Today’s guest post is written by Brent Carnduff.

Search engine marketing (a.k.a. pay-per-click or PPC advertising) is an often-ignored element in small business Internet marketing.

When asked, small business owners typically give one of two reasons for not using PPC advertising: They have already tried it, lost money, and given up on it or they have considered trying it, think they will lose money, and have decided against it.

Despite the fact search engine marketing is easy to use, and simple in concept, the old poker expression “it takes only a minute to learn, but a lifetime to master” could just as easily be applied to SEM.

Recent data indicates, while organic search results normally receive 75 to 85 percent of all clicks during the critical “high commercial intent” searches – those searches used when consumers are READY TO BUY –  searchers actually click on pay-per-click ads 64.6 percent of the time! (more…)