Are you interested in joining a pay per click program?  If you
are, are you interested in being an affiliate or are you looking
to have your advertisements displayed?  Whichever way you are
looking to participate in an affiliate program, it is important
that you familiarize yourself with click throughs.  Click
throughs are an important part of pay per click advertising,
whether your ads are the ones being advertised or not.

If you are unfamiliar with pay per click programs and how they
operate, you may also be unfamiliar with click throughs.  In a
pay per click program, an advertisements will be displayed on a
website, owned by a participating pay per click affiliate.
Although advertisers hope that their ads will be clicked on all
the time, the reality is that they aren’t. There are many
interenet users who visit a web page and never click on any
advertisements.  Whether or not an ad is being clicked on and
how often that is occurring is important to a pay per click
program.  That is where click through comes from. Click throughs
are when a visitor actually clicks on an advertisement.  The
overall rate or total of click throughs are referred to a CTR
(click through rate).

If you are a pay per click program affiliate, a webmaster who
has agreed to display applicable advertisements, you need to aim
for a high CTR.  The number of click throughs that you receive
is extremely important to you. In fact, it will ultimately have
an impact on how much money you make. With pay per click
programs, advertisers only have to pay for advertisements when
one of their advertisements has been clicked.  If they do not
have to pay, you don’t get paid. Therefore, as a pay per click
affiliate, you should be hoping for a high CTR.

Speaking of hoping, hoping is not all that you can do.  In fact,
as a pay per click program affiliate, you actually have a large
say in your CTR.  Although you cannot control which of your site
visitors or how many of them click on your advertisements, you
can make it easier for them to do so.  It has been said, on
multiple occasions, that to be successful all advertisements
need to be displayed above the fold.  When it comes to a web
page, below the fold is referring to the part of a website that
you cannot see.  You do not want your site visitors to have to
scroll down just to see your advertisements.  You want them to
be able to see them and hopefully click on them as soon as your
website appears on their screen.  Making it easy to click your
ads is one of the best ways to increase your CTR. 

Although pay per click program affiliates have the most control
of click throughs, you also have a little bit control, even if
you are just considered an advertiser.  When signing up for a
pay per click program, you get to choose and essentially bid on
keywords that you would like associated with your
advertisements. These keywords need to be carefully chosen, as
they will ultimately have an impact on the success of your
advertisements and their click through rates. 

For the best success, you will want to choose keywords that are
used.  If internet users are searching for crib bedding and you
sell nursery supplies, you may want to use “crib bedding,” as
one of your keywords.  When it comes to nursery supplies, crib
bedding is one of the most searched phrases.  If you give
internet users what they are looking for, they will likely take
it, or in this sense click on one of your advertisements. 

In short, click through rates, also known as CTRs, are an
important part of pay per click advertising programs. Whether
you are an advertiser or an affiliate, you should keep an eye on
your average click through rates; they ultimate decided whether
or not you make money.

To your success,
Derek Pryde

P.S. Whether you are a pay per click affiliate or advertiser,
you can easily track and improve your click through rate.