Section 1: Paid Search Advertising Explained

The following short story portrays how search engines utilize a PPC advertising model in which the search engine, advertisers, and searchers can all come out ahead.

The Story of Darrell and Bart

Darrell is an avid wakeboarder. When his well-used wakeboard breaks one Saturday, he does not hesitate to begin his search for a replacement. That night he does a Google search for “wakeboards.”

Darrell would be the perfect customer for Bart’s Water Sports website. Bart’s website sells water sports equipment of all varieties, such as wetsuits, tow ropes, paddle boards, and, of course, wakeboards. Bart likes advertising on Google because he knows his advertisements are only being shown to people who are interested in the products he sells. Whenever someone searches for “wakeboards,” Bart tries to make sure Google shows his advertisement on the search engine results page (SERP).

When Darrell searched for “wakeboards,” Google showed this page (Figure 6.1.1). The fourth advertisement was for Bart’s Water Sports. Bart had written the ad long before. He offered a $40 gift card because it was something different than the other wakeboard advertisers were offering, and he hoped it would entice a good share of searchers to click on his ad and consider buying one of the many wakeboards he had in stock. Bart did not have to pay Google anything for his ad to show up on the SERP. He only pays when someone clicks on his ad.

Fortunately for Bart, Darrell does click on Bart’s ad. For whatever reason, the offer of a $40 gift card was attractive to Darrell, so he saw Bart’s wakeboards page (Figure 6.1.2).

When Darrell clicked on Bart’s ad, Bart was charged $.88 by Google. Bart was happy to pay this charge because he knew he had the chance to earn a paying customer. After browsing all of the wakeboards Bart had to offer, Darrell purchased a wakeboard for $340, so the $.88 was well-spent.

In well-managed search engine campaigns, everyone can come out ahead. In this particular example, Darrell came out ahead because he found a wakeboard he liked. Bart came out ahead because he made a $340 wakeboard sale and only spent $0.88 to get Darrell to his website. The search engine came out ahead because it earned $0.88 for connecting Darrell and Bart.

Not everyone who advertises on search engines comes out ahead like Bart. The goal of this chapter is to provide the skills necessary to make your website a winner in the search advertising realm.