You may be aware of Pay Per Click (PPC) advertising and may even have used it in the past but many firms are turning away from this style of promotion. Whilst it may have generated increased traffic to your website, there was no guarantee of sales and it was open to abuse. PPC history is littered with horror stories of a person or firm repeatedly clicking a link to their rivals website and thereby greatly inflating marketing costs. There has been an evolution in how links are managed and paid for and one of the new methods revolves around Pay Per Action (PPA.)
The increased benefit comes from the fact that the visitor has to perform a specific action before there is a payment due. The action can vary depending on the needs of the site and some options include:
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A purchase being made
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A form being filled in
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Contact details being left
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A phone call being made
There is therefore some added value to the end site as opposed to merely increasing the volume of traffic to their site. This increased effectiveness has made this form of internet marketing a far more optimal way of creating inbound links to a site.
It is the increased accountability of this form of marketing that has made it more attractive than previous traditional methods. There is a higher cost attached to PPA when compared to PPC but with results being of greater benefit, many firms are willing to pay more money for guaranteed results.
Like most forms of internet marketing, PPA is best used in conjunction with other promotional activities. However, whilst it may not be enough to sustain the viability of a website it can have a massive impact on the future growth of the site.
It can work especially well in a niche market where visitors to other sites may have a genuine and realisable interest in the product or service that you are offering. Drawing interest from a site with a shared theme or interest and only paying for the visitors who have supplied with you a specific action or piece of information provides great value for money.
If you are tired of paying for link advertisements that never seem to increase your sales figures or provide you with customer information, it may be in your interest to switch to a PPA form of marketing.
