Google Ads is an online advertising platform developed by Google In Google Ads advertisers pay for the clicks they receive from their ads when these are shown within the Google Search and Partners network These ads are displayed when a user searches for their products or services The main difference between Google Search and most other forms of online advertising such as Display is that whilst users searching are actively looking this is not the case for the other types of ads Because users are actively searching the intent to buy or convert of the user is very strong making Google Search one of the most effective forms of online advertising When launched in 2000 Google Ads was called Google AdWords and it was only in 2018 that Google rebranded AdWords to Google Ads