Even if you rank number one in the search engines for a specific keyword term, you?re not doing all you can to maximize the probability that searchers will select your listing. There are, after all, nine other optimized webpages listed on the same page, any one of which could catch your potential customer?s eye. Unlike organic listings (unpaid search results), pay per click advertising (also known as cost per click advertising) is just that ? paid inclusion in search results for the sponsored links section of the page. Leading search engine optimization company CyberMark International has been doing pay per click marketing since the model began, and considers it an essential part of any search engine optimization strategy.

Imagine the impact on a potential customer when they not only see your website ranked number one in the organic listings, but also first in the sponsored links. Even though one of these listings is paid for through cost per click marketing, research shows that you?re still perceived as an expert in your field and that searchers click accordingly. And even if your site appears further down in both the organic listings and paid inclusion listings, you?ve still doubled the chances that searchers will find you.

Pay Per Click Checklist

Bid on relevant keywords that get searched most. What?s the point of launching a pay per click marketing campaign if you?re bidding on keywords that nobody looks up? Let?s say you sell recycled glass wind chimes. If the keyword phrase you place in the ad is ?recycled glass wind chimes,? you?re not going to like the results. Why? Because keyword research reveals that no one searches that way, so your ad will never turn up. In fact, you?d be better off bidding on ?glass wind chimes? or ?wind chimes recycled.?

Write ad text with quality conversions in mind. If someone clicks on your ad only to find that your product or service is different than what they expected from the ad text, you?ve just paid for a lead that is not going to convert. Let?s say the ad text for your recycled glass wind chimes reads ?Eco-friendly wind chimes handmade in the USA.? What this ad text does not reveal is that the only wind chimes you sell are those with a hummingbird theme. The searcher is looking for wind chimes with a butterfly theme, only she doesn?t know you don?t have those until it?s too late, and she?s already become a non-converting click-through.

Link your ad to a pay per click-friendly landing page. Countless people make the mistake of linking their pay per click ad to the home page of their website. This poses a problem to your search engine optimization strategy for two reasons.

First of all, searchers who click through to your home page are likely to browse around the website and fail to immediately (or ever) convert into a sale. Secondly, linking to a home page is likely to lower your ?quality score? with the search engine. Let?s say the keyword term you bid on is ?wind chimes recycled? but these words do not appear in this order anywhere on your site. Your quality score could be low because the search engine assumes the content is not relevant enough. And the lower your quality score, the higher the minimum bid for your keyword phrase. Certainly you could edit the home page text accordingly, but that?s a risky move if your website is already ranking well in the organic listings.

Instead of linking your pay per click ad to your website?s home page, it?s best to create a micro-site specifically for your cost per click marketing campaign. These micro-sites with optimized webpages not only have text targeted to the term you?re bidding on, but also one single call to action. It?s impossible for the searcher to get lost on the site and miss your offer because every page encourages readers to do the exact same thing ? whether that means buying a wind chime or simply filling out a form requesting a free catalog.

Test your pay per click advertising. If you limit your pay per click marketing to just one ad, you?ll never know if something different could have worked better. That?s why it?s a good idea to always have more than one ad running at once ? ideally five to ten different ad groups. As conversion success rates come in, you can adjust your investment accordingly.

Plan your PPC campaign with SEO experts. Anyone can launch a pay per click campaign, which is not to say that just anyone should. Only an SEO expert can ensure that your cost per click marketing strategy is sound. For instance, CyberMark International has been using the PPC model for its clients since Yahoo! first introduced it back in 1998. CyberMark?s cost per click marketing services include extensive keyword research, the creation of targeted text and ongoing testing. They even build and write text for micro-sites, which have increased client conversion rates for PPC clicks by as much as 25 percent!

As with any other advertising medium, simply placing an ad for paid inclusion on a search engine is not enough to expect results. Only those who understand the intricacies of pay per click advertising are able to turn their ad investment into the quality customer conversions you want and need.