Search Engine Marketing (SEM)

Internet marketing method that focuses on purchasing ads which appear on the result pages of search engines such as Google,Yahoo Many search engines offer ways for individuals or businesses to purchase ads, which typically appear above or to the right of the content on the search result pages. Typically, the higher the fee one offers to pay for an ad, the higher the ad will appear on the page, depending upon how much competition there is to appear on that page. Depending upon the agreement, one may pay a flat fee for a given length of time, or may pay a given fee for each click that they receive to their ad.

Search Engine Marketing, SEM is often used to describe acts associated with researching, submitting and positioning a Web site within search engines to achieve maximum exposure of your Web site. SEM includes things such as search engine optimization, paid listings and other search-engine related services and functions that will increase exposure and traffic to your Web site.

The Difference between SEM and SEO

Many people start with a good Web site and invest in search engine optimization (SEO) but don’t necessarily follow through with another very important component; and that is search engine marketing.

Search Engine Marketing, SEM is a broader term than search engine optimization (SEO), and is used to encompass different options available to use a search engine’s technology, including paid ads.

Search Engine Marketing, SEM is often used to describe acts associated with researching, submitting and positioning a website within search engines. It includes things such as search engine optimization, paid listings and other search-engine related services and functions that will increase exposure and traffic to your Web site.

Search Engine Marketing, SEM offers you the opportunity to pay based on clicks (you pay only for each click through from the advertisement to your Web site). Ads in a successful Search Engine Marketing, SEM campaign will be shown to those consumers specifically looking for your products or services, resulting in a higher conversion rate.

Search Engine Marketing, SEM is a broader term than search engine optimization (SEO). Where search engine optimization (SEO) aims to provide better organic search results, Search Engine Marketing, SEM uses the search engines to advertise your website or business to Internet customers and send a more targeted traffic to your Web site.

For example, when people use a search engine to query "fashion handbags", the organic search engine results is where Search Engine Optimization (SEO) technologies can assist your Web site in being more visible. The paid advertising, or sponsored links are the ones prominently displayed above or beside the organic search results is a product of Search Engine Marketing, SEM.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Search Engine Marketing, SEM are not competing services. search engine optimization (SEO) is considered a subset of Search Engine Marketing, SEM services. If you want to conduct business on the Internet you need to be visible in both organic and advertised links, which means you need both search engine optimization (SEO) and Search Engine Marketing, SEM.

How to Achieve

• Google Ads
• Yahoo Ads

Benefits of SEM

10 Reasons to Market a Website with Paid Search

We are very strong advocates of paid search marketing as it has so many benefits to advertisers representing just about every type of product or service. The sponsored advertising system that Google has set as the gold standard is the main contributing factor to Google’s multi-billion dollar revenue stream. Put it this way, if it didn’t work advertisers would not be contributing to Google’s enormous bank roll each year.

Without further ado, here are our Top 10 reasons why every advertiser needs to incorporate Paid Search Marketing into their marketing arsenal:

• REASON #1: First Page Exposure in the Top 3 Search Engines

  As we have said many times, your business MUST be seen in the top 5 results in Google, Yahoo and Bing. People very rarely look beyond these results or click to ancillary pages of search results. Pay Per Click Marketing is the fastest way to get an advertisement for your business to show in the top 5 results (in the sponsored advertisements) on Google, Yahoo and Bing.

• REASON #2: Immediate Traffic

  An advertiser can realistically setup a PPC campaign on Google, Yahoo or Bing (Microsoft adCenter) in less than 30 minutes if they know their way around the platform. This translates into advertisers being able to get advertisements for their website on the first page of the main search engines within an hour of campaign setup and activation (again, given they know what they’re doing). This is great for brand new websites that have little to no exposure in the search engines already.

• REASON #3: Consistent Traffic

  As a marketer, it is crucial to be able to drive as many people to your website as consistently as possible. Huge lulls in traffic or huge unexpected spikes in traffic can kill a website. With paid search marketing, traffic amounts can be controlled as they are tied directly to how much the advertiser is willing to pay per click, per day and per month.

• REASON #4: Targeted Ads

  The natural results are the most coveted for marketers and advertisers because people still click on them more than the sponsored ads. However, the ability to change, test and optimize the natural results at will does not exist as a web page needs to be optimized in order for its natural results to reflect new changes. With paid search, the ads that are displayed in the sponsored results can be changed, edited, tested, optimized and tracked for maximum effectiveness. This ability allows marketers to know which exact combination of ad text and key phrases work the best.

• REASON #5: Testing

  One of the most overlooked advantages of paid search marketing is the ability to test online marketing campaigns through the vast amount of features and data that the available platforms provide to marketers. For example, if you wanted to know whether a specific product campaign you are launching is received well with a new marketing campaign and ad creative that you have put together you can setup a campaign in AdWords, run the ads for at least 30 days, and then analyze the data to see if it they were successful. As a matter of fact, many professional SEO firms actually use or recommend paid search marketing as a primary step in determining the best key phrases for conversions and return on investment.

• REASON #6: Reach

  Besides Google being the #1 search engine with a market share of over 65%-70% over other search engines, Google has also done an amazing job of amassing a network of publishers (other websites) to display Google’s sponsored ads for them. Next time you are reading the New York Times notice the ads displayed throughout the site – those are Google’s sponsored ads and they provide advertisers with yet another way to reach their prospects on other relevant places on the web. This reach is second to none and every advertiser is encouraged to at least look into how it might work for their marketing.

• REASON #7: Relevance

  Search results are all about relevance, or at least they should be. When someone does a search, they should only get the most relevant results for what they searched for. Google, having the most advanced algorithms to detect relevancy, do a fantastic job of delivering relevant results to users. Google’s sponsored ads, like the natural results, are weighted very heavily on relevancy – from the key phrase to the ad text to the landing page. This creates the best user experience for the end user and also allows advertisers to target and receive very refined, qualified traffic.

• REASON #8: Geo-Targeting and Ad Scheduling

  A couple great features that the top paid search marketing platforms provide advertisers with are geo-targeting and ad scheduling. Geo-targeting allows advertisers to select only specified locations all over the world to display their ads to. For example, if you had a local pizza place and only wanted to show ads on the search engines to cities that you could deliver your pizza to, then you could select these areas and your ads would only show for those specified locations. This allows your ad budget to go further as it is only targeted relevant locations. Ad scheduling allows advertisers to select specific days and times of the day to run their ads. This is extremely helpful for marketers who are very familiar with when they get the best response from consumers or when they are able to respond in a timely manner. For example, if you have a Live Chat feature as the main component of your website then it might be more beneficial to run your ads during the hours that your Live Chat is online.

• REASON #9: Tracking

  It still amazes us that so many companies spend thousands of dollars each month on traditional marketing methods that have absolutely no tracking whatsoever. Take newspaper advertising for example, full page can be relatively expensive compared to online marketing and worst of all, there is no accurate way to track how successful these expensive ads actually are. With paid search marketing, every ad, every keyword, and best of all, every dollar spent can be tracked down to the cent. This allows for very accurate ROI and ROAS tracking and makes paid search marketing that much more essential for any business

• REASON #10: Branding

  Paid search marketing has many advantages such as those described above. However, one of the best uses of paid search marketing from a marketing perspective is branding. Effective branding is extremely important for every business as people remember brands, not companies. If your brand is memorable and associated with something memorable then your marketing will be that much more effective. Paid search marketing, through all of the reasons mentioned above, allows for very cost effective branding of your business/ product/ service and company name.