PPC or Pay per Click is a search engine marketing and online advertising fee structure whereby a pre-determined amount generates a cost to the advertiser each time that ad is clicked on by the user. Many search engine marketing and online advertising programs differ in how they use this fee structure.
For example, search engine marketing programs like AdWords specify costs at the keyword level, where a different cost amount is associated with each keyword that generates a display of the ad that is then clicked on by the user. To give you an idea of how it works let’s look at a campaign for “boiler rentals.” Even though they generate the same text ad, the keyword “mobile boiler” has a bid amount of .75 cents whereas the keyword “boiler rental,” which is a more competitive term, has a bid amount of $1.25. In this type of Pay per Click fee structure, when a user searches using the term “boiler rental” and then clicks on the ad generated by that term the advertiser will incur a greater cost for that click.
Careful and structured management of Pay per Click campaigns ensure the best possible ‘return on advertising spend’ and the lowest possible ‘cost per conversion.’
See also Competitive Bidding, CPC-Cost per Click, CTR-Click Through Rate, CPM-Cost per Thousand Impressions, SEM-Search Engine Marketing, Online Advertising, Internet Advertising, Coversion Rate
