New people to the world of internet marketing may find themselves asking "What is Pay Per Click"? It's a natural question, because most of the time clicking is for free, right? Pay per click or PPC as it is sometimes known is also known as a 'contextual ad network'. Sounds impressive, doesn't it? 

All that really means is that the appropriate ad will be shown to you based on what you are searching for. In other words, the ad you see fits the context of what you are looking for. If you are searching for Porsche Carrera sideview mirrors, you may see several ads on the side of the search results that show companies offering German car parts. 

The whole idea behind any advertising or marketing, is to reach the correct consumer, with the right message at the right time. Because PPC does this so effectively, it has become the choice of many small, medium, and large companies to conduct their advertising campaigns. It has also led many beginners to go gray early or pull the hair straight out of their head. (I'm guessing here of course) 

The nice thing about the Google Adwords program, which is Googles' PPC program, is that almost anyone can start an account and begin advertising. You don't have a minimum "spend" as you might with radio, TV, or print advertising, and you can do the whole thing yourself. Did I mention that is the nice thing about it? It is also the worst thing about it. 

Here's why. PPC and Adwords is NOT for the faint of heart. It is program that has many rules, many nuances and details that must be mastered to get the contraption to actually produce profits for you. Because anybody can do it, many, many people end up losing money attempting to navigate this confusing and complex world. It's not impossible, but it is not something you can learn in a couple of hours either. The big cherry on the cake here is that once you do set up your PPC campaign and test it to know it is working effectively, you can pretty much let it run for as long as you like and it will keep working. 

Just remember, it requires some upfront investment of time and money to get to that point. By the way, Google is not the only game in town here. There are others such as Yahoo and Kontera that also can produce the results you may be looking for. Oh yes, you'd better be sending that traffic to a website that knows how to convert it to sales.