Search Essentials

Dive into the ins and outs of paid search.

Learn about what it is, how it works, the
differences between the main platforms, and
key terms.

PAID SEA RC H
A form of digital marketing where search engines such as Google and Microsoft Bing allow advertisers to show ads on
their Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs).

These are the ads placed in search engines above ‘organic’ (i.e., non-paid for) search results and how search engines
make money.

GOOGLE

• Formerly Google AdWords and Google AdWords Express, is an

online advertising solution that businesses use to promote
their products and services on Google Search, YouTube, and
other sites across the web.
GOOGLE ADS • Google Ads also allows advertisers to choose specific goals for
their ads, like driving phone calls or website visits.
• With a Google Ads account, advertisers can customize their
budgets and targeting, and start or stop their ads at any time.

Benefits and Capabilities

DISPLAY Ads appear to users as they browse sites across the Google
NETWORK Display Network.

Due to Google’s popularity and optimal search results, people

HIGHER CLICK- have come to trust it so much so that users are four times more
THROUGH RATE likely to click on a paid search ad that they see on Google
compared to other search engines.
 Search Essentials
Dive into the ins and outs of paid search.
Learn about what it is, how it works, the
differences between the main platforms, and
key terms.

Brands can maximize their return by taking advantage of Google’s younger audience:
• Google targets younger Internet users, ages that are of 18 to 44 years old.
• Combining this knowledge with Google’s Detailed Demographics targeting*,
brands can align their paid search campaigns to see which audience more closely
DEMOGRAPHICS matches their targeted audience.

*Detailed Demographics is a targeting option which enables marketers to target their

campaigns to different users based on their Education, Marital Status, Homeowner Status, or
Parental Status.

With mobile search on the rise, Google emphasizes the importance of mobile
MOBILE SUPPORT friendly websites and provides scores for mobile speed and click rate within
Google Ads.

Marketers can easily track their paid search campaigns side-by-side with the
A N A LY T I C S rest of their site’s performance by integrating their Google Ads campaign with
Google Analytics.

NOTES
 Search Essentials
Dive into the ins and outs of paid search.
Learn about what it is, how it works, the
differences between the main platforms, and
key terms.

MICROSOFT

• Formerly Bing Ads, Microsoft adCenter and MSN adCenter,

MICROSOFT
is a service that provides pay per click advertising on both
ADVERTISING the Microsoft Bing and Yahoo! search engines.

Benefits and Capabilities

• Almost 40% of Microsoft Bing’s audience ranges from 35 to 54 years old,

and nearly three-quarters of users are over the age of 35.
DEMOGRAPHICS
• About one-third of their audience has a household income of over $100,000,
and almost half has a household income of $75,000 or more.
• It allows marketers to reach an even wider audience, a specific demographic
of customers, and produce even better results than by simply using Google
Ads alone.

• It offers advertisers the option to directly import their existing Google Ads
SEAMLESS campaigns into Microsoft Advertising. With just a few clicks, campaigns are
up and running without having to recreate everything.
INTEGRATION
• Microsoft Advertising enables advertisers to assign different ad campaigns to
different time zones, a function that Google Ads doesn’t offer.

Microsoft Advertising allows advertisers to target specific audiences based on

DEVICE
their device type and OS. It also provides the option not to display campaign ads
TARGETING on desktops, when advertisers only want to target mobile users.

NOTES
 Search Essentials
Dive into the ins and outs of paid search.
Learn about what it is, how it works, the
differences between the main platforms, and
key terms.

C OMPAR I S O N

GOOGLE MICROSOFT BING

DEMOGRAPHICS • Large and diverse market with
~93% search market share
• Younger audience; targets
younger Internet users, ages
that are of 18 to 44 years old
• Second largest market share at ~3%
• Older audience, married and typically
with higher incomes; users mostly fall
in the 45 to 64 years age bracket

Utilizes context to know what Bases ranking on targeted keywords,

WEBSITE
search results are suitable for pays more attention to exact-match
RANKING which users keywords

Focus on text; more high-quality Prefers diversity and places value

WEB CONTENT and engaging text produce even on videos and images
better results

Averages between $1-$2 for

COST PER CLICK Averages $1.54 for Microsoft
Google Ads, tends to be more
Advertising; cost-efficient
(CPC) expensive

NOTES
 Search Essentials
Dive into the ins and outs of paid search.
Learn about what it is, how it works, the
differences between the main platforms, and
key terms.

