In a recent Harris Interactive poll, surprising numbers of Americans were not able to recognize and differentiate paid search from organic search results. 47% of males and 66% of females in the US did not recognize paid search when they saw it. An astonishing 53% of internet users in the age range of 18-34 could not recognize paid search.
The same percentage of people with over five years of internet experience could still not tell the difference between an organic search result and a paid listing. With such large numbers of internet users not being able to tell paid search apart from organic, SEO and PPC advertising are still very valid means of marketing to audiences that can’t tell the difference.