Search engine marketing (SEM)

Search engine marketing (SEM) is a form of Internet marketing that involves the promotion of websites by increasing their visibility in search engine results pages (SERPs) primarily through paid advertising.[1] SEM may incorporate search engine optimization (SEO), which adjusts or rewrites website content and site architecture to achieve a higher ranking in search engine results pages to enhance pay per click (PPC) listings.[2]

 Contents

1              Market

2              History

3              Methods and metrics

4              Paid inclusion

5              Comparison with SEO

6              Ethical questions

7              Examples

8              See also

9              References

Market

In 2007, U.S. advertisers spent US $24.6 billion on search engine marketing.[3] In Q2 2015, Google (73.7%) and the Yahoo/Bing (26.3%) partnership accounted for almost 100% of U.S. search engine spend.[4] As of 2006, SEM was growing much faster than traditional advertising and even other channels of online marketing.[5] Managing search campaigns is either done directly with the SEM vendor or through an SEM tool provider. It may also be self-serve or through an advertising agency. As of October 2016, Google leads the global search engine market with a market share of 89.3%. Bing comes second with a market share of 4.36%, Yahoo comes third with a market share of 3.3%, and Chinese search engine Baidu is fourth globally with a share of about 0.68%.[6]

 

History

As the number of sites on the Web increased in the mid-to-late 1990s, search engines started appearing to help people find information quickly. Search engines developed business models to finance their services, such as pay per click programs offered by Open Text[7] in 1996 and then Goto.com[8] in 1998. Goto.com later changed its name[9] to Overture in 2001, was purchased by Yahoo! in 2003, and now offers paid search opportunities for advertisers through Yahoo! Search Marketing. Google also began to offer advertisements on search results pages in 2000 through the Google AdWords program. By 2007, pay-per-click programs proved to be primary moneymakers[10] for search engines. In a market dominated by Google, in 2009 Yahoo! and Microsoft announced the intention to forge an alliance. The Yahoo! & Microsoft Search Alliance eventually received approval from regulators in the US and Europe in February 2010.[11]

 

Search engine optimization consultants expanded their offerings to help businesses learn about and use the advertising opportunities offered by search engines, and new agencies focusing primarily upon marketing and advertising through search engines emerged. The term "search engine marketing" was popularized by Danny Sullivan in 2001[12] to cover the spectrum of activities involved in performing SEO, managing paid listings at the search engines, submitting sites to directories, and developing online marketing strategies for businesses, organizations, and individuals.

 

Methods and metrics

Search engine marketing uses at least five methods and metrics to optimize websites.[citation needed]

 

Keyword research and analysis involve three "steps": ensuring the site can be indexed in the search engines, finding the most relevant and popular keywords for the site and its products, and using those keywords on the site in a way that will generate and convert traffic. A follow-on effect of keyword analysis and research is the search perception impact.[13] Search perception impact describes the identified impact of a brand's search results on consumer perception, including title and meta tags, site indexing, and keyword focus. As online searching is often the first step for potential consumers/customers, the search perception impact shapes the brand impression for each individual.

Website saturation and popularity, or how much presence a website has on search engines, can be analyzed through the number of pages of the site that are indexed by search engines (saturation) and how many backlinks the site has (popularity). It requires pages to contain keywords people are looking for and ensure that they rank high enough in search engine rankings. Most search engines include some form of link popularity in their ranking algorithms. The following are major tools measuring various aspects of saturation and link popularity: Link Popularity, Top 10 Google Analysis, and Marketleap's Link Popularity and Search Engine Saturation.

Back end tools, including Web analytic tools and HTML validators, provide data on a website and its visitors and allow the success of a website to be measured. They range from simple traffic counters to tools that work with log files and to more sophisticated tools that are based on page tagging (putting JavaScript or an image on a page to track actions). These tools can deliver conversion-related information. There are three major tools used by EBSCO: (a) log file analyzing tool: WebTrends by NetiQ; (b) tag-based analytic tool: WebSideStory's Hitbox; and (c) transaction-based tool: TeaLeaf RealiTea. Validators check the invisible parts of websites, highlighting potential problems and many usability issues and ensuring websites meet W3C code standards. Try to use more than one HTML validator or spider simulator because each one tests, highlights, and reports on slightly different aspects of your website.

Whois tools reveal the owners of various websites and can provide valuable information relating to copyright and trademark issues.

Google Mobile-Friendly Website Checker: This test will analyze a URL and report if the page has a mobile-friendly design.[14]

Search engine marketing is a way to create and edit a website so that search engines rank it higher than other pages. It should be also focused on keyword marketing or pay-per-click advertising (PPC). The technology enables advertisers to bid on specific keywords or phrases and ensures ads appear with the results of search engines.

 

With the development of this system, the price is growing under a high level of competition. Many advertisers prefer to expand their activities, including increasing search engines and adding more keywords. The more advertisers are willing to pay for clicks, the higher the ranking for advertising, which leads to higher traffic.[15] PPC comes at a cost. The higher position is likely to cost $5 for a given keyword, and $4.50 for a third location. A third advertiser earns 10% less than the top advertiser while reducing traffic by 50%.[15]

 

Investors must consider their return on investment when engaging in PPC campaigns. Buying traffic via PPC will deliver a positive ROI when the total cost-per-click for a single conversion remains below the profit margin. That way the amount of money spent to generate revenue is below the actual revenue generated.

 

There are many reasons explaining why advertisers choose the SEM strategy. First, creating a SEM account is easy and can build traffic quickly based on the degree of competition. The shopper who uses the search engine to find information tends to trust and focus on the links showed in the results pages. However, a large number of online sellers do not buy search engine optimization to obtain higher ranking lists of search results but prefer paid links. A growing number of online publishers are allowing search engines such as Google to crawl content on their pages and place relevant ads on it.[16] From an online seller's point of view, this is an extension of the payment settlement and an additional incentive to invest in paid advertising projects. Therefore, it is virtually impossible for advertisers with limited budgets to maintain the highest rankings in the increasingly competitive search market.

 

Google's search engine marketing is one of the western world's marketing leaders, while its search engine marketing is its biggest source of profit.[17] Google's search engine providers are clearly ahead of the Yahoo and Bing network. The display of unknown search results is free, while advertisers are willing to pay for each click of the ad in the sponsored search results.

