PPC is most commonly used for making direct sales of a specific product – but that’s not all it’s good for. In fact, you may be missing out on some great opportunities to use PPC to build your business. For example…

Using PPC to Build an Opt-In List. You get much more for your “click money” by turning one-time traffic into a mailing list. Persuade a certain percentage of your traffic to give you their email address, and you get more mileage for your PPC dollar.

Some marketers run PPC ad campaigns for the sole purpose of building their opt-in lists. Offer a free ebook, email course, audio or video, or a special report in your ad. Yes, you’ll mostly get freebie seekers on your list, but it’s not difficult to turn freebie seekers into buyers with the right follow-up emails. And now you have the opportunity to convert them into buyers over and over again.

When using PPC to build a list, from the very beginning you’ll need to keep a close eye on your budget and conversions. Constantly calculate what it’s costing you to get a subscriber, and compare that to what it would cost you in time, effort, and money to get those subscribers in other ways.

Using PPC as a Lead Generator. Many people confuse lead generation with building an opt-in list. You’ll end up with some percentage of freebie seekers on an opt-in list – and those are not necessarily leads. To generate true leads, you need to compose your PPC ad copy to attract clicks from people who are not merely interested, but “almost ready to buy.”

To generate leads, you might very well use some “mystery” in the ad, but you must still be clear enough to get the right people to click the ad. Telling the visitor that they can get specific information about a specific product or service – such as a loan quote – often gets the best results.

Using PPC as a Viral Generator. Viral marketing still works handsomely on the Internet, and is a perfect way to reach the largest portion of your market without having to do all the work yourself.

First, you need a viral marketing vehicle, such as an ebook, a report, or an article, and it needs to be brandable, so that others can give it away for you (a PDF brander like ViralPDF is a great way to make reports brandable).

Second, create an ad that’s directed not towards potential buyers but to potential sellers. You need other marketers who play in your niche to give your freebie away. Within the freebie, be sure to encourage everyone to give it away, so that it becomes truly viral.

Using PPC with Unique Landing Pages for Your Own Product. Let’s say you have developed a product that covers many different aspects of weight loss. Obviously it’s going to be difficult to compete in the huge weight loss market with other PPC marketers.

But you could select keywords that target specific sub-groups within the weight loss market. Write ads around those keywords that target each individual group. Then create landing pages, with different targeted sales copy, for each of those individual groups. Custom ads + custom landing pages for your OWN products can really increase conversions and put more money in your pocket.