There are two basic ways to get to the top of the search engine mountain:

1. You can climb up step-by-step slowly and methodically getting your website into the top rankings or;

2. You can hire a helicopter and fly up - pay for a well-placed advertisement directly with the search engines.

Now with $2.07 billion spent in 2003 on paid search advertising on such pay-per-click search engines like Google and Overture and with this figure representing 30% of all online advertising, how can I possible call it a "secret?"

Easy. Since most marketers, whether working from the kitchen table or from the 20th floor of a corporate office tower, aren't doing it. And if they are using paid search engine advertising, chances are they are not using it effectively or are paying too much.

When we say, "paid search," we mean that you bid on particular keywords and keyword phrases that are relevant to your offer. Prospects enter those keywords in a search and if you have bid highly enough and if your site content matches the keywords, then voila, the prospects clicks the link in the online advertisement and arrives at your site. You now have a prospect that has cost you an average of somewhere between 29 and 35 cents compared to a Yellow Pages lead that costs $1.

Better yet, your online ad can be changed instantly, testing numerous keywords, headlines, phrasing whereas your Yellow Pages ad is "locked in" until the new book is printed. You can't change your placement in the Yellow Pages either unless you pay a lot more money. With paid search, your placement changes the moment you bid higher.

Some search engines allow you to have a very broad search throughout every country that has Internet access and Google allows you to specify a specific language, such as English, specific countries, such as Canada, USA, Australia, and the UK and a specific daily budget limit.

Where people overspend is that they don't bother limiting the countries the advertisement will appear in and thus promote to the world instead of their target market. Another way to flush your advertising dollars down the drain is to go with their "suggested" pay-per-click rate instead of offering say 5¢ a click and then adjusting your bid upwards to get a better placement if necessary.

Use the free tools provided by the pay-per-click search engines to find at least 50 keywords and keyword phrases that your potential buyers use to search for your product or service. You only need to write two or three basic ads but change the headline for each one to match the keyword phrase. Don't think of this as work but instead as a fascinating exercise in human psychology. Get to understand your customer's needs, wants, fears, hopes, dreams, and feelings. You are testing keywords to find the emotional trigger to motivating them to take the desired action.

When you get the right combination of headline and advertising text, then build your website around a tightly woven theme of what your best customers want and need.

Here's an example of one of the best-producing ads I ever wrote: "Are you embarrassed by fever blisters?"

I was marketing a tonic at the time and that ad consistently had a 30% click-through rate or more, day in and day out. It absolutely nailed the problem and the text offered an immediate solution.

Try testing keywords for your offer. You just might be surprised at what your customers are really looking for and the magical phrases that get them to whip out their credit cards to send you their money.

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Patrick Wagner is an Internet Strategy, Email and Search Engine Marketing expert, with over 11 years experience online. Patrick Wagner is the founder of LinkAdAuction.com and DeployEmail.com both sites are dedicated to helping the new and advanced user market their brand or web site online including Search Engine Marketing. <a href="http://www.deployemail.com" target="_blank">http://www.deployemail.com</a> - <a href="http://www.linkadauction.com" target="_blank">http://www.linkadauction.com</a>
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