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Pay Per Click

Pay Per Click

 

 

What is Pay Per Click for Attorney Advertising?

 

What is Pay Per Click?

 

If you’re asking yourself, “What is pay per click,” this article can help you answer that very question.  Pay per click is a tool used for internet advertising that directs traffic to websites, and if a law firm uses PPC, they will pay the website every time the advertisement is clicked by a consumer.  If the advertisement is on a search engine, such as Google, the attorney or firm will usually bid on a keyword or a keyword phrase that targets consumers who type in such a phrase. 

 

If the advertisement is placed on a website other than a search engine, the website will usually use a fixed price for pay per click instead of a bidding system.  The largest advantage to pay per click advertising is that the attorney does not lose money on advertising if there are few clicks on the advertisement. 

 

What is Pay Per Click: The Largest PPC Providers

 

The largest providers for pay per click are Google AdWords, Yahoo! Search Marketing, and Microsoft adCenter.  All three providers operate under a bid-based system, and Google dominates the majority of the market. 

 

What is Pay Per Click: Location of Advertisements

 

With providers such as Google, the pay per click advertisements usually appears along the right-hand margin of the screen next to the websites.  Advertisements may appear above the websites as well, and these advertisements are usually set in a background with a different color to indicate the link is an advertisement and not just an organic listing in the search engine. 

 

What is Pay Per Click: Flat Rate vs. Bid-Based

 

The majority of attorneys operate under a bid-based rate used by the three largest providers.  In a bid-based pay per click, attorneys and firms will compete against each other and tell the search engine provider how much they are willing to spend for each click. 

 

In a flat rate pay per click, the provider will provide specific rates for certain kinds of advertisements.  For example, an advertisement in a more accessible part of the website may cost more than an advertisement at the bottom of a page or on a link that is not commonly accessed.  In each model the attorney and law firm must choose what method of payment is most efficient for their budget. 

 

What is Pay Per Click: Cost Effectiveness

 

In a bid-based and flat-rate pay per click system, an attorney and firm must determine what the potential value of each click based on the services they can provide to the consumer.  The attorney and firm are usually encouraged to setup an advertising campaign, and the factors included in such a campaign usually include the following:

 

·         adjusting content and the web page’s SEO for items entered into the search engine the content the consumer is browsing

·         the consumer’s intent on contacting the firm or attorney for their services or providing an informational website mainly used for research

·         geo targeting for consumers in the area of the firm

·         the day and time that prospective clients are most likely to search for your services

 

What is Pay Per Click: Potential Disadvantages

 

In some cases, pay per click advertising may cause disadvantageous circumstances for your firm.  There is always some debate as to the professionalism associated with the field of law, and some attorneys and consumers view pay per click ads as unprofessional. 

 

Another disadvantage involves losing money.  A firm or an attorney needs an excellent advertising campaign to get prospective clients to use their services.  Popular keywords within a bid-based system can cost a very large amount of money, and using such terms with low turnaround can have disastrous consequences if the advertising campaign is weak. 

 

Another disadvantage to pay per click is fraud.  The largest providers offer programs that can stop the majority of fraud, but some cases of fraud still slip through.  There have been several lawsuits associated with click fraud, and there are several different types of fraud that can occur:

 

·         fraud from competitors of the advertiser

·         fraud from competitor of the publisher

·         vandalism and other types of malicious intent

 

What is Pay Per Click: Potential Advantages

 

 The advantages associated with pay per click include increasing amounts of visitors to your website and, in turn, increased services for your firm.  There are also a large amount of services offered by providers like AdWords that allow you to search daily, weekly, and monthly results.  Apart from AdWords, SEOmoz provides some of the best analytics.  Thousands of successful companies like Yahoo and The New York Times use this software.

The biggest advantage associated with pay per click is the fact that you may begin to receive indirect referrals to your services because of a solid campaign.  For example, let’s say that 10 clients traveled to your website and 6 of those clients receive services from your firm.  If those 6 clients were satisfied with your services, they may inform other prospective clients without those clients having to use the ads. 

 

What is Pay Per Click: Discontinuing your Campaign

 

If you begin to receive a large amount of outside referrals, you and your firm may decide to end your pay per click campaign or reduce the amount of paid advertisements.  Another advantage to pay per click is that you can choose to end your campaign whenever you choose or start of the campaign if you’ve noticed a drop in clients after the campaign has stopped. 

 

What is Pay Per Click: The Long Haul

 

Once you begin a pay per click campaign, you should know that you will not see results overnight.  The rate at which you begin to receive services depends greatly upon the content on your website and the way Google or another search engine views that information as important to the consumers. 

 

If you’ve failed to notice your pay per click campaign begin to work after an extended period of time, you need to take steps to improve your SEO and focus your content.  If you’re still asking yourself, “What is pay per click,” recommended articles on this website can help to expand the subject. 

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