Before you launch your Pay Per Click (PPC) search advertising campaign, there are a lot of questions you need to answer. Once you have the answers to such questions like “What search engine should I use?”, “How do I find relevant keywords?”, “How much do I bid”, and “How do I trace clicks?” You will be guided how to play the PPC game right with the help of a reputable PPC management company.

1. Which search engine should I use? Most PPC startups need between $10 and $25 of setup fee which can be applied to click throughs. They provide low minimum bids at $0.01 but have limited search volumes that may generate only a few clicks each day. You can tryout the startup PPC engines but pledge only the minimal setup fees. You could always update your account if they create sufficient traffic. This way, you minimize your risk to only $10 to $25 per search engine.

All the same, arising from Overture’s amazing success with PPC advertising, more than a hundred Pay Per Click startups have sprung up. Of the hundreds of Pay Per Click search engines, only a handful may really have the search volume to produce a reasonable number of clicks for your website. I recommend that you go to a recognized and respectable Pay Per Click engine that have high search volumes that promise a high click through rate.

Overture and Google AdWords are the best in Pay Per Click marketing because they serve over 2 billion search queries every month. Plus, with their partnership with other major search engines like Altavista, Infospace and Netscape, they can further reach a wider audience, generating more clicks for your website.

2. How do I find related keywords? Because you’re paying each time someone clicks on your ad, it just makes sense that you optimize your keywords to your target audience. When you type a keyword, it shows how many times the word has been searched. The more popular the keyword, the higher the click through rate will be. Pay Per Click engines have tools and software to help you find the most related keywords to bid on, so count on these to create a list of similar keywords and their search counts across many Pay Per Click engines.

3. How much do I bid? The more major Pay Per Click engines require a minimal bid of $0.50 while startup engines have $0.01. How much to bid rests on how much do you expect on your return of investment (ROI). If you bid $1.00 per visitor, and 1 in every 10 visitors buys your product, your cost per sale is $10. So, if each sale of your product produces a $15 gross profit, then your net profit will be $5 ($15 gross profit minus $10 cost per sale). Your ROI, before non-marketing costs is 50% (5% net profit/$10 cost per sale). To realize a positive ROI, continually price your bids. In due course, you’ll know how to lower your bids while still maintaining the same ranking or get a better position for a little more.

4. How do I track clicks? Tracking your clicks give you a more reliable picture of how well your PPC campaign is performing. Most of the time, you’ll notice that the number of clicks tracked by yourself is between 15% and 30% more than the clicks the PPC engine reports. This is because PPC engines have anti-cheating tools that prevent competitors from repeatedly clicking on your PPC ads and wasting your bid fees.

When you have the right answers to the above questions, your PPC search advertising campaign will be smooth sailing. Well, not instantly, but with the right PPC management company to guide you, a successful PPC campaign is not out of reach.