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Paid search advertising has grown to $8.3 billion business
Pay-per-click” or paid search advertising is a fast-growing trend, according to internet experts.
“Pay-per-click advertising can take a lot of time to figure out and implement well — more time than many small businesses have. But if done right, experts say, it can be a great tool for small businesses because of its low cost and tailored reach,” said the San Francisco Chronicle.
“You can compete with the big guys and not break your bank,” said Laura Betterly, an online marketing consultant with the In Touch Media Group in Florida.
Terri Mayall, a Santa Cruz real estate agent, started pay-per-click advertising about two years ago, and now generates one-quarter of her home sales from ads that cost just $200 per month.
“When you consider all the other money I spend on advertising, this is real bang for the buck,” she said.
US businesses will spend an estimated $8.3 billion on pay per click in 2007 — up from about $1 billion in 2002, according to eMarketer, an online market research firm.
These advertisers so far include only a tiny percentage of America’s small businesses. More than half of small businesses still don’t have Web sites, let alone online advertising strategies, according to various statistics.
But young companies — those in existence for less than 10 years — are twice as likely to use pay-per-click advertising as their older counterparts, according to a study by the Kelsey Group.
And some analysts predict that the number of small businesses using pay per click will grow significantly during the next few years.
“Within five years, 10% of small and medium business advertisers will be do-it-yourself pay per click,” Internet expert Greg Sterling of Sterling Market Intelligence told the Chronicle. “Anecdotally, it’s clear to me that more small businesses are trying to pursue online marketing, and paid search is a subset of that.”
One of the biggest advantages of pay per click for small business is its low cost. Businesses can start out by spending as little as a few dollars per week.
Also, pay-per-click is an efficient way of finding qualified leads — potential customers who are actively interested in a company’s product.
Report by David Wilkening
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