{"id":33336,"date":"2015-11-23T15:29:00","date_gmt":"2015-11-23T15:29:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.searchenginewatch.com\/2015\/11\/23\/paid-search-and-ppc-a-super-accessible-beginners-guide\/"},"modified":"2020-02-14T17:12:03","modified_gmt":"2020-02-14T17:12:03","slug":"paid-search-and-ppc-a-super-accessible-beginners-guide","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/2015\/11\/23\/paid-search-and-ppc-a-super-accessible-beginners-guide\/","title":{"rendered":"Paid search and PPC: a super accessible beginner\u2019s guide"},"content":{"rendered":"

Presenting a guide purely for the individual just entering the crazy world of search marketing.<\/strong><\/p>\n

This will hopefully touch on all the various elements you might hear uttered in the same breath as paid search<\/a>, taking in such puzzling acronyms as PPC<\/a>, CPM, CPC, SERP plus a few other made-up ones that I\u2019ll throw in just for fun.<\/p>\n

First of all though, let\u2019s answer the most obvious question\u2026<\/p>\n

What is paid search?<\/h3>\n

On a search engine <\/a>results page (SERP), you can pay for your website to appear in specific sections of the results. These paid-for ads normally appear at the top of a SERP, to the right-hand side, or within a separate \u2018Shopping<\/a>\u2019 section.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s the Google SERP for the term \u2018confetti cannon\u2019 and you can see how ads dominate the page…<\/p>\n

Update: Google has now removed ads on the right-hand side of the page<\/a>. You may now find up to four ads on the top paid search field and product-listing ads in the right hand space.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"confetti-cannon-google-search\"<\/p>\n

You may also notice that the ads look increasingly like naturally occuring results that aren’t paid for (organic results), they\u2019re simply labelled with a little yellow \u2018Ads\u2019 symbol.<\/p>\n

Previously, paid results were defined by a beige box, presumably this was removed as searchers were getting used to ignoring the coloured listings in the same way nobody pays attention to banner ads anymore.<\/p>\n

\"chocolate-fountain-google-search\"<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not just Google that offers an ad service, but also Bing and Yahoo too…<\/p>\n

\"confetti-cannon-bing-serp\"<\/p>\n

\"confetti-cannon-yahoo-search-results\"<\/p>\n

Google\u2019s offering is called AdWords. Bing and Yahoo share networks through their own paid search tools, Bing Ads and Yahoo Gemini. There has been an agreement between Google and Yahoo<\/a> to serve Google results on the Yahoo SERPs, but this is subject to review by the United State Department of Justice, but let\u2019s not get bogged down in that right now.<\/p>\n

Why is paid search important?<\/h3>\n

Google makes the majority of its revenue from advertising. Whether that\u2019s through the paid-for AdWords results on SERPs, or display advertising throughout its AdSense<\/a> network or pre-roll ads on YouTube, advertising is what keeps Google thundering along.<\/p>\n

Of the $17.3bn it made in Q1 2015, $15.5bn was from advertising sales<\/a>, rather than say driverless cars or Google Glass. Then again, that still leaves $1.8bn in revenue from other products, so it\u2019s nothing to be cynical about.<\/p>\n

Basically this all means that paid ads on SERPs are going to be part of your search experience for the long-haul, and they\u2019re probably only going to dominate search results even more in the future and become even less transparent, as search engines<\/a> figure out ways to drive revenue while keeping on the right side of transparency.<\/p>\n

But don\u2019t lose heart, you can use paid search to your advantage, especially if your site is new and struggling to achieve any presence on the SERPs with your current search engine optimisation (SEO) strategy.<\/p>\n

And you don\u2019t necessarily need to spend a small fortune to do so, as long as you carry out some thorough keyword research<\/a> and employ some imaginative tactics, paid search can be an effective revenue stream for even the smallest niche website.<\/p>\n

Heck, you don\u2019t even need to be a business. I can just run a paid search campaign right now for the term \u2018Christopher Ratcliff\u2019 and anyone who searches for me will be served with an advert that I wrote myself saying \u201ceditor, writer, strong yet tender companion\u201d with a link to a few online reviews from Peeple. Watch the traffic pour in!<\/p>\n

What is Google AdWords?<\/h3>\n

It\u2019s important to talk more about AdWords just because it is so popular, and in doing so I can explain a few more terms used in paid search.<\/p>\n

The basic principle of AdWords (and indeed all other paid search tools) is as follows:<\/p>\n