CPA Explosion

Paid advertising on the internet is now a massive and truly global business, and with every passing day it just keeps on getting bigger. For example, in the first quarter of 2006, internet advertising revenues reached a new high of $3.9 billion and by the end of the third quarter of the same year, this figure had gone past $4 billion. 

However, in the same Q3 period in 2007, internet advertising revenues surpassed $5.2 billion, setting another new high and continuing the trend of record breaking quarters that has been a constant ever since the Internet Advertising Bureau started keeping records back in 1996. With the ever-increasing worldwide popularity of the internet, this is probably only what you would expect. 

Nevertheless, moving from $4 billion to $5.2 billion dollars in one year indicates a phenomenal rate of growth, indicating that more and more businesses are wiling to commit ever more substantial proportions of their advertising budgets to promoting their businesses online in order to get their name and products in front of an increasingly discerning internet-connected global audience. 

And, as they have done for the last few years, Google continue to monopolize and dominate the online advertising industry with their pre eminent advertising programs AdWords and AdSense. 

This also continues a trend that was initially established when Google revolutionized web publishing and advertising by turning personal blogs, websites and forums into potential revenue generating centers for individual webmasters, whilst at the same time setting new standards for effective and affordable targeted promotion and advertising. Both of Google’s phenomenally successful programs operate on the basis of what is known as the Pay Per Click (PPC) or sometimes the Cost Per Click (CPC) advertising business model. 

In simple terms, using PPC involves a website or blog publisher agreeing to carry AdSense ads on their site, whilst an advertiser who is looking to promote their products online approaches Google through the AdWords program. Google then places these ads alongside relevant Google search engine results, as well as on targeted websites and blogs. 

For example, if an advertiser is selling automobile products, then their adverts will only appear alongside automobile related search results and on websites and blogs that focus on matters pertaining to cars or automobiles.