You have probably herd of the term “pay-per-click advertising” but  maybe you were afraid to ask what that really means. Well, let’s say that you have a website and you want to get more traffic to your site. Pay-per-click advertising is when you advertise your website on other websites in the form of text links or sometimes images that people can click on and then be directed to your website.

You normally “pay per click” to get this traffic and of the largest pay-per-click advertising programs is Google AdWords. The program is free to join but can be a little overwhelming if you have never set up an AdWords campaign before.

You will need a Google account, some keywords and keyword phrases that you want to target, some basic text for your ad, and a method of payment for the clicks. During the AdWords setup process you will have to choose your budget for you AdWords campaign. This will be in the form of  the dollar amount per day and per click that you want to spend. These amounts do not have to be large. I have setup AdWords campaigns for budgets of around $20 per month.

After everything is setup your ads will start to appear on the right side of the Google search results page when someone enters one of the keywords or phrases that you are targeting with your campaign. If someone clicks on one of your ads they will be directed to your website and you will be charged for that click. Click prices vary greatly and can range from a few cents to a few dollars depending on what keywords and phrases you are targeting. High volume keywords like “Real Estate” or “Attorney” will cost more per click that a small niche like soy candle making.

So for example if you have a $100 per month or $3.33 per day campaign running and your click cost you 50 cents then that will be deducted from your monthly budget. When you run out of money for the month your ads will stop being displayed until the first of next month when the budget is reset.

Happyshack Media can help you with your AdWords campaign. We can provide in depth keyword research for your target market and tell you what your competition is doing. Targeting the right keywords will save you time and money and get the most relevant traffic to your site. Choosing the wrong keywords and paying for traffic to come to your site that really does not want to be there  just doesn’t make good sense.