 

Paid inclusion

Paid inclusion involves a search engine company charging fees for the inclusion of a website in their results pages. Also known as sponsored listings, paid inclusion products are provided by most search engine companies either in the main results area or as a separately identified advertising area.

 

The fee structure is both a filter against superfluous submissions and a revenue generator. Typically, the fee covers an annual subscription for one webpage, which will automatically be catalogued on a regular basis. However, some companies are experimenting with non-subscription based fee structures where purchased listings are displayed permanently. A per-click fee may also apply. Each search engine is different. Some sites allow only paid inclusion, although these have had little success. More frequently, many search engines, like Yahoo!,[18] mix paid inclusion (per-page and per-click fee) with results from web crawling. Others, like Google (and as of 2006, Ask.com[19][20]), do not let webmasters pay to be in their search engine listing (advertisements are shown separately and labeled as such).

 

Some detractors of paid inclusion allege that it causes searches to return results based more on the economic standing of the interests of a web site, and less on the relevancy of that site to end-users.

 

Often the line between pay per click advertising and paid inclusion is debatable. Some have lobbied for any paid listings to be labeled as an advertisement, while defenders insist they are not actually ads since the webmasters do not control the content of the listing, its ranking, or even whether it is shown to any users. Another advantage of paid inclusion is that it allows site owners to specify particular schedules for crawling pages. In the general case, one has no control as to when their page will be crawled or added to a search engine index. Paid inclusion proves to be particularly useful for cases where pages are dynamically generated and frequently modified.

 

Paid inclusion is a search engine marketing method in itself, but also a tool of search engine optimization since experts and firms can test out different approaches to improving ranking and see the results often within a couple of days, instead of waiting weeks or months. Knowledge gained this way can be used to optimize other web pages, without paying the search engine company.

 

Comparison with SEO

SEM is the wider discipline that incorporates SEO. SEM includes both paid search results (using tools like Google Adwords or Bing Ads, formerly known as Microsoft adCenter) and organic search results (SEO). SEM uses paid advertising with AdWords or Bing Ads, pay per click (particularly beneficial for local providers as it enables potential consumers to contact a company directly with one click), article submissions, advertising and making sure SEO has been done. A keyword analysis is performed for both SEO and SEM, but not necessarily at the same time. SEM and SEO both need to be monitored and updated frequently to reflect evolving best practices.

 

In some contexts, the term SEM is used exclusively to mean pay per click advertising,[2] particularly in the commercial advertising and marketing communities which have a vested interest in this narrow definition. Such usage excludes the wider search marketing community that is engaged in other forms of SEM such as search engine optimization and search retargeting.

 

Creating the link between SEO and PPC represents an integral part of the SEM concept. Sometimes, especially when separate teams work on SEO and PPC and the efforts are not synced, positive results of aligning their strategies can be lost. The aim of both SEO and PPC is maximizing the visibility in search and thus, their actions to achieve it should be centrally coordinated. Both teams can benefit from setting shared goals and combined metrics, evaluating data together to determine future strategy or discuss which of the tools works better to get the traffic for selected keywords in the national and local search results. Thanks to this, the search visibility can be increased along with optimizing both conversions and costs.[21]

 

Another part of SEM is social media marketing (SMM). SMM is a type of marketing that involves exploiting social media to influence consumers that one company’s products and/or services are valuable.[22] Some of the latest theoretical advances include search engine marketing management (SEMM). SEMM relates to activities including SEO but focuses on return on investment (ROI) management instead of relevant traffic building (as is the case of mainstream SEO). SEMM also integrates organic SEO, trying to achieve top ranking without using paid means to achieve it, and pay per click SEO. For example, some of the attention is placed on the web page layout design and how content and information is displayed to the website visitor. SEO & SEM are two pillars of one marketing job and they both run side by side to produce much better results than focusing on only one pillar.

 

Ethical questions

Paid search advertising has not been without controversy and the issue of how search engines present advertising on their search result pages has been the target of a series of studies and reports[23][24][25] by Consumer Reports WebWatch. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) also issued a letter[26] in 2002 about the importance of disclosure of paid advertising on search engines, in response to a complaint from Commercial Alert, a consumer advocacy group with ties to Ralph Nader.

 

Another ethical controversy associated with search marketing has been the issue of trademark infringement. The debate as to whether third parties should have the right to bid on their competitors' brand names has been underway for years. In 2009 Google changed their policy, which formerly prohibited these tactics, allowing 3rd parties to bid on branded terms as long as their landing page in fact provides information on the trademarked term.[27] Though the policy has been changed this continues to be a source of heated debate.[28]

 

On April 24, 2012, many started to see that Google has started to penalize companies that are buying links for the purpose of passing off the rank. The Google Update was called Penguin. Since then, there have been several different Penguin/Panda updates rolled out by Google. SEM has, however, nothing to do with link buying and focuses on organic SEO and PPC management. As of October 20, 2014, Google had released three official revisions of their Penguin Update.

 

In 2013, the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals held in Lens.com, Inc. v. 1-800 Contacts, Inc. that online contact lens seller Lens.com did not commit trademark infringement when it purchased search advertisements using competitor 1-800 Contacts' federally registered 1800 CONTACTS trademark as a keyword. In August 2016, the Federal Trade Commission filed an administrative complaint against 1-800 Contacts alleging, among other things, that its trademark enforcement practices in the search engine marketing space have unreasonably restrained competition in violation of the FTC Act. 1-800 Contacts has denied all wrongdoing and appeared before an FTC administrative law judge in April 2017.[29]

 

Examples

AdWords is recognized as a web-based advertising utensil since it adopts keywords that can deliver adverts explicitly to web users looking for information in respect to a certain product or service. It is flexible and provides customizable options like Ad Extensions, access to non-search sites, leveraging the display network to help increase brand awareness. The project hinges on cost per click (CPC) pricing where the maximum cost per day for the campaign can be chosen, thus the payment of the service only applies if the advert has been clicked. SEM companies have embarked on AdWords projects as a way to publicize their SEM and SEO services. One of the most successful approaches to the strategy of this project was to focus on making sure that PPC advertising funds were prudently invested. Moreover, SEM companies have described AdWords as a practical tool for increasing a consumer’s investment earnings on Internet advertising. The use of conversion tracking and Google Analytics tools was deemed to be practical for presenting to clients the performance of their canvas from click to conversion. AdWords project has enabled SEM companies to train their clients on the utensil and delivers better performance to the canvass. The assistance of AdWord canvass could contribute to the growth of web traffic for a number of its consumer’s websites, by as much as 250% in only nine months.[30]

