Search & social · also called search ads, SEM, paid search, PPC
Search advertising
Search advertising is placing paid ads alongside search engine results, triggered by the words people search for and usually charged per click.
Search ads appear when you type a query into Google, Bing, Baidu, Naver, Yandex, Amazon or other search boxes. Advertisers choose keywords, write ads and set bids; when someone searches for something relevant, an auction decides which ads appear and in what order. Advertisers usually pay only when someone clicks (CPC).
Search is powerful because it captures intent: someone searching "running shoes size 10" is closer to buying than someone reading the news. That makes it one of the largest ad formats by spend, dominated globally by Google. In the auction, bids are combined with ad quality measures such as Quality Score, so the highest bidder does not always win the top spot.
Search advertising is changing with AI. Answers generated by AI in search results (such as Google's AI Overviews and AI Mode) are reducing clicks to some sites and creating new ad placements, discussed under Ads in AI assistants and AI search. Search also has its own fraud and quality issues, such as click fraud and search arbitrage.
Think of it like this
Search advertising is like paying for your shop's name to be the first thing a helpful guide mentions when a tourist asks where to buy something.
An example
A plumber in Toronto bids C$6 per click on "emergency plumber near me"; from 400 clicks a month, 40 calls turn into 20 jobs, a cost of C$120 per job.
Related terms
Keyword bidding
Keyword bidding is choosing search terms your ads should appear for and setting how much you are willing to pay per click when someone searches for them.
Quality Score
Quality Score is Google Ads' 1-to-10 diagnostic rating of how relevant and useful a keyword's ads and landing page are, based on expected click-through rate, ad relevance and landing page experience.
CPC (cost per click)
CPC (cost per click) is a pricing model where the advertiser pays only when someone clicks the ad, and also the average amount paid per click.
Ads in AI assistants and AI search
Ads in AI assistants and AI search are paid placements that appear within or beside AI-generated answers, such as in Google's AI Overviews or ChatGPT, often matched to the conversation's context.
Search arbitrage
Search arbitrage is buying cheap traffic, often from social or native ads, and sending it to pages that show search-style ad links, earning money when visitors click those links.