If you’re a beginner at Internet advertising, or just someone who knows “I ought to be promoting my site…”, Search Engine Land offers Five Most Frequently Asked Questions About Paid Search. It’s a concise article that explains some of those acronyms tossed around so easily (SEO, PPC, etc.), and then gets down to why anyone with a cause or product to promote on the web should be thinking about paid search advertising. Here’s a sample:
Paid search has proven to be one of the highest return-on-investment (ROI) channels both online and offline. Why? Relevancy. Search engines have become the new Yellow Pages where users go to find products and services. Because an advertiser is bidding on relevant keywords to their business (such as a car dealership bidding on their ad to show whenever a user types in “used car” in their area), they are able to get in front of a user who is actively searching for information on that topic. Because of this, paid search is generally referred to as a “pull” medium as users trigger these ad exposures by searching on Google, Yahoo, Bing, etc. Most other advertising such as banners, television, radio, newspapers, etc. is referred to as “push” media.