Search Engine Marketing, or SEM, is one of the most effective ways to grow your business and reach new customers. With millions of businesses out there all vying for the same eyeballs, it’s never been more important to advertise online, and search engine marketing is the most effective way to promote brand awareness, increase sales, and grow your business in an increasingly competitive marketplace.
What is Search Engine Marketing?
SEM is using paid advertising to ensure that your business’s products or services are visible in search engine results pages (SERPs). Advertisers bid on keywords that users of services such as Google and Bing might enter when looking for certain products or services, which gives the advertiser the opportunity for their ads to appear alongside results for those search queries.
Popular SEM Tools
Keywords: these are the words that people use to seek out information on search engines. They do not have to be individual words; it is common to use groups of words or phrases.
Concordance: when setting up a campaign, you will need to define the degree of matching needed between the keywords you have selected and the terms that people use when typing a query into a search engine. Meaning if you opt for a broad match, the ad will be displayed when the user searches for synonyms or terms similar to the keyword. If you opt for an exact match, the ad will appear only when the user enters a specific keyword in the search engine.
Text Ad: this is the standard type of ad that is shown in search engines. Text ads usually include a title, a visible URL that can be customized, and a short description.
Ad Group: an ad group consists of several ads that feature the same keywords. This way, you can see which of them are the most effective.
Campaign: the campaign is like an umbrella under which different ad groups with similar goals are organized.
Search Network: these are the places where your ads appear. The most common choice is on the top and right of the results page, but you can also show them on other sites such as YouTube.
Landing Page: this is the web page the user is directed to after clicking on an advertisement. To achieve good results with search engine marketing, this page must be optimized to get conversions and prompt users to take certain actions (like completing a form).
SEM Tracking
A decent tracking setup allows you to answer important questions about the performance of your marketing efforts. You’ll want to track the following:
Impressions: the number of times an ad was shown.
Clicks: the number of times an ad has been clicked on.
CTR: the percentage of clicks on total impressions.
CPC: the average cost per click.
Quality Score: the score that Google gives ads and keywords, which influences your cost per click. This score is determined based on the relevance of the ad, the percentage of clicks obtained, and the experience of the landing page. The objective of this system is for higher quality ads to occupy higher positions and have a lower cost per click.
What Value Does SEM Add to Your Business?
Using SEM is a great way to generate highly qualified traffic, visibility, and conversions. Search engine marketing allows you to get users to your website that are interested in what you offer, associates your brand with a specific need even if the user does not click the first time they see it, and ultimately improves sales results.
A good SEM strategy also allows you to get the most out of your budget. It’s a suitable solution for companies of all sizes since the minimum investment is very affordable. And as your brand grows, you can increase the investment and complexity of your campaigns to keep your momentum. Also, since you only pay if you get results (in the form of clicks), you can be sure that your budget is used effectively.
Search engine marketing’s greatest strength is that it offers advertisers the opportunity to put their ads in front of motivated customers who are ready to buy at the precise moment they’re ready to make a purchase. No other advertising medium can do this, which is why search engine marketing is so effective and such an amazingly powerful way to help your business.
How Business Owls Can Help
Finding the right SEM strategy for your business is important. For more information, email us at INFO@BUSINESSOWLS.COM or click here to speak to one of our recommended SEM experts. We’d love to help you find the best ways to use SEM to grow your business!