Rather, they appear directly on pages of content found on websites. In effect, if you visit a website that has information about digital cameras, you may encounter contextual advertising of related products, such as memory cards, camera cases, zoom lenses, battery rechargers, etc.

Although many analysts consider contextual advertising to be a new phenomenon, it has actually been present since the Internet became a commercial enterprise, mainly in the form of banner advertising, popups, and other ads.

In the past, consumers considered these means of advertising undesirable and even an unwanted part of their search experience, viewing them as unnecessary clutter that detracted from the actual information available on a web page.

For example, most of us have had the experience of visiting a website and then being prompted to allow the download of software, which, once installed on our computer, will allow contextual ads in the form of popups, etc. to be shown as you travel through various websites.

If your computer is not set up to prompt you before downloading software, you, may actually have such programs installed on your computer, without even knowing it.

Sometimes these types of program encourage the visitor to download the software by offering free benefits, such as access to coupon sites or dictionary/encyclopedia resources.

This practice is best known as copyware/adware and is regarded very negatively among online users.

By the Near 2003, contextual advertising had become a form of advertising that consumers did not generally respond well to.

And many users began to install popup blocking software to cut down on the incidence of unwanted ads suddenly appearing a new window or as part of the current browser window.

However, also in 2003 a new facet was introduced into contextual advertising that changed its public perception, and it has become a fast-growing means of capturing new traffic for advertisers.

What makes pay-per-click contextual advertising different from pay-per-click search engine advertising is not just how and where it appears, but also the type of user it appeals to.

Pay-per-click contextual advertising is designed to appear on pages of a website that have content that is highly relevant to the ad.

Depending on which search engine is delivering the advertising, the ads may appear on the right side (or the top or bottom) of the web page, and be similar in appearance to standard PPC ads, with a title, description, and URL to click on.

The types of websites that typically carry contextual ads are news sites, magazine sites, educational sites, product review sites and other reference sites.

There is little-to-no incentive for an advertiser to add contextual ads to their own websites, because competitors’ ads could wind up being shown there as well.

While contextual ads arc mostly text-based, a relatively new development in contextual search is the introduction by Google of the ability to include images in contextual ads, thus allowing the advertiser the opportunity to show a product as well as provide a link to the related website.

Another difference between the two is the delivery method. Contextual ads are generally served up via a complex algorithm that determines which ads to display on a website that is in the contextual ad business.

Thus, the advertiser does not have as much control as with PPC search, where they determine their positioning via keyword bidding.

Bidding is a part of contextual search, but usually on a group of keywords, a channel, or a category level.

In addition, contextual ads tend to be clicked on by visitors who are in a different stage of the buying cycle and may not be interested in purchasing a product at all.

Because they appear in the websites of, for example, online newspapers, a contextual ad may be shown just because the text of the article mentions the type of product, even if the intent of the article has nothing to do with selling that product.

The person reading the article may have no intention of purchasing that product at that time, but may, out of curiosity, click on the contextual ad just to see what it’s talking about and to get a little more information about a product they might not know much about.

Pay-per- click ads on a search engine, however, are more often clicked on by visitors who are interested in purchasing the product in question.

Although many may still be in the research phase, they more often have a purchase in mind.

Therefore, contextual ads usually have a lower conversion rate or ROI than search pay-per-click ads, because of the intent of the visitor clicking on the ad. Nevertheless, the contextual ad campaign is still charged for each click on the ad.

Given this, advertisers are divided in their view of contextual advertising. Some think it is a worthwhile endeavor, while others see it as an ineffective method that they do not wish to expend ad dollars on.

Some advertisers also express concern that their ad could be served up on a website that has little relevance to their product, if the algorithm is not constructed appropriately, as reportedly has happened on occasion.

However, there are positive points about contextual advertising that have contributed to its growth of use:

• Contextual ads tend to have more online exposure than search pay-per-click ads, because their placement on partner sites of the search engine is determined by their relevance to the content of those sites, and is not totally dependent upon keyword bidding to achieve placement.

• Contextual ads are a good source of revenue for the partner sites that include them. Because the ads are not in competition with the “product” being offered by the content website, they are generally seen as a plus by content partners.

Keywords: ads, contextual advertising, contextual ads, advertising, advertisers, PPC ads, Bidding, Keyword Bidding,

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These kinds of tools will provide you with an incredible amount f information and analysis of a visitor’s actions from the point they click on your ad until the point they leave your website and will even tell you where they go after they leave your site.

These tools can also track actions that visitors take while they are on your website, such as subscribing to your online newsletter, joining your mailing list for website updates, asking for information on your affiliate program, or many other actions, including making a purchase.

All of this is very useful information that can help you decide what changes you should make to your website in order to lead visitors along the path you wish them to take.

Tracking tools like these operate by placing code on the confirmation page that comes up when a visitor purchases something or commits an action. They also place a cookie on the visitor’s computer, in order to track further and future behavior and visits to your website by that unique visitor. This allows you to track repeat buyers as well.

You need to review the reports generated in order to see what is working and what is not, as well as constantly challenging yourself and to improve conversions.

Don’t be surprised if there are differences between the PPC search engine reports and those of a third party tool. Nor should you be surprised if your own take on things seems a little different as well.

If you are an advanced user, you may take the raw data from your logs and do your own analysis, and the results will almost certainly differ from the other two.

This does not necessarily mean that anything is wrong, or that any service is not performing correctly or adequately. If the differences are relatively small (between 5% to 10%), you shouldn’t be too concerned.

