{"id":14331,"date":"2018-01-22T14:58:06","date_gmt":"2018-01-22T14:58:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/clearcode.cc\/?p=14331"},"modified":"2024-05-15T13:22:00","modified_gmt":"2024-05-15T13:22:00","slug":"what-is-search-advertising","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/clearcode.cc\/blog\/what-is-search-advertising\/","title":{"rendered":"What Is Search Advertising and How Does It Work?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Paid search advertising (also known as sponsored ads, search marketing, search-engine marketing, pay-per-click marketing, and cost-per-click marketing) is a technique that displays ads in search-engine results whenever someone searches for the services or products offered by the advertiser. In this way, the ad displayed perfectly matches each query.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Search advertising is very effective; it is based on the explicit need of the users, rather than just on implicit information about what they might be after. This, naturally, increases the likelihood of clicks and conversion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Google is the world\u2019s leading provider of search ads. Its AdWords service allows companies offering products or services to pay for their ads based on the queries of Internet users entered into the search box. It is quite simple\u2014when your results page loads, there are ad boxes with relevant ads displayed next to organic results.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Businesses which advertise in the search results are not charged until somebody clicks on one of their ads, which explains why it\u2019s known as \u201cpay-per-click\u201d (PPC) advertising. Typically, this advertising technique is offered by search-engine companies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What Are Search Ads?<\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Whenever you look for a product or service online, Google (or any other search-engine provider) displays a results page consisting of both organic<\/a> and sponsored results. The ads can be displayed in many ways, but search engines typically indicate which results are sponsored and which are not.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Search
Google search ads in the wild<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In Google Search results, sponsored entries are typically displayed as the top few results, and some are also displayed at the bottom of the page. Currently, Google is marking paid search results with a small green \u201cAd\u201d symbol next to them, letting you know they are not organic. Some of Google\u2019s previous implementations of sponsored results included different backgrounds (yellow, blue) and yellow-colored \u201cAd\u201d icons. Ginny Marvin goes more in-depth about these changes in her post<\/a> on Search Engine Land<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"evolution
Evolution of Google search ads<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Who Offers Search Ads?<\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Most search-engine companies provide advertisers with platforms that allow them to display ads in their search results (Google does it via AdWords<\/a>, Bing does it via Bing Ads<\/a>, etc.). This is a natural way for search providers to capitalize on their huge user base and their users\u2019 intent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While the dominance of Google on the market of search ads is undeniable, a comprehensive search-marketing strategy should also consider displaying search ads on engines like Bing and Yahoo. Also, some markets demonstrate a penchant for specific search providers. For instance, Baidu<\/a>, while obscure to most people in Europe and the US, is one of the leading internet companies in China. Similarly, Yandex<\/a> is currently the largest search engine in Russia, where it boasts a whopping 65% market share, a proportion that cannot be ignored when developing a global search-advertising strategy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While the global search-engine market<\/a> is currently dominated by Google with an eye-watering 77% market share (and growing), it is impossible to ignore the audiences gathered by some of the other search runners-up:<\/p>\n\n\n\n