Search engines including Google, Yahoo, Microsoft Search, Ask and others offer the opportunity to buy keyword activated text adverts on their search engine results page. These are most often on the top and right sides of the results page. As the pay-per-clicks name indicates, you pay only when an advertisement is clicked on, not if it is simply displayed.

This is an opportunity to get your ads in front of the searcher when they are looking for what you have to offer and to target an interested market - the opposite of so much of undirected interruption marketing.

The ads are not just shown on the search engine results page, but on the 'content-network' of hundreds of thousands of independent websites. These include large sites such as well-known newspapers and magazines, as well as smaller, more niche sites with hundreds of specialized ad networks, targeting different segments like health, finance etc. The search engine scans the text of these sites for keywords in order to place context-relevant adverts next to the content. These adverts can go beyond text and be images or video advertising.

These campaigns are an excellent return on investment, but can be tricky to do well, and take careful ongoing tweaking and maintenance. Well-managed campaigns are rewarded by the search engines with lower costs and better positioning.

Pay-per-click offers the advantages of

speed - with adverts being shown within hours of development

flexibility - with adverts being constantly refined and updated

targeting - with adverts being targeted by city, state or country.

We've helped clients create winning campaigns, as well as radically reduce advertising costs. Clients who have been struggling with high pay-per-click costs prior to working with us have seen their customer acquisition costs cut by 65% after working with Protea for a few months.