S E A RC H E N GIN E RE S U LT S PAGE ( S E RP )
What someone sees every time they perform a search on a search engine like Google or Microsoft Bing. Every SERP is
different and unique in the results provided.

• Every SERP is unique, even for the same query. SERPs are a customized experience for the user, served in real time.
Results shown vary and are based on a wide range of factors beyond the keyword/search term such as location,
browsing history, social settings, and search behavior.
• In addition, SERP results are in constant flux due to testing and experiments by search engines in order to provide the
best user experience. This constant flux combined with rapid growth and change in technology means the SERP of
today differs greatly in appearance from older ones.
• SERPs includes a custom mixture of paid, organic, local listings and widgets.

PAID AN D ORGAN IC L ISTIN G S PAID SEARCH

Pay-per-click (PPC) ad listing on
What’s the Difference?
the SERP. Triggered by bidding
on keywords that are searched
by consumers. Can also be
referred to as CPC, SEM,
Google ads, and search ads.

ORGANIC SEARCH
Natural listings on the SERP
that do not have media cost or
budgets associated. Listings
are pulled from content and
back-end coding on the
website. Can also be referred to
as SEO, natural search results,
search engine optimization, or
free search.

KNOWLEDGE GRAPH
This is a type of organic listing
on the SERP.
 Search Essentials
Dive into the ins and outs of paid search.
Learn about what it is, how it works, the
differences between the main platforms, and
key terms.

SEARCH ENGINE MARKETING SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION

(SEM) (SEO)

Process of increasing organic traffic from

Form of online marketing that involves the
search engines results pages. All major
promotion of web properties by increasing
search engines such as Google, Yahoo!, and
their visibility in search engine results pages
Microsoft BING have such results, where
and through paid online advertisements like
web pages and other content are analyzed
PPC.
and ranked based on what the search
engine considers most relevant to the user

NOTES
 Search Essentials
Dive into the ins and outs of paid search.
Learn about what it is, how it works, the
differences between the main platforms, and
key terms.

REAL-TIME AUCTIONS
How Ads Appear

SEARCH ADVERTISER PURCHASE

POOOL
• Each time someone searches on a search engine a real time auction occurs – what happens is a search engine’s
algorithm searches for all ads whose keywords match that particular search, it then weeds out the ads that aren’t
eligible to show, and of those ads that are eligible, the ads with sufficient ad rank are those that may show.

• Advertisers bid what they are willing to pay for a click on their ad, but impressions are free!

• Impressions – A single display of online content to a user’s web-enabled device.

NOTES
 Search Essentials
Dive into the ins and outs of paid search.
Learn about what it is, how it works, the
differences between the main platforms, and
key terms.

Impression share (IS)

Impression share (IS) is the percentage of impressions that your ads
receive compared to the total number of impressions that your ads
could get.

Impressions / Total Eligible Impressions = Impression Share

• Eligible impressions are estimated using many factors, including

targeting settings, approval statuses, and quality
• Impression share is a good way to understand whether your ads
might reach more people if you increase your bid or budget

DID YOU KNOW?

CPC rates are non-negotiable and will always fluctuate depending on NOTES
competitor presence

AD RANK
• Used by search engines to determine if the ad
shows and where on the SERP it shows.
• Real time calculation happen for every keyword
auction
• The formula is:
MAX CPC BID X QUALITY SCORE = AD RANK

KEYWORD BID
A bid placed in a pay-per-click auction to help secure
ad placement at the top of search results

AD EXTENSION
Additional incentives that increase the likelihood that
users will click on the ads such as business
addresses, phone numbers, additional site links,
promotions, or specific product information
 Search Essentials
Dive into the ins and outs of paid search.
Learn about what it is, how it works, the
differences between the main platforms, and
key terms.

