I was wrong about 'Paid Search'

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This week in my Marketing 595 class at DePaul University we discussed the prospects and benefits of paid search.  We have all seen paid search results in our Google results, however, I never realized that people actually clicked on these links.  I was under the impression that most people were like me in that they really do not even 'see' banner ads on web pages or the paid search items in their search engine's results.  In fact, I know that I have never intentionally clicked on a paid search ad and always wondered why company's were wasting their money on 'paid search'.  After reading many posts on the discussion board for our class and doing my own research, I can safely say that I was wrong!

A recent internet research survey indicates that roughly a fifth of retail respondents indicated that paid search generated between '26% and 50%' of their sites traffic.  In addition, Ryan Kawabata from my class shared a Nielsen survey where 36% of respondents indicated that they had 'trust in ads served in search engine results'.  Now I understand that this is not a large number, however, I believe for the cost and ease of setting up a paid search ad, these results can not be ignored and can bring revenue to your site.  The key for your business is to be sure that your ad leads to a successful 'landing page' to convert those clicks to dollars.  I now consider myself a changed man and now believe that those ads in search engines are not necessarily a waste of money.