Advertisers bid on Keywords which they think their Target Audience will use as search words, when looking for a product or a service. When a user types a Keyword matching to the advertiser's Keyword list, or views a page with Relevant content, the advertiser's ad may be shown. These ads are called as ‘Sponsored links and appear next to or above the ‘natural' or organic results on Search Engine results pages. Pay per click ads can also appear on Content Network Sites. Here, ad networks such as Google Ad Sense provide ads which are relevant to the content of the page, and no search function is involved.

An advertiser's ranking or position within the search results is determined by how much they are ready to bid for each click on their website. In addition to this, the Relevancy of an advertiser's Advert Text and website's Landing Page is considered when ranking sites. PPC is the New Age Advertising. It is Contextual and Highly Targeted. In other words, it reaches out to the right people who are interested in buying or trying out your product. The result, you make the most of your budget.

This shows how successful contextual advertising could be in vis-a-vis unpredictable traditional advertising.