In 1963, David Ogilvy, known as the “Father of Advertising” and founder of the world-renowned firm of Ogilvy & Mather, was quoted as saying, “Half of the money I spend on advertising is wasted, and the trouble is I don’t know which half.”

At Red Palm Marketing, we watch both halves – working to eliminate the not working and empowering the working.

Did you know that in 1996, Bill Gross (Idealab) created the GoTo.com search engine? This new innovative search engine shook up the advertising world and suddenly Ogilvy’s famous statement went out the window as half of advertising dollars weren’t being wasted anymore. Now when users entered a keyword, GoTo provided a sponsored result. And the advertiser only paid if someone clicked on their ad. The measurement unit was now the cost per click (CPC), and it had become the main advertising model for most search engines. The PPC ad appears on search engine result pages targeting specific keywords. In addition to search engines (Google, Bing, Yahoo, etc.), PPC ads are popular (and profitable) on social media networks also and can be found on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.

Businesses, especially small businesses, learned to benefit from PPC’s actionable and visible advertising. Initializing PPC in addition to your standard SEO marketing and social media efforts will kick your marketing up a notch or two. And it’s cost effective as you only pay when someone “clicks” as opposed to standard advertising which depends on the cost per thousand impressions (CPM) model.

Why does PPC work? Simply put, it works because it’s action driven. Rather than depending on a consumer “seeing” your ad randomly, a digital ad shows up as a consumer is first investigating a product or service online. They’re an immediate source made available when there is a need i.e., when a consumer is searching. As the Google AI system has been developing over time, we can now tap into PULL campaigns… targeting people during a phase of life, shopping habits, search habits or lifestyles.

Another advantage of advertising via PPC, is that you can spend as little or as much money and time on a campaign that you want. You have the ability to stop a campaign at will. You can pay as you go, begin or stop at will, all with the click of a button. As in traditional advertising, your message is critically important. The beauty of PPC is that you test and learn as you go. If it’s not working, you can change your strategy.

What form can PPC ads take? Most common are text, display, shopping ads or maps. Your service or goods will dictate which form your ad should take. Once your PPC campaign is up and running and showing results, you may want to engage in keyword bidding. Keyword bidding is the means to get your ad to appear at the top of the results page when someone searches. It’s also known as search engine advertising.

The above is literally the “tip of the iceberg” when it comes to enjoying PPC marketing and is meant as a brief overview. Developing a successful PPC campaign takes planning and an understanding of this massive beast. We work with these campaigns everyday and would love to answer your questions and help you launch your PPC campaign!