Paid search is advertising on search engines, mainly Google and Microsoft Advertising. You bid in an auction to appear for queries, and you usually pay per click. Text ads and Shopping listings are both paid search. Let's take a plumbing company as an example. The plumbing company buys Google text ads when someone types emergency plumber near me.

Is paid search the same as SEM?

Not exactly. SEM, search engine marketing, is used loosely. Some teams use it to mean paid search only, others use it to cover paid and organic search together. If the definition matters in a meeting, say paid search and remove the ambiguity.

Glossary

Paid search

Paid search is buying ads on search engine results pages. When someone types a query, your ad can appear above or beside the unpaid results, and you usually pay when they click. It includes text ads and Shopping listings. SEM stands for search engine marketing: some people use it to mean paid search, and some use it to mean paid plus unpaid (organic) search.

Theodor Lindfors, Founding Marketer · September 1, 2026

What paid search is

Someone types a query, an auction runs, and ads appear above or beside the organic results. Position depends on bid and on ad quality, which Google summarises as Quality Score.

The buying unit is the query, reached through keywords and match types, or through a feed in the case of Shopping ads (product cards built from a Merchant Center file of titles, prices, and photos). Match types (broad, phrase, exact) decide how closely the typed search must match the keyword you added. Broad match is related in meaning. Phrase match includes the meaning with extra words. Exact match is the same meaning, including close variants.

Let's take a plumbing company as an example. The plumbing company buys Google ads to get homeowners who need a plumber this week. A homeowner types emergency plumber near me. The plumbing company's text ad can appear. That is paid search.

Why paid search matters

Paid search is the highest intent media most advertisers can buy. The person told you what they want in their own words, which is why conversion rates sit well above feed-based channels.

Paid search is also capped by existing demand. You cannot buy more searches than exist, which is why growth eventually needs Demand Gen (Google's visual campaign type on YouTube, Discover, and Gmail), social, or video to create it.

How to read paid search results

Split brand from non-brand before anything else. A blended account return is mostly a story about how much brand search (people typing your company name into Google) you counted.

Let's take a plumbing company as an example. The plumbing company spends $8,000 on Google Search. $2,000 of that $8,000 is brand (the company's name, plus login-style queries like the name plus hours). $6,000 of the $8,000 is non-brand (emergency plumber, plumber near me). Brand books 80 visits. Divide $2,000 of brand spend by 80 booked visits. That is $25 per booked visit. Non-brand books 67 visits. Divide $6,000 of non-brand spend by 67 booked visits. That is about $90 per booked visit. Blended, the plumbing company spent $8,000 for 147 booked visits, about $54 each ($8,000 divided by 147). The $54 blended cost is a headline. New demand costs $90. Then read search terms rather than keywords, since match types (broad, phrase, exact: the rules that decide which searches can trigger the ad) decide what you actually bought. Compare non-brand results over time, not against the brand line.

Common paid search mistakes

Reporting one blended return that brand traffic quietly props up.
Treating impression share as a goal instead of a diagnostic.
Rebuilding account structure instead of fixing the landing page.

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