Online Advertising on Google
As the largest search engine and network in the United States, Google's advertising programs can get your business or service in front of millions of potential customers. Depending on your needs, budget and targeted audience, Google offers several different types of advertising options, including search-based (pay-per-click), display and inbound and outbound affiliate (commission) campaigns.
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AdWords
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AdWords ads are perhaps the best-known of Google's advertising options. Businesses and services bid on specific keywords related to their offerings. When users search for these keywords on Google or Google-affiliated sites, such as YouTube, they are shown these advertisements either at the top of their search results or in a sponsored ad box on the ride side of the search results page. These bids, which are based on a minimum and maximum payment per-click -- or depending on the actual number of users who click the ad -- and the cost per thousand impressions, or when Google serves the advertisement a thousand times. AdWords ads are popular among small and midsized businesses, as they allow companies to set a budget. Once ad impressions or views have exceeded a set dollar limit, the ads roll off.
AdSense
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Google's AdSense program lets businesses create advertisements for display on other websites or allows them to display other advertisements on their own site. To display ads on other websites, businesses compete at an auction, similar to bidding on relevant keywords in an AdWords campaign. The advertisement that offers the highest amount of money for the pay-per-click and per-thousand impressions automatically gets displayed on the desired site, until the businesses' budget is exhausted. To display other businesses' ads, companies sign up and their spot is then auctioned. Once the ad space is filled, the displaying business can receive a small commission from Google based on how ads perform on their site.
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Google Places
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Google Places is a free program aimed at businesses and services that wish to advertise in local searches. Any business or service with a physical address can participate in Google Places for the local community surrounding that addresses. The business appears as a sponsored advertiser in search results when a user searches for a specific type of business or service in that area.
Google Affiliate Network for Publishers
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The Google Affiliate Network functions in a similar fashion as Google's AdSense program, but requires application to the program. These affiliate network ads are either displayed on pother affiliate sites or affiliates display on the business' site. The payment or earnings are not based, however, on cost-per-click or impressions; money is earned per action. These actions are usually a revenue share, cession or fixed bounty earned or paid when a user clicks the affiliate ad and performs an action: registers, makes a purchase, downloads a program or other type of action.
Google Display Network
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The most comprehensive and expensive of Google's display advertising campaigns is the Google Display Network, which accepts text or static/dynamic ads to be placed in a select group of websites. These websites customarily include sites in Google's network, such as YouTube, AdMob and Invite Media, but can also include international and national corporations. As with most of Google's offerings, placement is done by bidding on cost-per-click, but instead of bidding on a specific site or keyword, businesses bid on a set of contextual display themes, based on their product or service. For example, a manufacturer of hats can bid on sites with content specifically related to hats, fashion or other related topics.
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