Philosophy of PPC

Here’s a little scenario to help you understand pay per click advertising.

Imagine an advertiser who represents a UK chocolate company has been asked to run a PPC campaign for a Mother’s Day promotion offered to the online public.

The advertiser sets up a campaign to run in the UK between 09:00 – 17:00 each weekday and includes a PPC adgroup that contains the driving keyword ‘chocolate gifts’ within its keyword listing.

Little Jack arrives home from school and knows that he needs to get his mom something for Mother’s Day and being a bright new age kid he knows that a search engine will be able to give him some great gift ideas. Jack opens up his browser and searches Google using the word ‘chocolate gifts’. The SERP results return the advertiser’s PPC ad running the specific promotion. The ad text call-to-action captures the little boy’s attention and he clicks on the ad. The click transports Jack to an attractive landing page dedicated to the company’s chocolate promotion. His eyes enlarge at his sweet discovery, a great present at half his ‘Mother’s Day’ budget. A win-win solution. He adds the gift to the check out trolley and waits for his dad to return from work and cough up some dough.

The company receives the sale through the medium of PPC and Jack’s mom wakes to a chocolate feast on Mother’s Day.

Let’s now look at the different platforms that PPC campaigns can be displayed…