SEARCH ADVERTISING
Google and other search engines place “Pay Per Click” (PPC) advertising (also known as “sponsored links”) alongside their organic search results, this is known as "Search Advertising". This normally works on a bidding system, advertisers bid for keywords and key phrases they think their target market will use to search for information, services or products related to them.
Each time someone searches using that keyword or phrase the search engine places the advert alongside the search results. The advertiser then pays if the user clicks on their advert, to be taken to the web page specified by the advertiser when the advert was created. The search engine then charges the advertiser their bid price for the keywords used in the search.
 Advertisers with a larger budget can achieve more impressions (the number of times an advert appears to those using the search engine) and can afford more clicks, but this does not necessarily guarantee a high “click through rate”, known as 'CTR'.
This is important because Google will change the ranking of advertisements according to their popularity, not just the amount bid by advertisers. So an advertiser can achieve higher ranking in the advert lists with an advert that is more relevant and achieves a higher click-through rate than rival adverts for which competitors have made higher bids on the same key words or key phrases.
Advertising with the search engines can ensure visibility on the search engine results page for an organisation, brand or service where SEO has not yet delivered results.
As a short-term answer to low search engine ranking or as part of a general marketing campaign, search engine advertising can be very effective but, just as with SEO, to fully exploit the potential of search engine advertising an investment of time, resources, skills and knowhow are required.
[This section is currently being updated - please check back soon.]
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