Search Engine News

The world of Search Engine Marketing (SEM) had a shake up recently when Google annouced a new feature. "Top of page" advertising lets marketers bid for the very top spot for the keywords they advertise on.

Here's how it used to be:

Inhouse has been offering pay per click advertising in search engines for some time now and it works through a bidding process with a daily limit. For example if 10 advertisers all bid for the same keyword the one that bids the most gets the top place with the next highest 4 taking the other places on the page. If the link is clicked, that advertiser is billed whatever their bid was. If the link isn't click, the advertisers pays nothing. This continues until the advertisers daily budget is consumed. Then the second highest bidder goes to the top and so on.

It works for the advertiser because they are only charged if a user clicks the link to their site. If the link isn't clicked, they don't pay.

It works for Search Engines because the higher the demand for each keyword, the more advertisers are willing to pay.

Obviously a link at the top of the page is more likely to get clicked but advertisers could only get to the top spot through a process of trial and error. You don't want to start bidding $20 per click if the next highest bidder is bidding $1.

Here's what's new:

A new option is available to out bid every other advertiser and take the top of spot, above all the "organic" links and the other ads!

But what if 2 advertisers bid for the top spot?
Good question. Google plays it's cards close to its chest and so I don't think anyone knows for sure. Google owns ebay and it seems the highest bidder wins.

Obviously this is a boon for the search engines but would you use it?