Today competition is fierce online and it’s very easy to get carried away with all forms of advertising from banner ads to solo ads. Before you know it your advertising budget (if you have one) is blown, your return on investment can’t be measured and your profit margins have taken a serious dip.

So how do you know if your advertising efforts are being maximised and reaching the right target audience?

Well one of the most affordable, consumer targeted and cost effective forms of on-line advertising is Pay Per Click search engine advertising. Pay Per Click (PPC) advertising is a huge business that by 2012 is expected to top $11 billion dollars in revenue.

In its simplest form, Pay Per Click is about producing leads, generating prospects and as a result connecting potential buyers with specific and relevant websites that will provide them with the product or service they are looking for.

To capitalize on this, a good website that is meaningful and has quality information or the right products is essential to successful PPC advertising. Regrettably this element is often left unchecked by many website owners, not realizing that potential purchasers are more likely to buy products or services from a web site that provides them with the relevant goods or services they were searching for in the first place.

One of the main benefits of Pay Per Click advertising is that it provides qualified and motivated traffic to your website. Users that click on a PPC ad are those in search of a particular product or service. To a great degree this filters out unnecessary clicks from non-prospective buyers therefore saving your advertising dollars from being wasted promoting to large groups of people who aren’t in the market for your goods and services.

Unlike other forms of advertisement that adopts the scatter gun effect by advertising to everybody hoping that the ad will be seen by interested people, Pay Per Click advertising can be very specific. Also, as an added benefit, PPC is possibly the fastest way to get a return on your investment. A campaign that goes live can start producing results within minutes, followed by click throughs and ultimately sales.

The whole process of PPC is structured around keywords. To set the price of a specific keyword a bidding process is used. Generally the budget for PPC advertising can be as low as $50 ranging up to a possible $100,000 depending on the amount of keywords used. The price of any keyword can escalate immensely within minutes as more and more sites bid for the same keyword.

Pay Per Click ads are placed along relevant search engine results. The highest bid for a specific keyword or phrase is awarded the top spot on the results page. The second highest gets second place and so on.

Getting top placement naturally provides greater opportunity for a PPC ad to get clicked on by a motivated searcher.

A successful PPC campaign involves three core disciplines which need to be adhered to in order to have a successful campaign.

# A continual monitoring of the advert spend.

# Analysis and refinement of the advert response to ensure the maximum click through rate is achieved at all times.

# Management of the campaign to ensure that your PPC advertising results in good profits. It’s not enough to break even.

PPC advertising makes it possible for you to monitor the productivity of each ad and switch off any ad that is no longer performing at its best, thus providing the most economical way to advertise your goods or services on the internet.

The cost in PPC advertising is dictated by the number of clicks made on a particular ad. The number of clicks made on a particular PPC ad is subtracted from the initial business outlay to a search engine company. Therefore to minimize cost and maximize ROI, a business needs to regularly monitor its advertising campaign.

Many businesses fail to get the most out of their PPC campaigns believing it is merely a matter of bidding the highest on their selected keywords or phrases, getting to the top of the results page and making a sale.

However, quality information and relevant products or services are key to converting your advertising budget into sales revenue.

Providing prospects with relevant information will help foster a longer term relationship with them that will more likely result in new and further sales.

By providing follow up information to your prospects in the form of a newsletter or email you can create spin off sales that will often be more than enough to offset the costs of any campaign, and if used to full advantage can dwarf the initial sales completely.

PPC advertising is a continuous process that requires hands on supervision and a thorough understanding of PPC search engines. Businesses may opt to hire the services of a professional or carry out PPC advertising with in-house experts.

However, knowledge is the key to running a successful campaign and this is quite often in the form of quality e-books, guides and free information.

Whatever course of action is selected, a business is sure to get a huge return on investment with PPC advertising.

Fundraising Auction Tip: You should always provide potential bidders with a printed Auction Listing of both your Live and Silent Auction items at any Fundraising Auction. A printed Auction Listing is vital for several reasons:

An Auction Listing informs bidders of the order of sale, and what is coming up next. If you keep your bidders guessing, they will simply not bid.

