Introduction
Search Engine Marketing (SEM) is a sub-field of digital marketing. It is the process of promoting your business, brand, or services using paid ads and showing them higher on the search results page. Paid search, Pay-Per-Click (PPC), and search ads are other terms that are used for SEM.
Many people confuse SEM with SEO (Search Engine Optimization), but SEM is strictly used for paid promotion of your website on search engines like Google. You get a spot in the search engine results pages (SERPs) through bidding on keywords related to your business. Whereas SEO is the organic form of SEM where you don’t have to pay anything to show your web pages in the organic search results. Here Google tries to show the most relevant results against the user’s search query. While SEO takes time to show results, SEM can quickly work for your business.
How SEM works?
SEM involves a combination of SEO and paid search advertising, such as Google Ads (formerly known as Adwords).
Here are 8 components that help explain how SEM ad campaign works:
1. Search Keywords
Your primary goal is to find search keywords or search terms that generate a high volume of relevant search results. This will help ensure more visibility in search results and your content can be used more efficiently in paid advertising.
2. Search Volume
The more people search with a specific keyword phrase, the more opportunities you have of appearing in the search results. Aside from having the right search keywords, you also need to ensure enough search volume.
3. Select a Location
Decide where you want your paid search ads to appear. Select the most relevant geographical location for your search keywords.
4. Create An Advertisement
Based on your needs, create a text-based or display-based advertisement to display in the search result.
5. Bid On Keywords
Bid on a price you are willing to pay for your ads against all the relevant keywords for your business.
6. Check Quality Score
This is an algorithm used by Google to measure the relevance of your ads to the keywords you are bidding on. If your ads are more relevant, Google will be more likely to show your ads, and at a lower cost-per-click.
7. Optimization
Optimizing your website and landing pages where users will land after clicking on your ad with relevant keywords can help your visibility in search engine results. Along with creating search-friendly website content, you should also optimize meta tags, page titles, page descriptions, and headings.
8. Monitoring
Constanty monitor how your ads are performing with the help of certain metrics like cost-per-click(CPC), conversion rate, click-through rate (CTR), etc.
Why Is SEM Important?
According to the most recent data by Oberlo, Google handles around 99,000 queries per second. This translates into over 8.5 billion queries per day! That’s why it’s important for businesses to have a presence online; otherwise they’ll be missing out on valuable leads that could lead them down a path towards making an investment in their product/service!
SEM is important in any situation whether you want to increase brand awareness, or you want more traffic on your website. It is especially effective when you are trying to reach new customers.
For example you’re launching a new pizza restaurant and want people to know about it, or maybe your company makes sunglasses for men that can only be found online through their website. In these cases, SEM is an excellent way of getting the word out about your product because people will use them on a regular basis when looking for information about what they need!
Benefits Of Search Engine Marketing.
SEM is an effective way to increase brand awareness and website traffic which ultimately leads to more conversions and sales.
1. Brand Awareness
Search engines like Google help us identify products by providing useful information about them. If you have your own website or blog then make sure that it is optimized for google so that more people can find it easily when they search for specific keywords related to your business.
2. Website Traffic
When people visit your website from search results provided by search engines like Google then you get free traffic to your site which helps increase its ranking in SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages). This also increases visibility on social media platforms like Facebook or Twitter where people post links about their favorite websites or blogs etc., which further increases your visibility among potential customers who may be interested in visiting yours at some point down the line!
Side Note: One sneaky benefit of SEM is that since it is a Pay-Per-Click advertisement, you only have to pay when people click on your website link. If people see your link and do not click on it, that will be a free advertisement for your business on the first page of Google search results. Isn’t that amazing?
Search Engine Marketing Drawbacks.
SEM is a form of public relations that involves paying for advertising on Google, Yahoo!, Bing etc. It has gained popularity over time because it enables businesses to reach more potential customers than other forms of online marketing do alone; however, there are some drawbacks such as higher cost per click (CPC) as compared to other platforms as many companies are competing to get a space in SERPs.
Also, ads from other companies show up around yours for the same keywords, which can dilute your brand message and confuse visitors into clicking on their link instead of yours.
How can SEM be done practically?
Through SEM, you can gain visibility to a broader audience and increase your web traffic. This guide will provide you with a practical step-by-step approach to SEM so that you can improve your online performance.
Step 1: Choose The Right Keywords
SEM starts with selecting the right keywords or phrases that relate to your product or service. To determine the best keywords for a successful marketing campaign, use keyword research tools like the Google Keyword Planner or SEMRush. These tools can help you identify the keywords that are most used in your target market. It’s important to create a list of long tail keywords that are specific to your business and divide them into relevant subcategories.
Step 2: Optimize Your Website
After you have identified the right keywords, you may need to optimize your website accordingly. Make sure the keywords appear in your page titles, URLs, meta descriptions and headings. Use the keywords sparingly throughout the content, in order to avoid being penalized by search engines, and ensure that you include synonyms and related words as well.
Step 3: Track and Analyze
Analyzing the results from your PPC campaigns is a crucial step in successful SEM. By tracking and analyzing the performance of your ads, you can determine the best course of action to take in order to improve the performance of your SEM campaigns.
Google Adwords and other search marketing tools offer tracking and reporting features that provide you with insights into metrics such as cost-per-click, click-through rate, impressions and conversions. Analyzing such data will help you determine what kind of adjustments to make to your campaigns in order to improve their effectiveness.
Step 4: Use SEM Tools
In addition to Google Adwords, there are many other SEM tools like Ahrefs, Spyfu, etc. available to advertisers that can be used to improve their search marketing strategies. These tools can help with keyword research, ad creation, link building, and more.
Step 5: Retargeting your customers
Commonly known as ‘remarketing’, is a technique to put an ad in front of people that have already visited your website. Retargeting can remind people of your business and encourage them to return to your website and complete an action.
Conclusion
Search engine marketing is one of the most effective ways of driving traffic to your website, increasing sales, and gaining new customers. It is also important to consider the cost of SEM when investing time and money into a website. So make sure you put your marketing efforts in the correct SEM strategies in order to make the most of the money spent on your ad campaigns.
