I'm Paying for Clicks - Why Can't I See My Site in the Search Engines?

When you’re investing in Google Adwords and Yahoo Pay Per Click services either yourself or with a pay per click management service it can be frustrating when you search for your site and it’s nowhere to be found. 

With Google Adwords your ad gets rotated throughout the day unless your budget is unlimited and you are bidding at the highest rate for that particular search term.  One time you may go to Google and check your term and it won’t show up anywhere.  You can try again a few minutes later and voila’ there you are.  By staggering the ads throughout the day Google can ensure you stay within your budget for that particular campaign.  obviously, the lower your budget the less frequently you ads will be shown.  Conversely, the higher your budget the more frequently they will appear.

Also, with Google, unless you have an unlimited budget, you have little control over where your ad will appear on the page.

As a side note on Google, your cost per click goes down as your click-through rate improves.  Therefore the quality and relevancy of your ad plays a significant role in your overall return on investment.

With Yahoo if you put your account on a budget your ads will be staggered throughout

the day in a similar manner to Google.  If you don’t use the budget feature you can maintain an exact position throughout the day and an exact cost per click.

With both Google and Yahoo pay per click programs you are only charged for actual clicks on your ad.  So terms that are not appearing or that have not received any clicks do not cost you money.