 

Another way search engine marketing is managed is by contextual advertising. Here marketers place ads on other sites or portals that carry information relevant to their products so that the ads jump into the circle of vision of browsers who are seeking information from those sites. A successful SEM plan is the approach to capture the relationships amongst information searchers, businesses, and search engines. Search engines were not important to some industries in the past, but over the past years the use of search engines for accessing information has become vital to increase business opportunities.[31] The use of SEM strategic tools for businesses such as tourism can attract potential consumers to view their products, but it could also pose various challenges.[32] These challenges could be the competition that companies face amongst their industry and other sources of information that could draw the attention of online consumers.[31] To assist the combat of challenges, the main objective for businesses applying SEM is to improve and maintain their ranking as high as possible on SERPs so that they can gain visibility. Therefore, search engines are adjusting and developing algorithms and the shifting criteria by which web pages are ranked sequentially to combat against search engine misuse and spamming, and to supply the most relevant information to searchers.[31] This could enhance the relationship amongst information searchers, businesses, and search engines by understanding the strategies of marketing to attract business.

Google Ads

Google Ads (formerly Google AdWords, before July 24, 2018)[2] is an online advertising platform developed by Google, where advertisers pay to display brief advertisements, service offerings, product listings, video content, and generate mobile application installs within the Google ad network to web users.[3] It can place ads both in the results of search engines like Google Search (the Google Search Network) and on non-search websites, mobile apps, and videos (the Google Display Network).[4][5]

Google Advertising has evolved into Alphabet Inc's main source of revenue, contributing US$134.8 billion in 2019 to Alphabet Inc's total revenues.[6] Google Ads offers services under a pay-per-click (PPC) pricing model. Although an advanced bidding strategy can be used to automatically reach a predefined cost-per-acquisition (CPA), this should not be confused with a true CPA pricing model.[7]

Sales and support for Google's Ads division in the United States is based in Mountain View, California, with major secondary offices in Hyderabad, Dublin, Singapore, Ann Arbor[8] and New York City. The third-largest US facility is the Googleplex,[9] Google's headquarters, which is located in Mountain View, California. Google AdWords engineering is based at the Googleplex, with major secondary offices in Los Angeles and New York.

History

 Former logo of the service

Google launched AdWords in 2000.[1] At first, AdWords advertisers paid for the service monthly, and Google would set up and manage their campaign. To accommodate small businesses and those who wanted to manage their own campaigns, Google soon introduced the AdWords self-service portal. In 2005, Google started a campaign management service called Jumpstart.[10]

In 2005, Google launched the Google Advertising Professional (GAP) Program to certify individuals and companies who completed AdWords training and passed an exam.[citation needed]

In 2008, Google launched the Google Online Marketing Challenge,[11] an in-class academic exercise for tertiary students.[12] Over 8,000 students from 47 countries participated in the challenge in 2008, over 10,000 students from 58 countries took part in 2009, about 12,000 students in 2010, and almost 15,000 students from 70 countries in 2011. The Challenge runs annually, roughly from January to June.

In April 2013, Google announced plans to add enhanced campaigns for AdWords to aid with campaign management catered to multiple-device users. The enhanced campaigns aimed to include advanced reports about users. This move was controversial among advertisers.[13]

In July 2016, Google unveiled "Showcase Shopping" ads. With this format, retailers can choose to have a series of images that appear in search results related to various search queries and keywords.[14]

In October 2017, Google revised AdWords' daily budget caps, which were previously set at a maximum of 120% of preset daily budgets, to a maximum of 200%. This change was rolled out on the same day it was announced, prompting criticism from paid search professionals, though Google later clarified that this change would affect only short-term campaigns of less than 30 days and that for campaigns running more than 30 days, overage charges would be refunded.[15]

On June 27, 2018, Google announced[16] a rebranding of Google AdWords to become Google Ads as of July 24, 2018.[2] In addition to the full range of advertising capabilities on Google.com and across other Google's properties, partner sites and apps, the new Google Ads will offer Smart Campaigns for small businesses who don't have the time or resources to manage complex digital advertising campaigns.[17]

In December 2019, France fined Google with 150 million euros over advertiser suspensions on Google Ads.[18]

After the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak, Google said that it's going to start banning ads from companies that attempt to profit off of panic surrounding the novel coronavirus. It will temporarily ban ads for face masks, which lawmakers and health officials have said aren't all that effective in preventing the spread of the disease and are best left to be worn by medical workers. According to Google's spokesperson, "In the past few weeks, we've seen opportunistic advertisers try to run an unprecedented number of these ads on our platforms. We have a dedicated task force working to combat this issue and have removed millions of ads in the past week alone. We're monitoring the situation closely and continue to make real-time adjustments to protect our users."[19]

How it works[edit]

Google Ads' system is based partly on cookies and partly on keywords determined by advertisers. Google uses these characteristics to place advertising copy on pages where they think it might be relevant. Advertisers pay when users divert their browsing to click on the advertising copy. Partner websites receive a portion of the generated income.[20]

The Google Ads program includes local, national, and international distribution. Google's text advertisements are short, consisting of three headlines with a maximum of 30 characters each, 2 descriptions with a maximum of 90 characters, and a display two URLs of 15 characters each.[21] These are called AdWords expanded text Ads. These mimic what the average search result looks like on Google. Image ads can be one of the several different standardized sizes as designated by the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB). In May 2016, Google announced its reformatting of ads to help consumers and advertisers succeed in a mobile-first world. The new format, called Expanded Text Ads, allows 23% more text. This new format is available on both the Google Search Network and the Google Display network. It features two headlines with 30 characters each, replacing the standard of a single headline with 30 characters. The display URL has been replaced with two 15 character paths, not including the root domain.

Features and services[edit]

Keyword Planner[edit]

Keyword Planner is a tool within Google Ads that provides data around the search queries that users have submitted in the Google search engine and provides other data resources for planning a Google Ads specific advertising campaign.[22]

Keyword Planner[23] helps to build new Search Network campaigns or expand existing campaigns, providing keywords and ad group ideas, search volume trends (average monthly searches), historical statistics, keywords trend, competitions, and bidding.