• A metric used by Google, Yahoo! (called Quality Index), and Microsoft Bing
that influences ad rank and cost per click (CPC) of ads.
• It is one of the factors that determines ad rank and is made of three main
components – keyword, ad copy, and landing pages.
QUALITY SCORE • Quality score is determined by the quality of each of these components
and the relevant link between the three. There needs to be a clear
relevant link between the keyword, the ad copy and the landing page so
that when someone searches, they see an ad that is relevant to what they
searched and when they click through the ad they land on a website that
has relevant, useful content.

• A very specific type of content or advertising message that aims at

AD COPY catching and holding the interest of a user and drive them to respond or
take action.

• Keyword-level settings
• Help control how closely the keyword needs to match a person’s search
KEYWORD term
• Includes broad, modified broad, phrase, exact and negative match types
MATC H T Y P E S
• Specifies whether or not the phrase and exact match terms show for
plurals, misspellings or close variants

NOTES
 Search Essentials
Dive into the ins and outs of paid search.
Learn about what it is, how it works, the
differences between the main platforms, and
key terms.

BENEFITS OF NOTES
PAID SEARCH

FIRST PAGE EXPOSURE

for the Brand or Business

TARGETED AND CUSTOM ADS

easily modify, test and optimize which you can’t
do with organic search results

COST EFFICIENCY
for branding

SUPPORTS ALL PHASES

of the purchase funnel

TESTING AD GROUPS
for insight across your customer base and
optimization

BRAND PROTECTION
flexibility to bid on brand terms in areas you
want thus providing a more focused message to
users

HYPER RELEVANT
hand-raising channel providing refined, quality
traffic

TRACKING
identify keywords that helped contribute to your
online conversions

MESSAGE CONTROL
showing custom text ads for specific sets of
keywords

GEO-TARGETING
country, city, Nielsen DMA, county, congressional
district, zip, radius
 Search Essentials
Dive into the ins and outs of paid search.
Learn about what it is, how it works, the
differences between the main platforms, and
key terms.

Campaign Considerations

What action would Does it contain relevant What actions are able to How many actions are
you like someone to keywords and a clear be tracked on the needed to be profitable?
take once they click call-to-action that aligns website that align with Is there a desired ROI or
through on an ad? with the objective? the objective? success benchmark?

OBJECTIVE GOAL KPI USER

EXPERIENCE

What Makes A Successful Campaign

A successful campaign starts with:

A clear alignment between Relevant keywords that Evergreen presence

the objective, goal and key parallel with the budget (quarterly at minimum) with
performance indicator (KPI). allocated. realistic daily budgets.

NOTES
 Search Essentials
Dive into the ins and outs of paid search.
Learn about what it is, how it works, the
differences between the main platforms, and
key terms.

K E Y P E R FOR M A N C E IN D IC AT O R ( K P I)

COST PER CLICK CLICK-THROUGH COST PER

(CPC)
• Dedicate more money to campaigns
with low CPCs
• Ensure best performing campaigns,
ad groups, keywords have strong
impression share
• Pause ads & keywords
with high CPCs
• Decrease bids for keywords in higher
ad positions with high CPCs
RATE (CTR)
• Dedicate more money to campaigns
with highest CTRs
• Ensure best performing campaigns,
ad groups, keywords have strong
impression share
• Pause ads & keywords with low CTRs
• Optimize towards best performing
match type
• Analyze search queries to identify
negative keywords
ACQUISITION (CPA)
• Dedicate more money to campaigns
with lowest CPA
• Ensure best performing campaigns,
ad groups, keywords have strong
impression share
• Pause ads and keywords with high
CPCs, or high cost and 0 conversions
• Increase ad position for top
converting keywords

NOTES
 Search Essentials
Dive into the ins and outs of paid search.
Learn about what it is, how it works, the
differences between the main platforms, and
key terms.

