Online Ads 101: What are Search Ads?

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What are search ads?

Online Ads 101 delivers another concise video to help us understand how search ads work. We search for just about anything and everything each and every day without stopping and thinking how paid search actually works.

Search Engine Heat Map

Search Engine Heat Map

Search ads appear on the results page of a search engine such as Google, Yahoo or Bing. When you search for anything on a search engine, the links you see in the middle of the page are known as organic search results.  Above and to the right of the organic search results are paid results. (ads) These ads are not generated at random but are highly targeted to specific keywords, marketing products and services closely related to what you are searching for.

How does paid search work?

Here is how paid search works in simple terms. The advertiser picks keywords or phrases that someone might enter when searching for something similar to their product or service. Next, The advertiser sets a bid for each keyword. Advertisers are able to set limits for how much they are willing to bid on each keyword. Some keywords are much more valuable then others and the bidding can get very competitive.

Advertisers will also have to create a customized text ad that will appear in the paid search ad slot. If you would like to create sample text ad’s, use a basic generator like TextAdBuddy

TextAdBuddy

Text Ad Generator

The advertiser will enter into an auction based ecosystem with other advertisers who are competing for the same keywords. The bid and relevance of the advertisement are both taken into consideration to determine who will ultimately win the auction and be served in the top slot. The next highest bidder will be in the second slot and this continues until there are no paid slots left to show an ad.

Remember, every time there is a search a real time bidding war occurs instantaneously!