If bidders are not 100% certain of what they are bidding on, they will not bid. A printed Auction Listing should answer any and all questions about what is being sold in order to encourage bidders to bid as much as possible.

Bidders often need time to plan their bidding strategies, especially on multiple and/or larger value items. A printed Auction Listing helps them to do that.

Couples often need time to consult with each other about what they are willing to spend on something. A printed Auction Listing helps them to do that.

Potential bidders need to know the specifics, the benefits, and the restrictions on any item they are going to bid on, especially on travel and/or other higher value items. A printed Auction Listing should answer all of their questions, in writing.

After bidders see that they have lost an item to another bidder, a printed Auction Listing makes it easier for them to re-strategize on what else they can bid on.
Printed Auction Listings generally come in 3 forms:

Printed in the Event Program or Auction Catalog.

Printed on loose sheets of paper and hand-inserted into the Event Program or Auction Catalog.

Printed on loose sheets of paper and hand-delivered to all attendees, or left on each dinner table in the room.
Auction Listings cost practically nothing to produce and they can make the difference between the success and failure of a Live and Silent Auction. You should never conduct a Fundraising Auction without one.

A Case Study

Let me share a real-life experience with you. Once I was hired to conduct a Fundraising Auction for a nationally renowned organization. The event was held in a major hotel, in one of the country’s largest cities, with several hundred “black tie” participants attending. It was an extremely professional event, with the music, singing, lighting, speeches, and awards all perfectly timed and choreographed. Everything was done to perfection… exception the Fundraising Auction.

Although I had signed an agreement to serve as their Auctioneer nearly one year in advance of the event, no one bothered to contact me for any advice or help. Approximately one week prior to the Auction date, I contacted the group to see if they had replaced me with another Auctioneer. But they said that I was still their man.

Upon arriving at the event I asked for a copy of the Auction Listing. I was told that there were none. I’m not sure whether they felt that the Auction Listing wasn’t necessary, or whether someone forgot to have them printed. This was never made clear. When I asked what I was to use at the podium, I was told to copy the list of Live Auction items from a committee member’s computer. It took me about 30 minutes to copy three pages of hand-written notes in order to prepare for my role as their Auctioneer.

I knew that they had created a PowerPoint program showing the various Live Auction items. When I asked whether the PowerPoint slide order corresponded to the order of sale I had copied from the committee member’s computer, I was met with a blank stare. The committee member left to check the slide order, and returned to let me know that the slide order did not correspond my notes, and he provided me with the correct slide order… hand-written on a paper napkin. This forced me to re-arrange my three pages of hand-written notes before taking the podium.

There was a Live Auction Table with descriptions of the Live Auction items that were to be sold, but the table was not clearly marked, and it received significantly less attention than the Silent Auction Tables, which were clearly identified. Since the Live Auction Table was located adjacent to the “Raffle Table”, it appeared that most people thought it was part of the raffle and therefore paid very little attention to it.

According to the event program (which did not include an Auction Listing), I knew approximately when I was to begin the Live Auction. At the designated time the Master of Ceremonies announced the start of the Live Auction to the several hundred people in attendance, and introduced me as Auctioneer. As I approached the podium I realized that photographs of award winners were still being taken… directly in front of the podium where I was to stand… which required me to stand aside for several minutes until the photographers were done. Can we say “awkward moment”?

As the photographers cleared, I approached the podium and began my Live Auction introduction. Approximately one minute into my introduction, the “Raffle Committee” approached the podium and stopped my Live Auction Introduction in order to pull the 8 or 9 Raffle Winners. These drawings lasted about 5 minutes. Upon it’s conclusion I was allowed to resume the start of the Live Auction.

When standing at the podium two intense and extremely bright spotlights were pointed directly at the podium. The lights were so bright that I literally could not see the center 1/3 of the room. I could see the tables on the right, and on the left, but was totally blinded when looking straight ahead. It took perhaps five minutes before the spotlights were turned off.