Key Components of a SEM Campaign

1 2 3
K EY WORDS A D C OPY L ANDING P A GES
• Anticipate what search • Control the marketing
• Choose where
queries consumers will message shown to
visitors go after
use users
clicking the ad
• Build out a list of • Customize for different
• Guide them to the
keywords types of search
desired action
queries
• Trigger ads to show on
search engines • Entice visitors to click

Exposure Response Interaction

KEYWORD SEARCH VOLUME NOTES

Refers to the volume (or number) of searches for
a particular keyword in a given timeframe.
Seasonality often plays a significant role in
keyword search volume.
Search volume cannot be created but you
can estimate the volume.

KEYWORD MIX
Mixing several keywords to improve your ads
performance by reaching better and more
customers, driving them to your products or
services..
 Search Essentials
Dive into the ins and outs of paid search.
Learn about what it is, how it works, the
differences between the main platforms, and
key terms.

S T R AT E G IC FR A ME W O R K
When structuring your SEM Build, always make sure that they align with best practices:

• Don’t forget that Brand, Non-Brand and Competitor campaigns should always be separate. There is a drastic
difference in Cost per Clicks (CPCs) and Brand campaigns generally perform the best.
• Make sure each ad group has keyword that are all similar and highly relevant to one another. If you have run a search
campaign in the past, accessing the historical account will give you a better understanding of what top performing
keywords to include and which low performing keywords to exclude.
• Ad Copy should have a clear call to action and should have verbiage that is similar to the keywords within that ad
group.
• Lastly, always layer on audiences that are applicable.

K E Y WORD MATC H T Y P E S
Best Practice

MATCH SPECIAL EXAMPLE ADS MAY SHOW ON EXAMPLE

TYPE SYMBOL KEYWORD SEARCHES THAT SEARCHES A common best practice is
to implement what’s called
Broad none women's hats include buy ladies hats a “match type mirroring
match misspellings, synonyms,
strategy”, which means
related searches,
that you have coverage of
and other relevant
variations all match types, usually
broad match modified,
contain the modified term phrase and exact match,
Broad +keyword +women's +hats (or close variations, but hats for women for all keywords.
match not synonyms), in any
modifier order Keywords by match type
are then broken out at the
are a phrase, and ad group or campaign
Phrase "keyword" "women's hats" close variations of that buy women's level. This allows for better
match phrase hats
control of traffic and
are an exact term and relevancy, and cleaner
Exact [keyword] [women's hats] close variations of that women's hats analysis of match type
match exact term performance, ultimately
allowing you to optimize
are searches without the down to the best
Negative -keyword -women term baseball hats performing match type.
match
 Search Essentials
Dive into the ins and outs of paid search.
Learn about what it is, how it works, the
differences between the main platforms, and
key terms.

A D C OP Y VA RIAT I O N S

EXPANDED TEXT RESPONSIVE

ADS EXTENSIONS
ADS PLUS SEARCH ADS

• A type of search ad that appears in
search results on the search engine
results page, which unlike
display ads, only show on sites within
the search engine's
advertising network.
• With an expanded text ad, you can
create three headlines that are 30
characters each, two descriptions
that are 90 characters each, and
paths to show as a display URL.
• Snippets of information you can add
onto your ads to drive more
effectiveness for the campaign.
• Serve highly relevant ads to each
search query.
• This ad format allows you to add up
to 15 headlines and 4 description
lines.
• Google’s machine learning adapts to
show the most relevant combinations
of headlines and description lines to
users.

AD EXTENSION TYPES NOTES

SITELINK EXTENSIONS
One of the most frequently used types of
ad extensions. They are clickable
headlines that send users to key pages
on your site and feature a quick
description under each one, essentially
acting as mini ads.

CALL EXTENSIONS
Features a business’s phone number at
the top of the ad, next to the site URL

CALL OUT EXTENSIONS

Not clickable but used to display benefits
or features, such as “Free Shipping”.
 Search Essentials
Dive into the ins and outs of paid search.
Learn about what it is, how it works, the
differences between the main platforms, and
key terms.

STRUCTURED SNIPPET
EXTENSIONS NOTES
Allows you to highlight specific aspects of
your product or service in a list format.
These are not clickable.

LOCATION EXTENSION
They add a business’s address to the
bottom of the ad, along with operational
hours if featured. When users click,
they’ll be taken to a map showing the
location, and they can instantly get
directions to the location.

