When it comes to grow your business in this increasingly competitive and modern marketplace, search engine marketing is one of the best and most effective ways to get optimum outcomes. With so many businesses competing for the same target audience, it’s never been more important to promote a brand or products over the web. And SEM is the perfect and result-driven approach to advertise a business online and boost revenues ultimately.
What Is Search Engine Marketing (SEM)?
Search engine marketing or SEM is a digital marketing tactic used by companies and businesses to stand out in search engine result pages via paid marketing strategies. SEM is also referred to as pay-per-click (PPC) or paid search marketing. Decades ago, search engine marketing was a term used to cover both SEO and paid search. But now it is exclusively used for paid search marketing.
Why Is Search Engine Marketing Important?
With a growing number of people researching for products and services online, search engine marketing is now considered an integral part of a successful internet marketing strategy to increase exposure for a brand or business. Using SEM, a business is able to appear on the top or beneath the search engine result page when someone performs a search query on search engines. In this digital marketing tactic, brands and marketers online pay for clicks that result in visitors. It makes it an effective way to spend your marketing budget wisely to get optimum outcomes.
Since modern consumers perform internet searches with the intent to learn more about a brand, business, or product, they are in a good state of mind to make final buying decisions. And SEM can present your business as a perfect match to their needs or requirements in SERPs. Along with getting more clicks, each click on your landing page improves your visibility in organic search.
How Search Engine Marketing Works?
Search engines are operational with complex algorithms to provide their users with most relevant search results based on a variety of factors including location and other useful information. In SEM, ads are shown at the top, on the side or beneath the organic results to gain more visibility for a brand or product. Paid listings are most relevant to specific search queries and keywords. Advertisers can choose appropriate keywords to appear in top search results.
SEM networks like Google are self-serve operations. After choosing an apt network, an advertise can set-up a campaign easily within a short span of time. Google allows its users to choose the best keywords via Google Ad Planner (a free keyword research tool).
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Vs Search Engine Marketing (SEM)
Organic Search (SEO)
When someone enters a phrase or keyword into search engine like Google or Bing, organic results are shown in the search engine result pages. When you need to appear in organic search results with your business or brand, you need to optimize your website or landing pages by using the right SEO techniques to rank higher in search results. You can also increase visibility in organic search results by getting relevant sites to link your pages.
Paid Search (SEM)
Search engine marketing (SEM) allows brands and advertisers to buy a listing in ‘sponsored’ areas of search engines to appear in top SERPs. A lot of paid search programs are out there and PPC (pay-per-click) is the popular one. In this SEM approach, you only pay when someone clicks your advertisement.
How to Do Search Engine Marketing (SEM) Like a Pro
Below are some time yet most effective SEM tips to help you do search engine marketing like a pro.
1 Choose the Right Search Engine
Search engines play a significant role in making a business successful in this digital landscape. That’s why you need to choose the right search engine to develop and run a paid search campaign. Understand how different search engine works and rank websites higher. It helps you choose the right SEM network and make changes in your campaign accordingly.
2 Select the Best Performing Keywords
Successful keyword incorporation is an integral element of a successful SEM campaign. That’s why you have to understand what keywords and phrases potential customers type when searching for products or services you are offering. This is where keyword research comes in handy and allows you to choose the best keywords with a low CPC rate and higher search volume. If you want to run a paid search campaign in Google, you should use the Google keyword planner tool to find what keywords work well for you.
3 Selection of a Landing Page (URL)
You should choose search engine friendly URLs for your SEM campaign to get better outcomes. For instance, make sure your URL contains focus keywords to represent your product or service in the best possible way and boost conversion rate incredibly.
4 Use of Google Tools
Analytics, sitemaps, keyword research and product research are some useful tools that can help you run and monitor the performance of your campaign effectively. The most popular SEM network Google offers a variety of tools that are beneficial to do search engine marketing right.
Best Search Engine Marketing (SEM) Platforms
A search engine marketing platform is a search engine that allows brands and advertisers to place paid search ads that are displayed when search queries are performed.
Google and Bing are the most popular SEM platforms around the globe and help brands thrive greatly.
Google Ads are popular among both online and offline brands as billions of searches are performed on Google daily. By running a successful SEM campaign in Google, you can get your brand or business in front of a broader audience.
Bing Ads
Bing Ads promise their users to connect with almost 3 million searches. As they serve ads on partner sites like Yahoo and MSN etc. Bing ads present your business in front of internet users who are not just using Google for internet search.