WHY SEARCH ADVERTISING IS DIFFERENT

The fundamental difference between search engine marketing and other forms of promotion is that the prospect is proactively requesting your information. They are already looking for what you offer! In other words, search is a form of pull advertising rather than push.

The first challenge of most promotional efforts is to target the right person with the right message at the right time. The second challenge is to interrupt the recipient, and the third is to generate interest. These challenges are virtually eliminated with search engine marketing. You are able to target people based on what they are searching for. You don't have to interrupt them because they are already online in active search mode. And you know they are interested in what you have to offer, because they are proactively inquiring about it. All of this assumes, of course, that the ads displayed are relevant to the search query.

The other advantage search engine advertising has over many other forms of promotion is that the ads don't look like ads. Search engine advertisements look much like natural results ranked by the engines. They contain a title, description and URL. Most paid ads are identified by labels such as "Sponsored Listing", but research has shown that most searchers either don't realize or don't care that these are paid advertisements (as long as they are relevant).