An important component of this entire process was the ability to “pay per click” —as opposed to paying based on the number of people who (theoretically) viewed your ad, as every other online advertiser did in the dot-com era. This was the second key innovation: with the GoTo model, an advertiser only “paid for performance.” If no one clicked on your ad, you paid nothing. This was a radical but extremely enticing option at a time when click-through rates on banner ads had dropped to minuscule percentages.
