The number of businesses advertising online has increased significantly in the past several years. Pay Per click advertising is one of the most popular and effective advertisement model in the internet today. PPC ads are mainly published when a user uses a search engine. The ppc network or publisher then shows ads relevant to what is being searched. These ads are clickable and often take people to a sales page or landing page wherein they can read more about a product/service and purchase it outright.

When executed properly, PPC campaigns are an effective way to generate interest in or sell a product. PPC campaigns can be set up through Google Adwords and other advertising publishing platforms, and can be monitored and tweaked as the campaign runs for better performance. Still, one of the most important elements of PPC advertising is measuring the effectiveness of the campaign. Since all of these campaigns can be monitored for click-throughs and conversions, ad publishers can set up reports and metrics to determine exactly which types of ads are getting the most results.

Your site’s traffic is the most basic data used for optimizing PPC ads. The data can reveal how many visitors came to your site and identify where they originated. Check the dates when you have experienced a spike in traffic and check if those were the dates when you ran your ads.

Probably the most important data that you have to monitor are your conversion rates. A conversion rate is the ratio between the number of clicks on your ads and how many sales resulted from those clicks. Your conversion rates will determine the cost of how much it will cost you before generating a sale.

Author Joseph Thornton, of the book “The Online Advertising Playbook”, states that conversion can also be in the form of a customer signing-up for your news letter, disclosing of contact information, or even downloading a free product from your site.

Taking the analysis of conversion rates further, it would be better if you can measure which keywords are bringing in the most sales. If you have this information, you can then build your campaign around the keywords that sell the most.

Finally, determining the rankings of your advertising segment will help you determine which placement is the best for your particular niche or industry. Google Adwords rotates the ads in its sidebar column to ensure a fair advantage for all advertisers, but there are some spots that are considered ‘Featured ads’. These spots may have more value for you in a very competitive market, and can make it easier for you to decide where and how to promote your PPC campaign and achieve the best possible results.

About the Author:

Advertising with Google Adwords is an effective technique that most online-businesses can use to find more customers. Writing quality Google Ads is one of the most important skills to have when using Adwords – and there are several good training guides available online.