Pay per click advertising is an internet marketing process that charges the advertiser only when an item is selected (clicked). While the average cost of a PPC ad is approximately 50 cents, the costs can dramatically vary based on categories and keyword bidding. In general, PPC costs are increasing as unskilled companies that do not understand the bidding process are beginning to advertise, resulting in very high bidding.

White paper marketing offers a way to reduce or eliminate the costs of PPC campaigns, which can be an excellent tool for identifying keywords and topics that may be used in white papers and promotional campaigns. For example, a PPC program may use different titles for white papers to determine which title had the highest interest levels and conversion rates.

PPC marketing campaigns may be composed of keywords (search words), PPC ads (text ads) and landing pages (quality score). A PPC keyword list contains words that trigger the presentation of the PPC ad. The PPC ad contains words that motivate searchers to click. The landing page should contain information relative to the ad (which determines the quality score).

PPC Keywords - Keywords are identifying words or terms that relate to or are associated with an item, service or other form of information. When a keyword is matched, a bidding process may be used to determine which ad is displayed and in what order (higher bidders may be listed at the top of the list).

While some keywords may be searched often (such as topic + white paper), of key importance are converting keywords. Converting keywords are terms or phrases which are searched that result in desired actions such as download registration or even product sales. One of the best ways to determine converting keywords is to put tracking codes (hidden from the viewer) in conversion pages (such as download registration forms or product order form confirmation pages), and to alternate variations of related keywords. PPC advertising services (such as Google, Yahoo and Bing) provide these tracking codes and simple instructions on how to use them for free.

PPC Ads - Pay per click ads are promotional messages that are displayed when certain conditions exist (such as keyword matching). PPC ads may be text messages or graphic ads which may be inserted into search results (search ads), or within the content of web pages (content ads). Text ads tend to work better for search ads and graphic ads tend to work better for content ads. PPC text ads have a limited number of characters, so it is important to choose words that match the persons search and interests.

It is possible to have multiple ads which are matched to specific keywords. Split testing (an option that selects ads to display from two or more ad choices) may be used to determine which ads perform the best.

Quality Score (QS) - Quality score is a measure of the relevance or performance results of a project or campaign. An example of a quality score is the relevance of an Internet advertising message to the landing page to which the advertising message is linked. The higher the quality score, the more likely the web visitor is to interact favorably (purchase the product or service promoted in the ad). Search engines may utilize a quality score to determine the position (display ranking position) and cost (bid cost) of ads. A better quality score can result in a higher position and a lower cost.

This figure shows sample white paper pay per click ads for a social media marketing metrics white paper. The process starts by identifying keywords (social media marketing, SMM Metrics, social media advertising) that people are searching for relative to the product or service that is being promoted (keyword list). Pay per click ads that match the keywords are created using keywords and key issues related to the users needs. This example shows that a display web address of the destination site (www.imarketingmag.com) is included with the ad (it is not the actual destination URL). Some search engines may use a quality score to assess the cost and display position of the ad which can be determined by matching the keyword list, keywords in the ad and keywords on the landing page.