No one really wants to pay to get visitors to a web site. But marketing involves paying to be seen and to be found. In traditional marketing, you take out advertisements in print publications and hope for the best. You want your ad to appear beside the most popular articles.

Paid search can be much more effective. The model makes perfect sense. You only pay when someone clicks on your ad.

You need to understand every aspect of paid search campaigns. It’s important to make good decisions at every stage

Unlike search engine optimization with very focused and limited keywords, paid search is a different story. You can shape campaigns with hundreds (sometimes thousands of keyword phrases). Paid search is designed to support a large volume of keywords.

Take great care with each element of paid search, not just keyword selection. The campaigns must be organized based on the nature of the keywords and the specific pages that are being targeted. The ads may be short, but they need to be relevant and compelling. You don’t want to have wasted clicks – either vague ads that attract the wrong clicks or landing pages that don’t really catch the visitor’s attention after he clicks on the ad (and consume part of your budget).

Paid search makes sense because of its conversion opportunities. Tie the ads to specific toll-free numbers that are distinct from the rest of the web site. Feature videos or a short response form. One way or another you need to make it clear what you want someone to do once he arrives at your page.

Some paid ads can seemingly cost a fortune. You may have heard that it can cost $20 for every click. But that’s the exception. Normally you can get by with less than $5 per click for countless keyword phrases. How much you’re willing to pay per click depends on the products, services, and margins. Or, you may be willing to pay a large some just to attract a customer for the first time because you know you can remarket to him time and time again.