AdWords Express[edit]

AdWords Express is a feature aimed at small businesses that attempts to reduce the difficulty of managing ad campaigns by automatically managing keywords and ad placement.[24] AdWords Express was previously known as Google Boost.[25]

AdWords Express also supports small businesses that do not have a website by allowing them to direct customers to their Google Place page.[26]

Google Ads Editor[edit]

Google Ads Editor allows users to make bulk changes to ads and edit ads offline. Google Ads Editor is a downloadable program that comes with Google Ads at no extra cost. The program also allows users to see ad performance, like the dashboard.[27]

Google Ads Manager Accounts[edit]

Google Ads Manager Accounts (previously known as My Client Centre (MCC)) allows users to manage multiple accounts from one login and dashboard.[28] This is most commonly used by Marketing and Advertising agencies who manage a large portfolio of client accounts.

Reach Planner[edit]

Reach Planner is a tool that allows users to forecast the reach and extent of their video ads across YouTube and Google video partners.[29] The tool allows users to choose their audience. The tool then recommends a combination of video ads that help reach the user's objectives. The tool also allows users to see the outcomes of the reach of their ads on a reach curve.[30]

IP address exclusion[edit]

In addition to controlling ad placements through targeting audiences based on location and language usage,[31] ad placements can be refined with Internet Protocol (IP) address exclusion. This feature enables advertisers to exclude specified IP address ranges if they do not want their ads to appear there. Advertisers can exclude up to 500 IP address ranges per campaign.

Google Partners[edit]

Google Partners, originally known as Google AdWords Certification Program or Google AdWords Certification, is a Google AdWords partner certification program. To become AdWords certified professional, clients need to pass the Google Ads Fundamentals exam and one of the other Advanced AdWords exams such as Search Advertising, Display Advertising, Video Advertising, Shopping Advertising, Google Analytics, and Mobile Advertising. From January 16, 2018, certification exams moved from Google Partners to Google Academy for Ads.[32]

It replaced Google Advertising Professionals in April 2010, with updates ranging from amended criteria for entries and changes to the exam requirements.[33] The program continues to certify consultants to help the increasing number of Google AdWords clients with AdWords campaigns. The program contains one fundamental exam and five advanced exams.

In order to be individually qualified, a person must pass the program exams. The AdWords qualifications received vary based on which advance exams the individual passes.[34] Google Partners must continue with their best practices by engaging with ongoing professional development. One accredited individual must be certified (two individuals for Google Premier Partners) and a minimum spend threshold of US$10,000 over 90 days must be maintained, with a higher spend threshold for Google Premier Partners.[35]

Placement-targeted advertisements[edit]

Placement-targeted advertisements (formerly Site-Targeted Advertisements) are a feature introduced in 2003 to the AdWords control panel. Using the AdWords control panel, advertisers can enter keywords, domain names, topics, and demographic targeting preferences. Based on this, Google places ads on relevant sites within the content network. If domain names are targeted, Google also provides a list of related sites for placement. Advertisers bid on a cost-per-impression (CPI/CPM) or cost-per-click (CPC) basis for site targeting.[36]

With placement targeting, it is possible for an ad to take up an entire ad block instead of splitting the ad into two to four ads. This leads to higher ad visibility for the advertiser.

The minimum cost-per-thousand impressions bid for placement-targeted campaigns is 25 cents. There is no minimum CPC bid.

Remarketing[edit]

Remarketing is an Google Ads feature that allows marketers to show advertisements to users that have previously visited their website. This feature also allows marketers to create different audience lists based on the behaviors of website visitors in order to serve relevant ads to these segmented audiences. Remarketing Lists for Search (RLSA) via Google Analytics became available in Google Ads in early June 2015, allowing for the use of standard GA remarketing lists to plan traditional text search ads.[37]

A more advanced subtype of remarketing is dynamic remarketing through which advertisers can show past visitors the specific products or services they viewed to further customize the ad experience. This subtype is especially used by e-commerce websites that foster a diverse range of products and services and need to have their remarketing messages relevant to users.[38]

While remarketing is a mainstream practice, it remains to be perceived as an intrusive one to many users as they might feel annoyingly stalked all over the internet. So, it is recommended for Google Ads advertisers to dive deep into optimization practices such as frequency capping so that their remarketing efforts won't backfire and build customer dissatisfaction and distress instead of brand awareness and sales.

Smart Shopping Campaign[edit]

Google Ads Introduced ' 'Smart Shopping' ' Ads by early 2018. This is sub campaign type of shopping campaign, this combines Standard Shopping and Display remarketing features and uses only in Automated bid strategy to promote products listed in Google Merchant Center. Conversion value needs to be passed through website tags to Google Ads in order to use this campaign type.[39]

This campaign works with Google Machine Learning and serves responsive ad in Google's Display Partner Websites, Google Network to drive the ROAS percent in the Campaign settings.

You need to follow certain best practices[39] in Feed file to deliver good results. This campaign type would take priority over standard Shopping and Dynamic Remarketing campaigns.

Ad extensions[edit]

Ad extensions allow advertisers to show extra information with their ads, such as a business address, phone number, or web page links. Ad extensions are created to improve ad visibility and attract clicks. They appear in the Search Network, above organic search results, and at times on the Display Network.

Google Ads shows extensions when it calculates that the extensions will improve the advertiser's campaign performance, or when an ad is ranked high enough for it to appear.

Manual extensions[edit]

App extensions - Allow advertisers to provide a link below the ad text directing users to a mobile or tablet app.

Call extensions - Allow advertisers to include a clickable phone number in their ads.

Location extensions - Allow advertisers to show their business address, phone number, and map marker.

Affiliate Location extensions - Allows advertisers to show business information about retail chain stores that sell their products.

Review extensions - Allow advertisers to showcase positive, third-party reviews from reputable sources.

Sitelink extensions - Allow advertisers to add additional links below their ads.

Callout extensions - Allow advertisers to add additional descriptive text.

Structured Snippet extensions - Allow advertisers to add up to two predefined headers (product or service) like brands or degrees.

Price extensions - Allow advertisers to display prices for products or services.

