Paid Search refers to ads placed in search engines above ‘organic’ (ie non-paid for) search results. Most search engines add in these ads, and these are how search engines make money.
On Google people can use Google Ads in order to advertise on specific keywords. Google has repeatedly assured people that their search and ads divisions are kept strictly separate. However (unsurprisingly) optimising ads for search, and optimising web pages for SEO are very similar processes.
Studies have shown that if you run a paid search ad above a high ranking organic search result of yours, you’ll get more clicks than having either alone. It’s a sort of 1+1=3 effect. This means that you should find pages that are already performing well on search engines, and then run ads for those pages.
This might seem like a sort of scam run by Google, but in fact, it happens for a much simpler reason than that. If you have an ad and a high ranking search result on the same page, then your brand is taking up more of the page. It really is that simple – more screen space means more clicks.
Note: This is just a top-level guide. If you have anything to add, please get in touch at justin@theonlineadvertisingguide.com
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