When we enter any phrase in the search engine, we get a whole list of website addresses – SERP (search engine result pages). However, if there are pages with the annotation Ads at the top of the results, these will be paid search results. In this article, you will learn what paid search advertising is and how you can use it.
Table of Contents
What is paid search
To explain what paid search advertising really is, you first need to understand how search engines work. In the initial period of the Internet operation, in order to visit any website, you had to enter the address of that website in the appropriate browser window, or alternatively click a link to the website.
Why search engines were created
With time, when more and more websites started to appear, special tools for cataloging and presenting to users specific website proposals were created. For more information on how search engines work, see organic traffic vs paid traffic.
The purpose of internet search engines is to scan the content of pages and catalog them appropriately on the basis of their content. This process is called page indexing. Each time a user of the Internet, in search for information, enters a specific phrase into the search engine, the search engine’s algorithm will display a list of proposals matched to the content of the query.
Every owner of a website wants to achieve the highest position in the search results, but not everyone is given this. The creators of search engines make sure that the content of the proposed pages is best suited to the search phrase – the keyword.
Therefore, in order to appear on the first page of a search engine, website creators have to try very hard to optimize the website for the search engine. The use of SEO techniques does not guarantee the first position in the SERP, but it significantly increases the chances of getting a good result.
How paid search results work
Search engines, allows any site to be placed in search results for free. The so-called paid search results is a service in which the owner of the search engine charges a fee for each click on the advertised link.
This way of promoting a website is very effective because our content only reaches people who are actively looking for it. Displaying the advertisement for our website is triggered after entering a phrase – a keyword, specified by the website owner. Paid search results can be assigned to several key phrases simultaneously.
PPC (pay-per-click) ads are very often used in marketing campaigns. Their biggest advantage is the immediate result and easy assessment of the amount of return on investment. The biggest disadvantages is a very high costs generated by paid search results. A carelessly run paid search campaign can quickly drain the whole advertising budget.
How to apply paid search results
Before you start spending large sums of money on search engine advertising, make sure your website is properly optimized. PPC rate is set individually for each domain and for each keyword. Many factors have an impact on the price of the bid, including the current position of the page in the search engine.
The keyword that we want to position using paid search, should best match the content on the website to which the ad will refer.
The greatest impact on the cost of the bid for a single click is the competitiveness of a given key phrase, and the method of its determination or specification. In a Google Adwords advertising campaign, you can choose three types of keyword matching to the paid search results. Broad, exact, or phrase match.
An exact match means that your ad will only be displayed if a search engine user enters a specific phrase. Broad match means that your chosen keyword may or may not appear as one of the words in your search term. On the other hand, phrase match assumes that the keyword must appear in the searched keyword.
Using broad-matching keyword will generate the most clicks within a given budget, but the “quality” of the visits generated in this way may not be the highest.
Exactly matching the phrase produces the most valuable traffic, but the rate for a single click can be high. It may also turn out that the phrase we choose will not be popular, and therefore will not provide enough visits.
Read this article in Polish: Płatne wyniki wyszukiwania.