Message extensions - Allows the ability to connect with advertisers via SMS apps.[40]

Promotion extensions - Allow advertisers to highlight sales and promotions that a business has to offer.

Lead Form extensions - Allow advertisers to capture qualified leads directly in the SERP.

Automated Extensions[edit]

Google Ads creates and displays automated extensions when the system predicts they will improve performance. Automated extensions include:

Consumer Ratings

Seller Ratings

Previous Visits

Dynamic Sitelink Extensions

Dynamic Structured Snippets

Dynamic Image Extensions

Google Click-to-Call[edit]

Google Click-to-Call was a service provided by Google which allowed users to call advertisers straight from Google search results pages. Users entered their phone numbers and Google would connect the call to the advertiser. Google paid for the calling charges. The service was discontinued in 2007.[41] For some time, similar click-to-call functionality was available for results in Google Maps. In the Froyo release of Google's Android operating system, certain advertisements included a very similar functionality. In iOS, phone numbers are automatically recognized as such. Web developers can also provide direct links to the Phone application, providing similar functionality.

Google now offers a mobile click-to-call function which allows searchers to call a business directly rather than going to their website.

Google AdWords Customer Match[edit]

Due to the influence of brand messaging on consumer purchasing habits, Google expanded AdWords to include a Customer Match service. Customer Match allows advertisers to show ads to customers based on data they share with Google, as well as allowing advertisers to bid and create ads tailored to customers.

Google Ad Grants[edit]

The Google Ad Grants program gives eligible nonprofits US$10,000 per month in Google Ads credits.[42] The NGO can either use Smart Campaigns (formerly AdWords express) or their Google Ads account to advertise their cause on the Google Search network. The program has served over 100,000 nonprofits and charities worldwide since its launch in 2003.

Google Universal App Campaigns (UAC)

Google launched a new style of campaign aimed at app developers looking to advertise their app on Google's vast ad network. On this campaign type advertisers don't get to pick who sees their ad and what their ad looks like. Rather the options are to choose some text, images, a destination and a target bid and Google will do the rest for you. Using machine learning Google will try and figure out the best audiences for you using the budget set.

Technology[edit]

The AdWords system was initially implemented on top of the MySQL database engine. After the system had been launched, management decided to use Oracle instead. The system became much slower, and eventually, it was reverted to MySQL.[43] Eventually, Google developed a custom distributed Relational database management system (RDBMS) known as Google F1 specifically for the needs of the Ad business, which requires strong consistency, high scalability across data centers, and powerful SQL queries.

The interface has also been revamped to offer better workflow with additional new features, such as Spreadsheet Editing, Search Query Reports, and better conversion metrics.

Distribution[edit]

All ads on Google Ads are eligible to be shown on Google's search engine. Advertisers also have the option of enabling their ads to show on Google's partner networks. This "search network" includes AOL search, Ask.com, and Netscape. Ads served on partner networks do not affect ad quality score.

The Google Display Network (GDN), formerly referred to as the "content network", shows AdWords ads on sites that are not search engines. These GDN sites serve to publishers on AdSense and DoubleClick, the other side of the Google advertising model. AdSense is used by website owners who wish to make money by displaying ads on their websites. Click-through rates on the display network are typically much lower than those on the search network and quality score for Display Network is calculated separately from Search network.[44]

Further, Google automatically determines the subject of pages and displays relevant ads based on the advertisers' keyword lists. AdSense publishers may select channels to help direct Google's ad placements on pages to increase the performance of their ad units. There are many different types of ads that run across Google's network including text ads, image or banner ads, mobile text ads, and in-page video ads. In February 2016, Google began removing right-hand side ads from AdWords on a desktop in favor of only showing text ads above and below organic search results. Product Listing Ads and the Google Knowledge Graph were unaffected, and can still appear on the right-hand side.

Account management[edit]

 

Google's headquarters in Ireland where all EU Google Ads account management takes place.

To help clients with the complexity of building and managing AdWords accounts, search engine marketing agencies and consultants offer account management services. This allowed organizations without advertising expertise to reach a global online audience. To help regulate Best Practices for AdWords Management, Google implemented the Google Partner Program and the Google Individual Qualification Program, both of which require individuals and agencies to meet benchmarks and pass exams.[45] Google also has its own in-house team of account managers who are assigned to clients to help optimize campaigns, increase returns and keep customers engaged in the platform. Smaller accounts will be assigned to a pool of account managers, whereas larger spending Google Ads users are given a dedicated account manager.

Google also provides an offline account management software, AdWords Editor.

The My Client Center feature is available to Google Professionals, regardless if they have passed the exam or budget parameters yet. With this feature, a Google professional has access to a dashboard summary of several accounts and can move between those accounts without logging into each account.

The Google AdWords Keyword Planner, formerly the Keyword Tool, is a free AdWords tool which gives estimated traffic-per-month for the mentioned keywords. It provides a list of related keywords expected to be equally successful for a specific website or keyword.

The Google Display Planner is an AdWords tool to identify display network keywords, placements, and topics. It helps in expanding the reach of display campaigns while targeting relevant users for a business.[46]

Costs calculation methodology[edit]

The cost of a Google AdWords campaign depends on a variety of factors which include bidding strategies and organization goals. As a result, the amount that an organization needs to spend varies based on industry and the keywords on which they bid. Whenever a user conducts a search on Google, AdWords runs an auction to determine which search ads are displayed on the search results page as well as the ad's position.[47]

Factors[edit]

There are four main factors that affect the cost and bidding factors of a Google AdWords campaign.

Your Bid - The maximum amount you are willing to pay for a click to your ad.

Keywords - Keywords that you target have great impact on the cost as well.

The Quality of Your Ads - The relevancy and usefulness of your ad in contrast to the website it links to.

Extensions & Other Ad Formats - The relevance of your ad extensions or call outs and how frequently they are clicked.

