Many people always ask themselves if they should launch a pay per click advertising campaign even though they are already in the organic search results. There are a few things you need to take a look at. First, do you have the budget? If you are extremely tight on budget it might not be the wisest choice to launch a PPC campaign if you are already ranking in the organic search results. This also depends on which keywords or phrases you are ranking for.

You might not necessarily be ranking for all your keywords. Some companies do this from a branding standpoint. If you have a listing in the organic search results and you also have a PPC ad running a person shopping might be more inclined to either click on your organic listing or your PPC because you just instilled confidence in that shopper by building your brand. Confidence is something that online shoppers really need to have these days in order to pull out their credit card or pick up the phone to call you. Too many people get burned each and everyday shopping online and building up your brand online will be important for someone to choose you. Launching a PPC campaign while you have high search engine rankings will not double your business for the most part but it is an additional area of improvement and visibility for yourself or your business.

A growing concern online, especially in European countries, is privacy. But for businesses, that concern goes much deeper. Many webmasters and business owners are concerned that Google might know more about them that it should. And they use that as an argument for not linking their AdWords and Analytics accounts and for using third-party software whenever possible.

I identify with those concerns, but I don’t think we need to fear Google. I think the real fear should be reserved for those who would force Google to give up information about us (you) to serve their political ends.

While I’m a big advocate of Google AdWords and Google Analytics, if privacy is a concern of yours, or you are concerned that having too many of your websites associated with your accounts at Google then there are options. You can use third-party software or set up separate accounts for all of your Web properties. But you should never throw the baby out with the bath water. Google isn’t the bad guy.

It’s a simple question, really. How do you rise to the top of the pay per click charts? Or, what do you need to do to rank #1?

The easy answer is you have to the bid the highest, but there’s a little more to it than that. You can have the highest bid and still not be on the top of the pay per click ad pile. Let’s say, for instance, that you sell widgets and that your ad is clearly optimized for “widget”. But you bid as high as you can for the keyword “gadget”. Do you think you’ll rank #1 for “gadget”? Not likely.

The reason is simple. Google’s Quality Score. If you don’t meet the standard, it doesn’t matter how much you bid. You won’t get where you want to go. Other search engines do it a little differently, but many of them do look at your ad quality.

So the answer to how do you rise to the top of the PPC pile, you have to bid the highest and have a very good quality score. You don’t necessarily need the highest quality score, but you do need a good quality score. But is the #1 position where you need to be? Now that’s a different story altogether.

One of the most important things that a webmaster can do to be successful using pay per click advertising, especially if advertising through Google AdWords, is to link your Google AdWords and Google Analytics accounts together. This is a must if you use both services.

The best way to link your two accounts together is to install the Google Analytics code on your website. Click the Analytics tab inside Google AdWords and it will take you to the right place. Once you install your tracking code on every page of your website, you’ll be able to see your Google AdWords data inside of Google Analytics.

Another thing you should do is add Google Conversion code to your site. Put that code on your thank you pages after your visitors close a sale. That will track your conversions and make it easier for you to measure your ROI.

The rumor is all abuzz about the blogosphere, but is it true? I’d be loathe to believe it. It would likely spark more antitrust concerns as the Google-Yahoo! discussions did. But there is some possibility that Google and Twitter may partner on a few projects. It is very indeed possible that Twitter may offer some sort of pay per click advertising that is provided by Google AdWords. I have no sources that tell me this, but it makes sense for both companies. How might such a relationship look, I wonder?

Here are three ways a Google-Twitter pay per click application might look:

1. Google AdWords Twitter – It’s possible that Google may provide Twitter access to its Google AdWords tools and that they’ll share the profits. Why would Google do this? For access to Twitter’s real-time search engine. That would be a highly valuable asset to Google who may very well be willing to share its AdWords profit with Twitter just to provide the cash flow to keep them in business.
2. A Separate Pay Per Click Solution – It’s possible that Twitter and Google could partner in a third-party PPC solution so that Twitter could roll out unique benefits of a service that apparently competes with Google AdWords. Hey, if it’s profitable, who could blame them?
3. Twitter As A PPC Reseller – This is the least likely scenario of the three, but if Google AdWords commissions Twitter as a reseller then your clicks at Twitter would cost more, but advertisers might be willing to pay more for Twitter-only access considering that it is highly possible that Twitter may be the most trafficked social media site within a couple of years. But will it fly?

Everyone is wondering how Twitter will monetize itself. The company’s founders say they have a plan. It is obvious that they’re having some kind of discussions with Google. Could those discussions be centered around advertising models, or pay per click advertising in particular? If so, how would a Google-Twitter partnership look. Do you have any ideas?