Pay per click advertising is a method of attracting visitors through sponsored listings at major search engines through services like Google AdWords, Yahoo Search Marketing, or MSN Live Search.
As you may have already discovered, search engine marketing is the fastest growing segment of the online advertising business, if not the entire advertising industry! The reason being that search engine advertising delivers very high quality leads naturally.
Search engine marketing is an active marketing strategy, as opposed to a passive strategy like print, radio, or television. This is because with search engines, a potential customer has actively indicated their interest in a certain product or service by virtue of their having typed it into the search engine!
By identifying the keyword phrases individuals are most likely to enter into search engines when looking for products and services like yours, then reserving those keywords in programs like Google's AdWords, you can direct very targetted visitors to your website. When managed by an experienced professional, this can result in great conversion rates and very cost effective advertising.