If your going to pay for your clicks you need to be sure of a few things. 1) that your clickers have some interest in what your selling, and 2) the amount your paying for your clicks doesn't override your profits. These may seem like rudimentary concepts, but in a world like Google Adwords, where the process is nearly automated, there is little else to focus on within the actually realm of PPC search engines.

The key boils down to highly targeting keywording. This means finding those searches that will be getting less competition from other companies, but produce even higher buyout ratios. For example, if you are running a template business that only sells flash templates you dont want to be paying $0.50 per click for the keyword "Templates" when you could be getting less, yet much highly target visitors, for a search like "flash templates." If your company focuses on Flash Templates in the hosting/web design realm, try for "Flash Hosting Templates" etc.

Furthermore you must realize that when your paying for clicks its not necessarily a competition to get the most clicks, but rather a competition to spend the least amount of money possible to get the best quality visitors as possible. This means making sure that the way your title and describe your advertisements doesn't lead to miscellaneous clickage! Don't misrepresent yourself just to get a visitor, because visitors aren't stupid, and they simply won't go buying things they don't need. Chances are this person has done some research before thinking about buying your product, and at the very least, has clicked on some of the other top search engines results. If you are trying to sell I product let the searcher know before you like them click on your advertisement. When I have advertised using google adwords I find it best to include my price and or average prices for whatever product the keyword is relevant too. If the searcher is looking for something free, and has no desire to purchase something, then he/she will not click on your add, and you will have saved some money from the lack of clicks. This concept, however, doesn't apply well for advertisements that are not CPC based.

Once you have your account working it is important to monitor your results and customize your campaign accordingly. Knowing that you are or are not making a profit is good, but with further consideration you can find out what search terms are getting the best results, and which are getting the worse. If a certain keyword is not making you any money then your money spent there could obviously be spent better. Tracking your keywords can be done easily, though not to perfection, with affiliate tracking methods using browser cookies.

In the end it is simply important to realize that within the realm of search engine advertising there is a lot to work with, and it is important to experiment to find out what works best for your website. With careful planning you can greatly increase your profit margin.