Search feeds · also called site search monetisation, search box ads
Search box monetisation
Search box monetisation is earning money by showing search ads alongside the results when visitors use a search box on your site, app or tool.
This is the use search feeds were originally designed for. A website has a search box. A visitor types what they want. The results page shows the site's own results together with sponsored listings from a search feed, and the site earns a share when one is clicked.
Google's AdSense for Search describes itself in these terms: a way to add search and shopping ads to a site's results pages. The same principle powers search boxes on portals, in browser start pages and in toolbars.
The quality argument is strong. The visitor typed the query, so the search intent is their own, and advertisers get the kind of prospect they expect from search. This is the opposite end of the spectrum from a page that hands visitors a list of keywords.
The limit is volume. Few sites have enough people using a search box to earn much, which is why arbitrage evolved toward buying traffic and suggesting searches. Search box monetisation also has an abusive cousin: software that changes a user's search settings without clear consent so that their searches flow through a monetised box. That is search hijacking.
An example
A coupon site's visitor types "running shoes" into its search box. The results page lists the site's own coupons plus three sponsored listings from shoe retailers, and the site earns when one is clicked.
Related terms
AdSense for Search (AFS)
AdSense for Search is Google's programme that lets approved publishers show Google search and shopping ads on their own search results pages and share the revenue.
Custom Search Ads (CSA)
Custom Search Ads is the Google AdSense code that lets a publisher request Google search ads for a query and display them on its own results page.
Metasearch engine
A metasearch engine is a search site that has no index of its own and instead shows results and ads supplied by one or more larger search engines.
Browser extension search monetisation
Browser extension search monetisation is earning search ad revenue from an extension that sets the user's default search, homepage or new tab page to a monetised search engine.
Search hijacking (browser hijacker)
Search hijacking is when unwanted software changes a browser's search engine, home page or results so the user's searches are diverted to pages that earn someone ad money.
Search intent
Search intent is the goal a person has in mind when they search, such as learning something, finding a website or buying a product.