AFFILIATE LOCATION
EXTENSION
Allows you to show location specific
information if you sell your products
through retail chains.

PRICE EXTENSION
Allows you to quickly showcase how
much a given product or service costs,
listing an item, linking to it’s specific URL,
and then featuring pricing and qualifying
information.

PROMOTION EXTENSION
Allows you to highlight any sales or
promotions you have to offer.

APP EXTENSION
Mobile-only extensions that feature the
name and logo of your app next to a
clickable “Install” CTA at the bottom of
your ad. These extensions are created to
convince users to download your app,
offering a new way for you to keep them
engaged. DID YOU KNOW?
Google’s smart bidding algorithms take out the manual work of optimizing your keyword bids
with automated bidding strategies, by prioritizing the best performing keywords. This is
based on performance signals and data from all of your campaigns.
 Search Essentials
Dive into the ins and outs of paid search.
Learn about what it is, how it works, the
differences between the main platforms, and
key terms.

Optimization
KEYWORDS
• Keyword additions based on search behaviors, market
updates, seasonality and offerings Daily & Weekly
• Match type analysis and testing
• Utilize bid rules & bid modifiers for increased cost &
Budget Pacing
conversion efficiencies Bid Optimization
• Negative keyword implementation to increase Keyword
relevancy Optimization

ADS
• Create calendar to implement seasonal adjustments,
promos MONTHLY
• Pause non-performing creative variations Performance Reporting QUATERLY
• Test and utilize ad extensions Ad Copy Targeting SOV Evaluation
• Ad copy testing for increased performance Optimization Settings Audience Targeting
Landing Page Budget Opportunity
ACCOUNT HEALTH/STRUCTURE Ad Extensions Campaign Structure
• Campaign structure refinement Seasonality
• Settings, targeting, geographic targeting and Vertical Benchmarks
dayparting Engine Betas
• Engine Betas/Platforms or Vertical Trends
• Competitive analysis & evaluation of conquesting
efforts

NOTES
• A combination of targeting tactics,
advertiser data, and Google data.
• Device, language, location,
dayparting and keyword are
manual targeting tactics or levers
you can pull alongside CRM,
DATA-DRIVEN remarketing and sales data, but
Google has this robust suite of
TARGETING
audience capabilities for you to
use in your campaigns.
 Search Essentials
Dive into the ins and outs of paid search.
Learn about what it is, how it works, the
differences between the main platforms, and
key terms.

Connect Intelligently
AT EVERY STAGE OF THE JOURNEY

AWARENESS CONSIDERATION A CTION

Demo
(including Detailed Demo)
Affinity
Custom Affinity
Life Events
In-Market
Custom Intent
Customer Match
Remarketing & Similar
Audiences

DEMOGRAPHIC REMARKETING LISTS FOR IN-MARKET

TARGETING SEARCH ADS (RLSA) AUDIENCES

• The ability to target based on • REMARKETING DEFINED: • IN MARKET

gender, age, parental status,
and household income. Gender
and age are derived from a
user’s Google profile, however,
household income is based on
US census data for the defined
geographic location.
The ability to re-engage with (or
exclude) website traffic after
returning to the engine to
complete a keyword search.
• SIMILAR AUDIENCE DEFINED:
Look-a-like targeting for users
who have not yet engaged with
your brand.
AUDIENCES DEFINED:
Focus on customers who are
actively researching a product
or service.
• Best practice is to allow the
data to tell the real story and
then optimize accordingly
 Search Essentials
Education for anyone looking to gain
a fundamental understanding of programmatic.
Basis Certified meets you where you are.

GOOGLE
MAC HIN E L EARN IN G C APABI L I T IE S

• A subset of automated bid strategies that use machine learning to

optimize for conversions or conversion value in each and every
SMART BIDDING auction. This is a feature known as “auction-time bidding”.

