It's easy to get caught up in the rising costs of PPC marketing. Unfortunately, it's something we'll just have to get used to as recent reports indicate that PPC will only get more expensive as more players enter the field and the competition gets stiffer. Don't despair just yet, because there is something you can do: combine cost per click smarts with intelligent metrics analysis to increase your returns.

Cost per click (CPC) is the amount you pay a PPC engine for a single click to your website, and is measured differently engine to engine. With Google AdWords, CPC is lowered by a high clickthrough rate (CTR): the more relevant your ad is, the more clicks you'll get, and the lower your CPC will be. Over at Yahoo! Search Marketing, CPC is calculated by simply paying 1 cent more than an advertiser positioned below you.

In the right circumstance, lowering your CPC can actually increase your CTR for the same budget! The key is optimizing the relevance of your ads. Always choose targeted keywords for your ad copy, and conduct bid management at the keyword level. Well-written ads can outperform poorly written ads even if top positioning is not attained.

Sometimes, paying more per click is necessary if you are going after an ad position for a specific reason, such as increasing brand awareness. The big picture comes into focus here: it's not just about lowering your CPC, but increasing your customer acquisition. Afterall, what good is a heap of paid clicks if users aren't following through on your website and becoming customers? Truly, it's your conversion rate that is the most important number, not your CPC, and metrics analysis can play a huge part in tweaking your ad copy and landing pages to increase this number.

As the PPC industry matures–and gets more expensive–it's imperative for marketers to arm themselves with techniques that lower their paid search costs while increasing returns. Knowing how to effectively manipulate your CPC and analyze campaign metrics can help keep you on top of the game.