Pay Per Performance Advertising : What is it?

Pay Per Performance Advertising is when the advertiser pays a fee based on an action which a visitor to his website takes.

Pay Per Performance Advertising could cover several things, such as pay per click advertising,

This type of Pay Per Performance Advertising means that, you list your website in a pay per click search engine, and when someone types in your term and clicks on your website listing, you are charged a fee for that click.

Another type of Pay Per Performance Advertising could be pay per subscriber. What this means is that you will pay a fee for every subscriber that is sent to you through a subscription form.

There are many types of Pay Per Performance Advertising but the ones above are the most common, especially pay per click.

Pay per search is another one. This was done by askjeeves.com a few years ago, I'm not sure if they still do it though. What basically happened was you would put an askjeeves search box on your website, and whenever someone searched askjeeves through your website, you were paid a small amount each time.

Not recommended for small websites with little traffic. The return just wont be worth it.

Pay per impression is another one. This is quite rare though, or at least it should be. I don't think many, if any websites do pay per impression any more, it's so expensive and easy to make fraudulent impressions. However, in some places CPM is quite popular. This means cost per thousand impressions. So say the CPM was $5, this would mean that for every thousand people that saw your advertisement you would pay $5.

Out of all of the above, I would much prefer paying for every action taken. This way I get what I want, and there is less chance of fraud happening, which is just a waste of my time and money. Sure it costs more, but I think the results are well worth it.

If you are looking for a PPC search engine, then I would definitely recommend overture. They will display your website in several different search engines, making sure you get maximum exposure.

If you want to do a subscriber deal by paying for each subscriber that is sent to you. This is best set up yourself and joint venture with another website. This means you can customize it yourself. Or you could leave it open to everyone and have many people sending you subscribers. I don't know of any websites that provide software for this, so you may have to get a programmer to do it for you.

Please be careful though. You CAN have anyone and everyone promote your newsletter and generate you subscribers, however if you allow this, it will be easier and easier to lose track of genuine and fraudulent subscriptions, making it hard to distinguish between them.

Make sure you have a good email handling solution.

I would recommend that you don't automate this process unless you are feeling brave.

Verify each request personally and manually.

Or you could go out looking yourself.

This is probably the best way to go, it gives you total control and allows you to pick and choose exactly who you want and who you don't want.

However, if you are feeling brave, or you have a good email handling solution then go ahead and spread the word about your newsletter subscription box. Let everyone promote it. This means more subscribers for you, which means more people to sell to.

In conclusion, if you want to advertise in this way, make sure you keep a tight grip on your budget. Put some restrictions on how much you can spend so you don't go overboard.

Overture allows you to deposit as much or as little as you like (Though a minimum deposit of $20 does apply). This way you can't overspend unless you manually choose to.

But, this brings on the issue of self control. Set yourself a personal limit and don't exceed it.

Stephen Warren is the creator and webmaster of http://www.marketershandbook.com, a completely free business and marketing resource which anyone may use.

Why Hire an Advertising/Marketing Consultant?

As a business owner, you have the option of taking several different approaches to handling your Marketing and Advertising. You may choose to handle the responsibility yourself, with the idea that no one understands your business quite the way you do.. You may also consider hiring a full time marketing manager or even assigning the tasks, as they arise, to someone already working within your organization. Consider this When your business needs plumbing work do you do it yourself? Hire a plumber to be on staff full time? Or ask your accountant to handle it?

Call in the Experts.

Though some advertising and marketing ventures seems simple enough to be handled in house, nothing is as costly as a marketing misfire. Not only may you be sending out the wrong messages, to the wrong markets, but also by the time you catch it, your budget may be in no shape to recover and redirect. The truth is, no one can do the job as effectively and efficiently as someone who lives and breathes the industry everyday. Plus, the added perk of consistent media contacts that will prove to be financially beneficial to your business.

Seeing the forest and the trees.

When you hire a consultant you hire an objective opinion, as well as a fresh point of view. Sometimes a business may lose perspective on itself by being too heavily immersed in the day-to-day operations, and lose itself in the big picture, missing the small details or vice-versa. Sadly, sometimes a businesss marketing will clearly reflect this. The president of a private jet companys focus is on the bells and whistles of his fleet. Its what he sees as important in his view of his business. Inevitably, his marketing may also focus on this portion of his business, ignoring what he is really selling to his potential clients: The feeling and the status of private jets.

If you add another ball, technically it is juggling.

If you, as a business owner, or an employee take on the added tasks of the marketing of the business, attention is being taken from other projects and responsibilities. Inescapably, focus and demands are bound to pull from one and take away from others until something falls to the floor. Consultants are dedicated to one, and only one, portion of your business. Their focus is committed, and they allow you to keep yours where it should be.

The Gumby Factor.

Consultants are very flexible. Immediately ready and available to take on assignments at a moments notice. Accessibility to getting a new project off the ground is just a phone call away. On the other hand, trying to hire a new employee specifically to handle your marketing needs takes valuable time to places ads; conduct interviews and then sort through applicants, hoping to find the right person for the job.

The M Word Money.

When you total up the actual cost of bringing on a new employee, you will most likely find that hiring a consultant is much more cost effective. The hourly rates may seem to favor a full time employee, but when you factor in employee benefits, training time, vacation/sick time, 401(k), the added overhead involved in situating a new employee, and the sheer fact that you may be paying full time wages for something that may not need full time attention, the cost effectiveness will fall in favor of a consultant. Which bring us to....

The C- Word Commitment.

Hiring a full time employee is a commitment. And bringing on an employee to handle a special marketing project, or set up an initial marketing plan, may in the long run leave you scrambling to find a new project or position for that employee. Or worse yet, you find yourself paying a full time marketing director to do basic maintenance. Hiring a consultant requires no long-term commitment. When a consultant completes a project, they have the flexibility to move into whatever position you need them, from quarterly analysis, to basic maintenance, to completely out of the picture, but on the sidelines when youre ready to take a new step forward.

"There are many ways of going forward, but only one way of standing still." -Franklin D. Roosevelt

Mary Ellen Martelli is President of MareMax Consulting, a full service Advertising, Marketing & Website Consulting firm, located in the Southern New Jersey / Philadelphia area. You can reach her via her website http://maremaxconsulting.com/ or email: maremaxconsulting@comcast.net