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Search Engine Marketing (SEM) or Paid Search overview
When done effectively, paid search is an excellent, cost-effective medium to target drive traffic to your site. Paid search provides advertisers with great flexibility and the extraordinary opportunity to reach millions of potential customers with thousands of keywords.
While natural search refers to all unpaid search results based on relevance, paid search refers to all pay-for-placement results. On Google, for instance, the paid search results appear on the far-right column labeled "Sponsored Links".
Paid search services like Google typically sell listings on a cost-per-click (CPC) basis - this is also referred to as pay-per-click (PPC). In CPC or PPC programs, advertisers pay for each click-through on a pay-for-placement advertisement. How much does a click cost? The cost is determined by the demand of the particular word or phrase. Advertisers will never be charged more than the declared maximum and, when there are no competing bids, will automatically be charged the minimum amount (which ranges between $0.01 and $0.10, depending upon the PPC program).
If you are new to paid search and seek more detailed information, we encourage you to visit the following pages:
In addition to "naming your price," you are able to selectively target their audiences. By controlling which keywords your ads appear alongside, you only reach relevant users. PPC engines like Google, Overture, and Ah-Ha give advertisers nearly unlimited control of targeted keywords using "matching" categories. The following are "matching" types offered by Google:
Broad match
Simply enter your keyword: cell phone
The ad appears when users search on the keywords cell and phone, regardless of other search terms used or of the order in which they are entered.
Exact match
Use brackets around your keyword: [cell phone]
Ad appears when users search only on the phrase cell phone. Ad will not show if cell phone service is searched.
Phrase match
Use quotes around your keyword: "cell phone"
Ad appears when a phrase incorporating cell phone is searched for. Ad will show for lightweight cell phone but not for cell lightweight phone.
Negative keyword
Use a dash before your keyword: -Motorola
If your keyword is cell phone and your negative keyword is -Motorola, your ad will not show if a user searches on Motorola cell phone, cell phone Nokia Motorola, etc.