While at the podium and describing Lot #1, I had to ask someone to start the Lot #1 PowerPoint Slide… because apparently no one was assigned that job.

So with only the Auctioneer’s verbal description, and a PowerPoint slide, it appeared that few people in the room had any idea about what we were selling… or when we were selling it… until it was announced by the Auctioneer. As a result, bidding was extremely light and the final results fell several thousands of dollars short of where they should have been
The learning experience is this:

The Live Auction is where you place your better items, and where the real money should be made at any Fundraising Auction. Let bidders know as far in advance as possible what you will be selling, and the order of sale, so they can get excited about the Auction, and plan their bidding strategy accordingly.

Auction Listings are absolutely vital to the success of both Live & Silent Auctions. In my opinion, revenues at this Auction fell thousands of dollars short of where they should have been, because no Auction Listing was provided to the guests.

If bidders are not perfectly clear on what is being sold, including both the item’s specifics, benefits, and restrictions, they will not bid.

When you have a committee of volunteers, especially volunteers having full time jobs and/or very busy schedules, the services of a professional Fundraising Auctioneer can help to keep the committee on track.

And once you retain the services of a professional Fundraising Auctioneer… use the services that you are paying for.

Auctions are those events where properties or goods are sold to the highest bidder. Auctions are mostly public events, where bidders make a series of bids and purchase a particular item for a high price. During auctions, bidders decide the price of an item rather than the seller. It depends on bidders to decide the amount they would want to pay for a specific item. During an auction, a bid is a proof of a legal binding. Bidders agree to pay the amount that they have bid. In a high profile auction, bidders may have to pay a deposit in escrow accounts or give a proof that they can pay for those items.

Types of Auctions:

Different types of auctions take place around the world. Below mentioned are some types of auctions:

1. English auction:
This is a basic type of auction. In this type, people can see the item and then start bidding. Bidders slowly raise the value of their bid until everyone gives up. The highest bidder is the winner. An auctioneer manages an auction, keeps records of the on going bid and decides the winner. Sometimes, the seller will quote a minimum amount for an item to the auctioneer, below which the auctioneer cannot sell that item.

2. Dutch auction:
In this type, the auctioneer sets a particular price and then gradually lowers the price. People in public will start bidding and later decide which prices are suitable for the item. A seller may use this type of auction to sell large quantities of same products to the public. For instance, a seller may want to sell a large amount of hay and will thus, decide to sell this hay to people for the same amount, once a reasonable price is decided.

3. Silent auction:
In this type, the bidders in public will present their bids in a sealed format. These sealed bids open at the same time and bidder with the highest bid wins. There could be a modification in this type of auction. The bidders are allotted a specific period to bid. They can roam in a room displaying the items, and write their bids on an associated sheet of paper. The bidders are allowed to see bids of other bidders and can choose a higher price for an item. At the end of the allotted time, bidder with the highest bid is the winner.

Examples of Auctions:

Auctions can be of two types either public or private. Sellers may trade any kind of items in both types of auctions. Some areas where auctions take place are:

1. Antique auction: An antique auction consists of a trade opportunity as well as provides entertainment.

2. Collectable auction: In a collectable auction, the seller may put up collectables like coins, vintage cars, luxury, stamps, real estate, and luxury for sale.

3. Wine auction: In wine auction, bidders can bid for rare wine, which may not be available in retail wine shops.

4. Horse auction: Bidders can bid for young horses of the best breed.

5. Livestock auction: In livestock auction, bidders can buy pigs, sheep, cattle, and other livestock.

The other examples of auctions may not be public. These auctions are for bidders from corporate levels. Some examples of private auctions are:

1. Timber auction
2. Spectrum auction
3. Electricity auction
4. Debit auction
5. Environmental auction
6. Auto auction
7. Electronic market auction
8. Sales of business auction

Bidders in an auction need to examine the items displayed and decide an appropriate price for an item. Thus, auctions help buyers in getting the best deals and in gaining better profits for sellers.