However, if you see large differences in the data provided to you, it is time to investigate further by questioning the results with your customer service representative on the PPC search engine or with the supplier of the ad-tracking tool you are using.

Let’s take a quick look at the basic differences between the tracking options offered by search engines and third party solutions.

Most search engines will provide you with only basic statistics, such as the number of clicks, the number of page views, the rate of click throughs, the average cost per click, and the total cost of your campaign. A complete set of tracking-related statistics is not yet a routine offering.

Using Google as an example of a PPC search engine, basic ad tracking is limited to the statistics that deal with the performance of keywords in different ad campaigns.

The Google report will only show data on such things as clickthrough rate and position on the page for individual keywords.

For conversion data, which is what tracking is related to, you need to access the Google Conversion Tracking tool.

If you decide to use this tool on your Google ad campaigns, it will track the conversion data you need by having you place a small amount of code on the page on your website where you thank a visitor for purchasing your product.

Using this tracking code, Google can then provide you with many of the relevant tracking statistics needed to make informed decisions about your ads success.

One disadvantage to the Conversion Tracking tool is that by placing the tracking code on your web page, you also will see a small text box appear on that page that reads “Google Site Stats: Send Feedback,” so the visitor will be aware that their activity is being tracked and analyzed.

Tracking tools and services are numerous and tend to be more robust than the Google model, although Google and other search engines are increasingly adding features to their tracking tools to make them competitive.

In fact, Google has recently expanded their tracking system so that it now can be customized to track other ad campaigns.

One important advantage to third-party tracking tools is their capability to show all of your various ad campaigns in a comparative fashion, so that you can instantly see which search engine campaigns are more effective than others.

In addition, many now come bundled with click fraud monitoring as well, which is a type of computer-based fraud that is becoming an increasing concern in the pay-per-click marketplace overall.

A good example of a third-party tool that is especially useful for novices is www.AdWatcher.com, primarily because of the availability of excellent visual representations/demos to teach users how to use the tool most effectively.

It leads you step-by-step through the process via an online setup process and, like other third-party tools, has many more parameters than PPC search engine tools generally have, including the ability to customize almost every aspect of the tracking process and the reports that are generated.

Another advantage that some third party tools have is the ability to import your account data from Google and/or Yahoo

There is little doubt that third-party tracking tools offer more value, but they do tend to be relatively costly.

The PPC search engine conversion tracking that is being offered as part of your ad campaign is usually provided at no additional charge.

However, when one is dealing with something as important as advertising your products via pay per click, we cannot stress enough the importance of not relying on a single method of tracking.

Just as you should investigate other methods of keyword bidding, you need to ensure that your search engine is in synch with what other companies’ products are reporting. This will require personally reviewing the reports.

Although you may not wish (or be able) to purchase the highest-priced version of a third-party tracking tool, it is certainly worth investing in one of the more basic versions.

These stripped-down versions may not have all the bells and whistles, but they still do an adequate job of analyzing the visitors, actions, and sales on your website.

Some third-party tracking tools can be used for any kind of online and sometimes offline advertising.

Although we are concentrating here on their usefulness for pay-per-click advertising, they can be used for banner ads, newsletter ads, email marketing campaigns-in effect, just about any kind of advertising or marketing method used.

Therefore, if you advertise in forms other than pay per click, the cost of a third-party tracking tool may be mitigated by the fact that you can use it for tracking your other ad campaigns as well.

Keywords: Tracking tools, ad-tracking tool,

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In a nutshell, it consists of two completely different techniques:

                      SEO (search engine optimization), and

                      PPC (pay-per-click advertising).

Although this article is meant to educate you about the latter, we feel it’s important that you understand what regular search engine optimization is.

SEO is a process of preparing your website and its constituent pages for prime positioning on search engines, using specific keywords. SEO is actually very complex, as it changes on a regular basis.

Some website owners believe that SEO and pay per click are the same process, perhaps because both involve search engines. However, they are completely different and independent types of marketing.

Let’s look into some of the main differences between SEO and PPC:

1.      Purpose-both SEO and PPC are designed to attract traffic via search engines.

Search Engine Optimization-to appear as near the top as possible in the search results for keywords relevant to your website.

Pay Per Click-to instantly attract qualified prospects and leads to your website and convert them into buyers.

2.      Keywords

Search Engine Optimization-one usually wants to target general terms, as they provide the most amount of traffic.

You don’t always have complete control over which keywords will be chosen for your site, nor do you have any control over the ranking you will receive.

Pay Per Click-you have complete control over which keywords are used and their position on the search results page.

You can change the actual ad, as well as set up different ads for different keywords. More specific keywords lead to higher-quality visitors than do general keywords.

3.      End Result

Search Engine Optimization-depending on your keywords and the resulting ranking you receive in the search engine, you attract free traffic to your website.

Pay Per Click-you pay for each visitor you receive, but you can control the number of visitors you get, the landing page to which they are directed, the keywords being used, and other important factors.

As you can see, the two processes arc quite different in techniques, methods, and execution, but the desired end result is the same-to receive quality traffic from search engines.

With SEO, you have less control and are dependent upon your site meeting each search engine’s specific rules whereas with PPC, you can control every aspect of your campaign.

Which marketing technique are you using for advertising your business and why?

Keywords: Pay-per-click advertising, SEO, search engine optimization, marketing, leads, ppc.

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