How does search arbitrage work, step by step?
A media buyer runs an ad on a platform such as Facebook or Taboola. A person clicks and lands on an article or keyword page. That page shows related search terms. The person taps one and sees sponsored search results. If they click a sponsored result, the advertiser pays the search engine, which shares the money with the feed provider and the publisher.
The modern Google version is a two-click flow: click one is on a related search term on a content page, click two is on a sponsored listing on the results page. Only the second click earns money. Older designs used a bare keyword lander, and parked-domain designs sometimes used a one-click flow.
Behind the scenes a tracker stamps each visit with a Click ID. When the feed reports revenue, a postback sends the value back to the traffic source so its bidding system can look for more visitors like the ones who earned money. The buyer watches RPV against CPC by campaign, keyword and creative, and cuts whatever sits below break-even point.