Legal context[edit]

AdWords has generated lawsuits in the area of trademark law (see Google, Inc. v. Am. Blind & Wallpaper Factory and Rescuecom Corp. v. Google Inc.), fraud (see Goddard v. Google, Inc.), and click fraud. In 2006, Google settled a click fraud lawsuit for US$90 million.[48] March 2010, Google was involved with a trademark infringement case involving three French companies that own Louis Vuitton trademarks. The lawsuit concerned if Google was responsible if the advertisers purchasing keywords violate trademark infringement. Ultimately, the Court of Justice of the European Union ruled that Google AdWords were “not a breach of EU trade mark law, but that the content of some advertisements that are linked by Google keywords may well be in breach depending upon the particular facts of the case.” [49] Additionally, in some American jurisdictions, the use of a person's name as a keyword for advertising or trade purposes without the person's consent[50] has raised Right to Privacy concerns.[51]

Overture Services, Inc. sued Google for patent infringement in April 2002 in relation to the AdWords service. The suit was settled in 2004 after Yahoo! acquired Overture; Google agreed to issue 2.7 million shares of common stock to Yahoo! in exchange for a perpetual license under the patent.[52]

In May 2011, Google cancelled the AdWord advertisement purchased by a Dublin sex worker rights group named "Turn Off the Blue Light" (TOBL),[53] claiming that it represented an "egregious violation" of company ad policy by "selling adult sexual services". However, TOBL is a nonprofit campaign for sex worker rights and is not advertising or selling adult sexual services.[54] After TOBL members held a protest outside Google's European headquarters in Dublin and sent in written complaints, Google reviewed the group's website. Google found the website content to be advocating a political position, and restored the AdWord advertisement.[55]

In June 2012, Google rejected the Australian Sex Party's ads for AdWords and sponsored search results for the July 12 by-election for the state seat of Melbourne, saying the Australian Sex Party breached its rules which prevent solicitation of donations by a website that did not display tax exempt status. Although the Australian Sex Party amended its website to display tax deductibility information, Google continued to ban the ads. The ads were reinstated on election eve after it was reported in the media that the Australian Sex Party was considering suing Google. On September 13, 2012, the Australian Sex Party lodged formal complaints against Google with the US Department of Justice and the Australian competition watchdog, accusing Google of "unlawful interference in the conduct of a state election in Victoria with corrupt intent" in violation of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.[56]

In 2013, the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals held in Lens.com, Inc. v. 1-800 Contacts, Inc. that online contact lens seller Lens.com did not commit trademark infringement when it purchased AdWords and other search advertisements using competitor 1-800 Contacts' federally registered 1800 CONTACTS trademark as a keyword. In August 2016, the Federal Trade Commission filed an administrative complaint against 1-800 Contacts alleging that its search advertising trademark enforcement practices have unreasonably restrained competition in violation of the FTC Act. 1-800 Contacts has denied all wrongdoing and is scheduled to appear before an FTC administrative law judge in April 2017.[57]

Ad content restrictions[edit]

As of April 2008, Google AdWords no longer allows for the display URL to deviate from that of the destination URL. Prior to this, paid advertisements could feature different landing page URLs to that of what was being displayed on the search network. Google explained that this policy change stems from both user and advertiser feedback. The concern prompting the restriction change is believed to be the premise on which users clicked advertisements. In some cases, users were being misled and further targeted by AdWords advertisers prior to this change.[58]

As of December 2010, Google AdWords decreased restrictions over sales of hard alcohol.[59] It now allows ads that promote the sale of hard alcohol and liquor. This is an extension of a policy change that was made in December 2008, which permitted ads that promote the branding of hard alcohol and liquor.

Types of keywords[edit]

There are five major types of keywords:[60] BROAD MA

TCH (BM) - This type of keyword match will allow ads to show with: synonyms, variants, related terms, different words, and different concepts.

BROAD MATCH MODIFIED (BMM) - This type of keyword match will allow ads to show with: modified terms established, and in any order.

PHRASE MATCH (PM) - This type of keyword match will allow ads to show with: the enclosed phrase as written, and appended words before or after.

EXACT MATCH (EM) - This type of keyword match will allow ads to show with: the exact term or phrase established. Google still retains some freedom here in terms of misspellings, etc.

NEGATIVE (N) -This type of keyword match will Not allow ads to show with: the negative keywords established.

Example of keyword notation[edit]

Keyword: Taco Shells

BM - Taco Shells

BMM - +Taco +Shells

PM - "Taco Shells"

EM - [Taco Shells]

N - -[Taco Shells]

Allowed keywords

Google has come under fire for allowing AdWords advertisers to bid on trademarked keywords.[61] In 2004, Google started allowing advertisers to bid on a wide variety of search terms in the US and Canada, including trademarks of their competitors[62] and in May 2008 expanded this policy to the UK and Ireland. Advertisers are restricted from using other companies' trademarks in their advertisement text if the trademark has been registered with Advertising Legal Support team. Google requires certification to run regulated keywords, such as those related to pharmaceuticals keywords.

Prohibited keywords[edit]

Some keywords, such as those related to hacking, are not allowed at all. From June 2007, Google banned AdWords adverts for student essay-writing services, a move which received positive feedback from universities.[63] Google has a variety of specific keywords and categories that it prohibits that vary by type and by country.[64] For example, use of keywords for alcohol related products are prohibited in Thailand[65] and Turkey

keywords for gambling and casinos are prohibited in Poland;[67] keywords for abortion services are prohibited in Russia and Ukraine;[68] and keywords for adult related services or products are prohibited worldwide as of June 2014.[69][70] As of March 2020, Google blocked all face masks keywords from being eligible for ads targeting, per the global Coronavirus crisis. Google bans all ads for medical face masks amid coronavirus outbreak

Third-party consumer technical support

In October 2018, Google implemented a policy change which restricts the advertising of consumer technical support, including, "troubleshooting, security, virus removal, internet connectivity, online accounts (for example, password resets or login support), or software installation".[71][72] The policy was announced a month earlier on the Google Ads Blog by Google's Director of Global Product Policy, David Graff:

We’ve seen a rise in misleading ad experiences stemming from third-party technical support providers and have decided to begin restricting ads in this category globally. For many years, we’ve consulted and worked with law enforcement and government agencies to address abuse in this area. As the fraudulent activity takes place off our platform, it’s increasingly difficult to separate the bad actors from the legitimate providers. That’s why in the coming months, we will roll out a verification program to ensure that only legitimate providers of third-party tech support can use our platform to reach consumers.It is unclear when enforcement of the policy began, but the number of reports of ads being disapproved appeared to increase in May 2019.[74] Despite nine months having passed since the announcement of the policy change, no verification program exists for legitimate businesses to regain approval, resulting in an effective ban on all IT support and repair related services on the Google Ads platform.

