| The History of Pay per Click Advertising |
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The search engine Overture is widely considered to be the pioneering force in pay per click advertising. Launched in 1998 as Goto.com, Overture initially prospered, but failed to take top spot in the search engine wars, the spot that ultimately went to Google. Pay per click advertising has been around for a long time but it was only when Google first launched their Adwords system that things began to change. And when they launched the contextual advertising service, Adsense, pay per click advertising really took off. Yahoo! launched the contextual advertising service YPN in 2005, and MSN launched its content network in 2006 making sure that pay per click advertising would grow from strength to strength as an online marketing tool. The driving force behind pay per click advertising's popularity is the fact that it brings in targeted traffic: people who have searched specifically for the product or service that you offer. For the first time advertisers saw that they could reach consumers who were already interested in their products and only pay for people who expressed interest in buying by clicking on their ad. This was not the shotgun approach of traditional mass media advertising, but a targeted, sniper approach in which advertisers could speak to people who were already interested in their products. Looking for more information? Read more about the reasons for including paid search in your marketing efforts, a little about its history and bright future as well as suggestions for getting the most out of PPC management. |