Paid SEO is a common practice in search engines. But how does it work? First, let's start by defining search engines. We use them every day, but have you ever wondered how a search engine works? Search engines list all internet pages. Robots, nicknamed Crawler or Spider, constantly analyze the information contained on the web. The objective for these eight-legged machines is to index websites. So each site should be listed and classified according to criteria like books in a library.

When an Internet user uses a search engine, he will consult a library of websites in the form of a list of links. A ranking is made by the Crawler based on the relevance of the content of each website. Each search engine has its own algorithm, which means that when switching from Google to Bing, the ranking of the websites at the top of the list is significantly different.

To find out more about how Google works and especially to spend an evening laughing, you can watch the film “The Interns” with Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson.

To climb the list of sites, there are two solutions. First, adopt natural referencing (SEO) which we tend to call free referencing, secondly opt for paid referencing (SEA). Know that these two SEO techniques have their advantages. Please note that on this page we will focus only on SEA. In other words, if you want quick results, this type of SEO is the solution you need.

From now on we will only mention Google when talking about search engines and SEO. Why this radical choice? Because Google largely dominates the market with a 91.99% market share. We will explain how Google paid referencing works as well as the criteria to take into account on this search engine. Please note that most of the advice we will give you for paid SEO is applicable to the competition (Bing, Yahoo!, Qwant, etc.).

Now that we have laid the foundations of how a search engine works. We are going to define what paid search is, often referred to by the acronym SEA (Search Engine Advertising). This technique allows you to quickly position yourself on chosen keywords in order to generate traffic to your website.

SEA is considered advertising on search engines. Advertising is paid and targets one or more keywords that can be entered by an Internet user. To position yourself with paid referencing, we use the Google Ads tool. This tool allows you to develop your visibility as well as your notoriety on the internet.

Some Google searches may contain sponsored results. These results are not directly linked to the relevance of the content, but more to paying to be visible.

First, SEA allows you to obtain immediate results. That being said, let's see together why choosing paid search will boost your business.

At first glance, the promotion of products and services is the first advantage observed with this type of SEO. So, just like a classic ad that lists the benefits of a product, SEA will give credit to your product by placing it at the top of searches.

In short, paid SEO will generate qualified traffic to your site. Internet users have voluntarily clicked on your ad. They are therefore interested in the content of your ad, your product or your service. It will therefore bring potential customers (leads) to your business. If you direct the content of your advertising so that it leads the Internet user to your contact form, you will more easily gain a lead.

As you will have understood, SEA can be considered as 2.0 advertising precisely targeting an audience by reaching them directly during their internet searches. Sponsored links at the top of search results attract attention and make this SEO technique an effective solution for all businesses wanting to stand out from the crowd and grow their business.

Marshall Eriksen, emblematic character of the series “How I Met Your Mother”, is a fan of graphics. Here is one to explain to you in all simplicity the advantages of Paid SEO (SEA).

To take advantage of SEA, it is necessary to use Google Ads. This tool ultimately allows you to create links with the sponsored mention. Together we will see how Ads classifies the relevance of different paid links. This will ultimately allow us to create an effective SEA strategy for your business.

Let's start by doing a Google search. Let’s enter the key words “electric car”:

The results of our example are not set in stone. The search ranking (Ad Rank) changes regularly.

When the page is displayed, we see that the first results are car manufacturer sites. We can cite Dacia, Fiat, Cadillac and Skoda. Above each of the links to their websites it says “Sponsored”. In fact, this tells us that these 4 links come from a Google Ads campaign. The 4 campaigns use the keyword “electric car”.

To establish the ranking between these 4 links, the Crawler will rely on the concept of Ad Rank. We have detailed the calculation made by the Google algorithm.

Ad position = Quality Score + Max CPC (Max BID) + Context (History & User Data) + Ad format (Impact Format)

The quality score is very important data. To understand how to obtain good results, here is the procedure to follow:

Quality Score = Expected CTR + Ad Quality + Landing Page Quality

Here is a table illustrating the ranking of the 4 automobile manufacturers present in our screenshot. It will help you understand how Google AD Rank works:

Thus, we see that despite a high campaign budget, it is the quality score and the quality of the ad that are the most important elements. This is because Google earns money for each click on a sponsored link. Knowing this, it is essential that the description of the ad and the content of the site behind the link are of quality to increase the number of potential clicks.

Google assumes that by pushing up cheaper, but more relevant advertising, it generates more clicks. In our example, Google therefore decided to highlight the manufacturer Dacia. Because it seems to be the most relevant link. So de facto, Dacia has the advertising which in the long term will be the most profitable for Google.

Google Ads allows precise and effective targeting, but to guarantee good results we suggest you follow the 6 commandments of SEA.

Each ad must adapt to a request from Internet users. Your choices must be consistent and meet the needs of your targets. Communication agencies advise publishing several ad groups in order to cover a wider choice of keywords. If you concentrate too many keywords in a single campaign, you risk missing out on valuable leads.

Don't waste your money. As we saw earlier, a big budget for your campaign is not always synonymous with success. Learn to measure your goals, what results do you want to achieve. Do a calculation to find out the break-even point for your Google Ads campaign.

When we deciphered how Ad Rank works, we found that the format of the ad played an important role. You need to write copy that correctly targets your audience and encourages them to click on the ad. If Google determines that your description is good, you will move up in sponsored ads.

Getting people to click on your ad is a good start. But if you want to generate new leads, you need to make sure that the page behind your ad is of good quality. Pay attention to your bounce rate, if Internet users immediately leave your page you will have lost money and potential leads.

A simple word can make all the difference. You absolutely must carry out tests to find the best configuration for your campaign. We recommend the A/B Testing technique, which consists of comparing two versions of an ad by slightly modifying certain information in order to see which campaign is more lucrative.

We hope that Master Yoda has given you sufficient advice. If this is not the case, you can always contact us so that we can discuss your project together.

Many parameters must be taken into account to make your Google Ads campaign successful. You can gain a lot of leads and grow your business quickly. However, you should keep in mind that poorly configured campaigns will cause you to lose money.

If you want to obtain excellent results with your paid SEO, we advise you to entrust your project to a team of SEA experts.

Our agency has already handled several successful Google Ads campaigns. Tell us about your project, we would be delighted to discuss paid search with you.