What is Paid Placement?
Paid placement refers to buying specific advertising spaces on the search engine results pages (SERPs) and partner websites for heightened visibility on targeted keywords. Allocation of these advertised spots (top, bottom, side, etc.) is competed for in auction systems—most commonly CPC and CPM. Paid inclusion guarantees a listing; however, the focus for paid placement is exposure, resulting in instant visibility for recurring queries. This method circumvents the time-consuming process of organic ranking, allowing immediate brand user attention capture.
Some paid placement examples are paying for a top-of-the-page advert for “car insurance quotes,” purchasing sidebar worn-out-sneaker bids on specialized directories, and buying sponsored spaces in industry portals.
Related terms: sponsored search, sponsored listing, CPC based bidding, ad purchase.