are, the less it costs. So, if instead
you want to have a Paid Listing for the term "Atlanta Art
Galleries" it would cost much less, because there is less
competition.
CPC usually averages between $.05 and $20.00. It all depends
on the keyword(s) you choose, and how close to the top you
want to appear.
Two examples of this advertising is Google's AdWords and
Lycos' AdBuyer, but there are many other brands.
What these companies don't want you to know about CPC advertising
is the current exploitation that is happening to many companies.
Let's say you are willing to spend a certain amount per click.
And set a budget per day, with a max budget each month.
Sounds fair, but what a lot of competitors will do is click
on your link as much as they can, until your budget is exhausted
for that day, and they'll wake up the next day and do it again.
Then, before you know it, you will have hit your monthly budget
without many leads.
The worst scenarios we have heard about our companies that
outsource employees that will spend all day long on clicking
on competitor Paid Listings.
All is fair in business? We think companies should draw the
line when it comes to intentionally damaging or wasting another
company's resources. |
