Contoleon.com

Text ads on a Search Engine Results Page (SERP) are a disruptive form of advertising. The intention is to distract the viewer whilst they are engaged with one mode of product search, to use an alternative means which produces revenue. In relation to search, the relevance of the ad served is calculated using a different method to that of organic search, and is heavily influenced by both click through rates and money bid per click. AdWords advertising is visible next to and on top of the organic results, on Google Maps, within the AdSense network, in the Search Suggestion box, and so on.

With the option of now adding additional links and other content to an AdWords listing, the look of some AdWords ads is closer to that of organic search. If I were to have a tinfoil hat moment, I might go so far as to say this could potentially lead to the effective monetarisation of organic SERPs returned for branded terms.

NIB Search Engine Result Page

There is one thing that has driven this renaissance of the text ad by Google, and that is the fact that disruptive advertising can work. AdWords, Yahoo Search Marketing and Microsoft’s adCenter have worked because with all the tracking available the advertiser can prove that the money spent has a return, without falling back on nebulous metrics such as branding. With SEM, disruptive advertising does work, provided it is relevant enough.

One product of effective performance measurement is the emphasis on terms that denote an information search close to the point of purchase. The most competitive terms are those that indicate a pre-purchase search. With the exception of a few groups of generic terms, this mindset has left the research and discovery keywords in most markets ignored and possibly undervalued.