Pay per click advertising is sure to continue its stellar performance next year thanks to an ever-increasing number of advertisers, new advert formats, wider distribution and more advanced targeting options.

Whether you’re new to pay per click or a veteran of search marketing, make 2008 the year that your PPC adverts really shine with Top Position’s top eight things you’ll really need to know in the next 12 months…

1.Google Checkout

Google Checkout is Google’s payment processing system for internet vendors. Sales are processed at a standard rate of 2% but AdWords advertisers receive credits for their advertising spend to put towards the next month’s sales processing charges.

With its proprietary fraud detection technology, Google Checkout works to protect you from unwarranted charge backs. The eye-catching checkout icon is added to your AdWords adverts for greater search visibility.

2. Mobile Advertising

As Google and Yahoo slug it out for search supremacy, the battle for advertisers has outgrown the web and hit the telephone lines. Mobile advertising will be a big trend in 2008 with mobile internet usage figures set to grow by a projected factor of 50 in the next four years. Make the most of the opportunity to deliver your advertising to the palm of your readers hand with specific mobile PPC ad campaigns and network targeting.

3. Quality Score

Relevancy will be a buzz word in 2008 as pay per click adverts are judged on their relevance. That means keywords must be grouped according to type with similar words and phrases clustered together. Advert must also reflect this organisation and be closely linked to the ad group they represent.

4. Yahoo

If you already have a pay per click account with Google, don’t be afraid to try Yahoo. Although Yahoo’s PPC offering works in a similar manner, a second pay per click campaign will open your business up to more users. The cost per click is often lower on Yahoo although conversion rates are generally very strong.

5. Local Adverts

The beauty of the internet may be that it puts the world at your fingertips but that doesn’t mean that your pay per click campaign should miss out on a local client base. Google AdWords offers a local advert tab within your exiting account, providing a local listing with company details, full contact details and even your company logo.

6. Behavioural Targeting

Don’t rely solely on your snappy advert text to attract your target demographic. Behavioural targeting is being trialled by search engines wanting to make use of their search data to show relevant pay per click adverts to users based on anything from their previous search history, to their age, gender and family status.

7. Location Targeting

The location targeting option on AdWords has recently been overhauled to give a new look and new targeting features. There are more flexible targeting options and a new interactive map showing the locations selected.

8. Contextual Advertising

Like many pay per click features, content advertising has been changed so users can’t click anywhere on text ads running on the content network, including the ad's background and any part of the ad text, for their click to be registered. Now only clicks on the title or URL of text ads will be counted.

Pay per click search engine optimisation