Google lets site targeting advertisers pay per click
Elinor Mills Former Staff Writer
Elinor Mills covers Internet security and privacy. She joined CNET News in 2005 after working as a foreign correspondent for Reuters in Portugal and writing for The Industry Standard, the IDG News Service and the Associated Press.
Google will soon let advertisers bid on a cost-per-click basis for ads they target on specific publisher Web sites. Right now, advertisers using Google's site-targeting feature place bids based on cost-per-thousand impressions.
Beginning in a test next month, advertisers will be able to bid on a cost-per-click model in which they set a maximum price they will pay every time someone clicks on their ad, according to a Google AdWords blog posting. Many advertisers, particularly smaller brands, prefer to pay only when someone clicks on the ad--which ostensibly indicates a desire to get more information for a possible purchase--as opposed to paying based on the number of visitors to the Web page.