So, how do you establish a PPC campaign? It's very much like the strategy and process for a print advertising campaign. You start with the purpose of the campaign: what's the message, who's the target and what do you want them to do?

Here's an example of how this all works.

Imagine that you're a dealer of 1950s modern retro furniture, you're having a sale on a few prized vintage Noguchi lamps, and you want to attract people who crave these lamps so they'll come to your site, buy a lamp and maybe a whole lot more.

Therefore, your PPC ad might look like this:

• Vintage 50s Noguchi Lamps
• Selected lamp models at 10-50% savings!
• Excellent vintage condition, order now.
• www.modretro.com/noguchi

Now when your target prospect types "vintage Noguchi lamps" in Google, your PPC ad appears, and boom-zing! They click through to your site's specific landing page that promotes this particular Noguchi lamp sale (not your home page).

Pretty easy!

WARNING: This is where more than 80% of businesses fail with their PPC campaigns. They send prospects to their home page, and then the prospects can't find the specific promotion or product featured in the PPC ad. So, the prospect gets annoyed and leaves the site.

Therefore, make sure your PPC ad links to a landing page that's specifically created to promote your special sale. This page can then link to your home page so visitors can check out the rest of your company if they choose-but make sure this landing page focuses mainly on the special promotion so there's no confusion.

You can see why some industry gurus feel that PPC ads should lead your online sales efforts. The main reason is-you control the messages and you get to see, each day, how well they're doing to generate response.

Next week, we'll talk about Directory Submissions and how they work. Until then have a great week, C S Wurzberger