• A campaign subtype that combines Standard Shopping and display

remarketing campaigns, and uses automated bidding and ad
SMART placement to
promote your products and business across networks.
SHOPPING
CAMPAIGNS

• Enables advertisers to deliver rich, personalized ad

experiences to people who are ready to discover and
engage with their brands—all through a single Google
DISCOVERY Ads campaign.
CAMPAIGNS

• Help marketers reach shoppers nearby across Google’s most

popular channels. Local ads deliver broad reach and automatically
find the most valuable audiences to highlight your nearby stores
LOCAL and increase visits to your locations.
CAMPAIGNS
 Search Essentials
Dive into the ins and outs of paid search.
Learn about what it is, how it works, the
differences between the main platforms, and
key terms.

TROUBLESHOOTING

1 ADS DISAPPROVED 4 QUALITY SCORE

• Ads get disapproved by engines all the time and for
a variety of editorial reasons.
• Familiarize yourself with each engine’s advertising
policies to better understand why your ad was not
approved and then edit or fix it accordingly.
2 LOW SEARCH VOLUME
• Engines won’t show ads or searches every time if
the keyword’s interest volume is low.
• Improve your ad copy and try changing your
approach. Low-search volume keywords are
typically also highly specific keywords so consider
using broad match. You can also get around your
low-traffic keywords by using RLSAs to access
larger-search volume keywords without attracting
irrelevant clicks.
3 GEO TARGET TOO SPECIFIC
• Too targeted geo settings can limit the number of
users and search interest volume causing your ad
not to serve.
• The smaller the geographic area, the less traffic
you will get so balance relevance with budget. You
• Overall quality score and bid amount can impact
the auction. Even with high CPCs, if you have a low
Quality Score, your ads will not show.
• Improve your ad copy and A/B test your ads to
learn how to keep improving your ad copy. Also
check the landing page experience and fix issues
that may cause your page to load too slow, Lastly,
maintain ad groups according to specific keyword
targeting since the low QS keywords may simply
need to be in a more relevant ad group.
NOTE: It is recommended to increase the keyword’s
Quality Score before simply increasing that keyword’s
bid. Improving your keyword QS decreases the
amount you are required to pay per click and
ultimately the amount spent.
5 AD APPROVAL IN PROGRESS
• Engine editorial approval process can take a
couple of business days. You won’t see new ads
serve until the Engine Editorial Review is complete.
Familiarize yourself with each engine’s approval
•
process and turnaround times. Google Ads for
example offers you a means to track approval and
encourages you to reach out to them if it is past
the outlined turnaround time.

N O T E Smay also want to consider adding negative NOTES

locations where you do not do business to keep
stragglers from seeing ads when you’re working
with a limited budget.
 Search Essentials
Dive into the ins and outs of paid search.
Learn about what it is, how it works, the
differences between the main platforms, and
key terms.

TROUBLESHOOTING Continued

6 YOU SEARCHED TOO OFTEN 8 DAY PART SPLITTING

• Engines are based on relevancy, frequency and
search behaviors. If you’ve searched several
times, the engine will stop serving you the ad.
• Take Google, for example, their system
recognizes your computer and stops showing
ads that it thinks you aren't interested in when
you repeatedly search for your own business on
Google but don't click on your ad,. Instead of
searching for your ad, take advantage of
preview tools such as the Ad Preview tool, to
help you view your ads as they appear in Google
search results.
7 LIMITED BY BUDGET
• Not having a large enough daily budget will
affect how your ads are served however, if
managed correctly, can still be effective.
• If you are running on a limited budget, prioritize
your goals. A limited budget limits the number
• You are searching for the ad outside of the day
part split setting.
• Aside from correcting the setting as needed,
also consider when you are scheduling your ad
to run. Review reporting to determine if there
are specific times of the day where there is a
negative ROI.
9 BUDGET HAS RUN OUT
• BUDGET HAS RUN OUT
• Once the daily budget is exhausted, your ads
stop showing for the day.
• If your success metrics are being met, increase
your average daily budget for the impacted
campaign. Google Ads offers a budget explorer
tool within the interface but it would be even
better to increase your daily budget based on
Impression Share metrics.
• A good thing to keep in mind is that Google Ads

of goals you can pursue and therefore limit the and other engines may exceed the daily budget
number of campaigns you can run. from time to time to maximize clicks but over
the course of a month it won’t spend more than
your daily budget (multiplied by the number

NOTES