Commentators have expressed concerns that this is an attempt by Google to stifle consumers' right to repair electronic devices.[74][75] As of March 2020, Google blocked all face masks keywords from being eligible for ads targeting, per the global Coronavirus crisis.[76]

Family status

Google gives a status to all ads to indicate what “audiences the ad and website are appropriate for”. Ad status's affect when and where ads can appear.

Google reviews every ad to make sure that they comply with their advertising policies. A reviewed ad will be given a family status depending on the content of the ad, landing page, and website.

The statuses are: family safe, non-family safe, and adult.

The family status assigned to your ad can affect which countries it can appear in. Some countries prevent adults and only permit family safe and non-family, while other countries only permit family safe ads. This status will appear in the dashboard as "Approved (Limited)".

Social media platforms with sponsored content

Social media platforms with sponsored content

Sponsored content can be found on several platforms with varying levels in production value of the finished product.

 

Facebook

Instagram

Reddit

Snapchat

Twitch

TikTok

Twitter

YouTube

LinkedIn

Pinterest

Advertising disclosure

As it is the nature of disguised advertising to blend with its surroundings, a clear disclosure is deemed necessary when employing native marketing strategy in order to protect the consumer from being deceived, and to assist audiences in distinguishing between sponsored and regular content. According to the Federal Trade Commission, means of disclosure include visual cues, labels, and other techniques.[14] The most common practices of these are recognizable by understated labels, such as “Advertisement”, “Ad”, “Promoted”, “Sponsored”, “Featured Partner”, or “Suggested Post” in subtitles, corners, or the bottoms of ads. A widespread tendency in such measures is to mention the brand name of the sponsor, as in “Promoted by [brand]”, “Sponsored by [brand]”, or “Presented by [brand]”.[15] These can vary drastically due to the publisher's choice of disclosure language (i.e. wording used to identify native advertising placement).

 

In 2009, the Federal Trade Commission released their Endorsement Guideline specifically to increase consumer awareness of endorsements and testimonials in advertising given the rise in popularity of social media and blogging.[16]

 

The American Society of Magazine Editors (ASME) released updated guidelines in 2015 reaffirming the need of publishers to distinguish editorial and advertising content. The ASME approach recommends both labels to disclose commercial sponsorship and in-content visual evidence to help the user distinguish native advertising from editorial.[17]

 

A study published by University of California researchers found that even labeled native advertising deceived about a quarter of survey research subjects. In the study, 27% of respondents thought that journalists or editors wrote an advertorial for diet pills, despite the presence of the "Sponsored Content" label. Because the Federal Trade Commission can bring cases concerning practices that mislead a substantial minority of consumers, the authors conclude that many native advertising campaigns are probably deceptive under federal law. The authors also explain two theories of why native advertising is deceptive. First, the schema theory suggests that advertorials mislead by causing consumers not to trigger their innate skepticism to advertising. Second, advertorials also cause source-based misleadingness problems by imbuing advertising material with the authority normally assigned to editorial content.[18] Recognition percentages remain low even as native advertising has expanded in pervasiveness. An academic article published in 2017 has shown that only 17% of participants could identify native advertising and even if readers were primed, that number only increased to 27%. Moreover, when readers learned about covert advertising, their perceptions of the publications declined.[19]

 

Categories of online ads

The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB), the primary organization responsible for developing ad industry standards and conducting business research, published a report in 2013[15] detailing six different categories for differentiating types of native advertisements.

 

In-Feed Ad Units: As the name denotes, In-Feed ads are units located within the website's normal content feed, meaning they appear as if the content may have been written by or in partnership with the publisher's team to match the surrounding stories. A category that rose to popularity through sites like Upworthy and Buzzfeed's sponsored articles due to its effectiveness, In-Feed has also been the source of controversy for native marketing, as it is here the distinction between native and content marketing is typically asserted.

Search Ads: Appearing in the list of search results, these are generally found above or below the organic search results or in favorable position, having been sold to advertisers with a guarantee for optimal placement on the search engine page. They usually possess an identical appearance as other results on the page with the exception of disclosure aspects.

Recommendation Widgets: Although these ads are part of the content of the site, these do not tend to appear in like manner to the content of the editorial feed. Typically delivered through a widget, recommendation ads are generally recognizable by words which imply external reference, suggestions, and tangentially related topics. "You might also like"; "You might like"; “Elsewhere from around the web"; "From around the web"; "You may have missed", or "Recommended for you" typically characterize these units.

Promoted Listings: Usually featured on websites that are not content based, such as e-commerce sites, promoted listings are presented in identical fashion with the products or services offered on the given site. Similarly justified as search ads, sponsored products are considered native to the experience in much the same way as search ads.

In-Ad (IAB Standard): An In-Ad fits in a standard IAB container found outside the feed, containing "...contextually relevant content within the ad, links to an offsite page, has been sold with a guaranteed placement, and is measured on brand metrics such as interaction and brand lift."

Custom / Can't be Contained: This category is left for the odd ends and ads that do not conform to any of the other content categories.

Digital platforms

Native advertising platforms are classified into two categories, commonly referred to as "open" and "closed" platforms, but hybrid options are also utilized with some frequency.[20][21][22]

 

Closed platforms are formats created by brands for the purpose of promoting their own content intrinsically on their websites. Advertisements seen on these platforms will not be seen on others, as these ad types are generated for its sole use, and structured around exhibiting ad units within the confines of the website's specific agendas. Namely, advertisements distributed on closed platforms originate from the platform's brand itself. Popular examples include Promoted Tweets on Twitter, Sponsored Stories on Facebook, and TrueView Video Ads on YouTube.

 

Open platforms are defined by the promotion of the same piece of branded content across multiple platforms ubiquitously, but through some variation of native ad formats. Unlike closed platforms, the content itself lives outside any given website that it appears on, and is usually distributed across multiple sites by a third party company, meaning that the advertisements appearing on open platforms namely are placed there by an advertiser.

 

Hybrid platforms allow the content publishing platforms to install a private marketplace where advertisers have the option to bid on the inventory of ad space either through direct sales or programmatic auction through what is known as Real-Time Bidding (RTB). Therefore, advertisements distributed on hybrid platforms are placed there by the platform itself, the space having been sold to an open platform advertiser.

