Google offers paid advertisements which appear in search results on google.com with the use of Google Ads or advertisements that appear on other websites through the Display Network and Google’s AdSense program.

Below is an example of a Google search engine results page (SERP). There are two sections of paid Google ads, one above the "natural" or organic links and one at the bottom of the results page.

The sponsored results, or ads, (in the red box) are denoted with a green “Ad” label. The results that appear below the ads (in the green box) are referred to as organic results.

Google also offers Display Ads, which appear on the Google Display Network. The Display Network is an extensive collection of outside, third-party websites that have partnered with Google and agreed to serve Google ads. Google ads on the Display Network can be in text, image, video, or rich media format, and can be targeted differently. This includes remarketing and banner ads.

The Google Ads Auction

Google Ads works on an auction system, which takes place every time a user performs a keyword search.

To “win” the Google Ads auctions and see your Google advertisement appear for relevant keywords, you’ll need to optimize your Quality Score and bid amount. The higher your Quality Score, in conjunction with your bid amount, the better your ad positioning. The following factors (among others) affect your Quality Score:

The relevance of your Google ad to the search query

The relevance of the Google keyword to your ad group

The relevance of your ad to its landing page

The historical click-through rate (CTR) of the ad and its ad group

Overall historical account performance

There are also overall benefits to having a high quality score:

Lower costs– Google rewards advertisers with high Quality Scores by lowering their cost per click (CPC), helping improve ROI.