If you’re a regular search engine user, you’ll have noticed those results that come up at the very top of the page discreetly marked as ads. This is pay-per-click advertising in action. When you search for something online, especially if it relates to a specific product or service, companies which offer those products can bid to appear in those results. If they’re lucky, you’ll find their ad relevant, click through to their website, and make a purchase.
As the name implies, you pay each time someone clicks through to your site via an ad – whether or not they actually buy anything from you. With more than 3 billion searches conducted per day on Google alone, there’s an enormous amount of competition for the most-searched keywords.