Pay per play

Pay per play (PPP), also known as cash per play (CPP), is an online advertising method that plays an audio advertisement on websites. The term "pay per play" comes from advertisers paying for each audio ad played. Also, the web page playing the audio ad is normally paid for each ad they serve. Ads are typically automatically played when a visitor loads a web page. Most commonly initiated via JavaScript, audio ads normally cannot be stopped once they start. Audio ads vary in length, and a website visitor will usually hear only one advertisement per visit to any specific web page.

In radio advertising, the term "pay per play" can also refer to a relationship between advertisers and audio ad producers

Mixberry Media launched a form of PPP allowing audio enabled web sites and mobile applications to request targeted audio ads in real time. This allows advertisers to control where their ads are heard in addition to giving the publishers full control of their user experience. This method takes advantage of "dead space" or loading time, serving audio ads while the user is waiting for audio output, gaining their focused attention.

Native advertising is a type of advertising that matches the form and function of the platform

Native advertising is a type of advertising that matches the form and function of the platform upon which it appears. In many cases it functions like an advertorial, and manifests as a video, article or editorial. The word "native" refers to this coherence of the content with the other media that appear on the platform.

 

These ads reduce a consumers' ad recognition by blending the ad into the native content of the platform, using somewhat ambiguous language such as "sponsored" or "branded" content.[1] They can be difficult to properly identify due to their ambiguous nature.[2]

 

Product placement (embedded marketing) is a precursor to native advertising. The former places the product within the content, whereas in native marketing, which is legally permissible in the US to the extent that there is sufficient disclosure,[3] the product and content are merged.

 

 

Contents

1              Forms

2              Sponsored content (content marketing)

2.1          Categories of sponsored content

2.1.1      Sponsored videos

2.1.2      Sponsored social media posts

2.1.3      Collaborative content

3              Social media platforms with sponsored content

4              Advertising disclosure

5              Categories of online ads

6              Digital platforms

7              See also

8              References

9              External links

Forms

Despite the ambiguity surrounding native advertising's invention, many experts do consider the Hallmark Hall of Fame, a series which first aired in 1951 and still runs today, as among the earliest instances of the technique. According to Lin Grensing-Pophal, "The award-winning series is arguably one of the earliest examples of 'native' advertising—advertising that is secondary to the message being delivered, but impactful through its association with valued content."[4]

 

 

This 1901 advertisement for patent medicine begins by looking like an editorial on political developments in China.

Contemporary formats for native advertising now include promoted videos, images, articles, commentary, music, and other various forms of media. A majority of these methods for delivering the native strategy have been relegated to an online presence, where it is most commonly employed as publisher-produced brand content, a similar concept to the traditional advertorial. Alternative examples of modern technique include search advertising, when ads appear alongside search results that qualify as native to the search experience. Popular examples include, Twitter's promoted Tweets, Facebook's promoted stories, and Tumblr's promoted posts. The most traditionally influenced form of native marketing manifests as the placement of sponsor-funded content alongside editorial content,[5] or showing "other content you might be interested in" which is sponsored by a marketer alongside editorial recommendations.[6]

 

Most recently, controversy has arisen as to whether Content marketing is a form of native marketing, or if they are inherently separate ideologies and styles, with native market strategists claiming that they utilize content marketing techniques, and some content market strategists claiming to not be a form of native marketing.

 

Sponsored content (content marketing)

In most recent years of the millennium, the most notable form of native advertising has been sponsored content. The production of sponsored content (sometimes abbreviated as "sponcon"[7]) involves inclusion of a third party along with a management company or a brand company's personal relations and promotional activities team in reaching out to aforementioned considerably popular third party content producers on social media, often independent, deemed "influencers" in an attempt to promote a product. Often quoted as the predecessor to traditional endorsed and/or contract advertising; which would instead be featuring celebrities, sponsored content has indubitably become more and more popular on social media platforms in recent years likely due to their cost-effectiveness, time efficiency, as well as the ability to receive instant feedback on the marketability of a product or service.

 

A technique often used in traditional sponsored advertising is direct and indirect product placement (embedded marketing). Instead of embedded marketing's technique of placing the product within the content, in native marketing, the product and content are merged, and in sponsored content the product, content and active promotion occurs simultaneously across a number of platforms.

 

Unlike traditional forms of Native Advertising, Sponsored content alludes to requirement of and desire for transparency and thrives on the concept of preexisting and/or built up trust between consumer and content producer rather than creating a masked net impression, which is a reasonable consumer’s understanding of an advertisement. The underlying motives of sponsored content, however, is similar to that of native advertising- which is to inhibit a consumers' ad recognition by blending the ad into the native content of the platform, making many consumers unaware they are looking at an ad to begin with. The sponsored content on social media, like any other type of native advertising, can be difficult to be properly identified by the Federal Trade Commission because of their rather ambiguous nature. Native advertising frequently bypasses this net impression standard, which makes them problematic.[8]

 

Categories of sponsored content

Sponsored videos

Sponsored videos involve the content producer/influencer including or mentioning the service/product for a particular amount of time within their video. This type of sponsorship is evident across all genres and levels of production regarding video content. There is a history of trouble between content producers and their transparency of sponsors regarding endorsement guidelines set by the Federal Trades Commission.[9] Most sponsored videos include a brief or a contract and can vary from client to client and affects the nature of promotion of the product as well as specific requirements such as length of the promotion period. Notable companies involved in this trade include audible, squarespace, Crunchyroll and vanity planet.[10][11]

 

Sponsored social media posts

Sponsored social media posts usually consist of the content producer/influencer including or mentioning the service/product for a particular amount of time within a single or series of social media posts. Most sponsored posts include a brief or a contract and can vary from client to client. Notable companies involved in this trade include fit-tea, sugar bear hair and various diet meal planning services and watch brands.[12]

 

Collaborative content

Collaborative content has become more prominent on video platforms and social media in recent years. Content producers/influencers are usually contacted by companies for their creative input and voice in the makings of a product or provided with a discount code to gain a percentage of the profits after consumers incorporate the code as a part their purchase. Collaborative content may also include a brief or a contract and can vary from client to client- however, there is a degree of flexibility as the finished product is supposedly a representation of the content producer. Notable companies involved in this trade include pixi, colourpop and MAC cosmetics.[13]