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What is search engine marketing (SEM)?
To help businesses’ content rank higher among search engine traffic, there is a technique called search engine marketing (SEM). Like search engine optimization (SEO), search engine marketing helps businesses in enhancing how search engines rank content.
SEM assists businesses in attracting customers to their goods and services through paid search engine advertising. SEM is an online marketing tactic where businesses pay top dollar for targeted SERP (search engine result page) ad space. This strategy is distinct from SEO, which concentrates on content optimization for search engine algorithms. As a result, the content has a high SERP ranking.
Most people use Google, Bing, and Yahoo as their search engines. The placement of SEM ads on each website’s SERP is decided through an auction process.
SEM mostly uses paid advertising like Google or Bing ads to attract more visitors. Here are some important parts of SEM:
It is based on keyword analysis. Marketing departments research keyword phrases that may entice visitors to a website. Search engine marketers, like SEO professionals, use keyword research analysis and tools to determine the keyword phrases that users search for. They next pay the search engine provider for ad space on the results pages for the search terms they want to target.
On the SERP, SEM-paid search results appear first.
Websites that are simple for web crawlers to scan and contain trust signals, like links to other websites, are advantageous for SEM.
How SEM works?
First, search engine marketers find keywords that get many searches, and then they buy ad space on the SERPs for those keywords. Pay-per-click (PPC) campaigns mean the marketer pays the search engine provider every time a user clicks on their ad. For businesses that sell goods and services, the money made when customers buy products they find through an SEM ad should be more than the cost of PPC.
The ads for SEM are placed at the top of a SERP, above the SEO results. They look like organic search results and have the following qualities:
- Headlines or title tags
- Summaries of the webpage content, known as the Meta description
- Calls to action, or text that urges site visitors to take a specific action, like making a purchase or signing up for a service and
- URL hyperlinks.
Importance of SEM
Here are some reasons why SEM marketing strategies are important:
Digital marketing. One of the most common ways that customers shop is online. Using keywords that will draw in the audience most likely to be interested in the marketer’s good or service, SEM campaigns aim to increase digital marketing reach. SEM campaigns essentially aim for the most lucrative keywords.
High conversion rates. One of the best things about SEM marketing is that it puts a business’s product in front of customers when they are ready to buy. For example, if a company buys an ad for the keyword “food processor,” people who want to buy a food processor online will see that company’s ad first. With SEM, there is a good chance that people who click on an ad want to buy something. It increases the number of customers who buy from a business and improves their purchase intent.
Speed. The time it takes to analyze keywords and mold content for SEO research can be significantly longer than it takes to implement an SEM strategy and see the same level of increased traffic. Through optimizations made to search engine results pages (SERPs), SEM quickly brings products and services to the attention of potential buyers.
PPC model. The PPC model, similar to the cost-per-engagement model, enables businesses only to pay when their advertisement is clicked. Setting a daily budget and a maximum cost per click (CPC) allows organizations to manage spending.
It increased organic rankings and trust signals. Increased traffic to a page via paid advertisements eventually increases overall traffic to a page and improves trust signals ranked by Google. Assume a product does well enough in an SEM campaign. In that case, it can rank high on a SERP organically, eliminating the need for SEM.
Segmentation. SEM campaigns can control what keywords to use and what location, language, and online behavior to target. It ensures that only people interested in their product or service are reached.
Deep insight. Organizations can receive extremely detailed reports on the status and development of their SEM campaigns in real-time thanks to tools like Google Analytics. It provides helpful information about how SEM campaign ads are performing, which helps in the analysis of ways that campaigns could be improved.
Disadvantages of SEM
SEM is not without its disadvantages and difficulties, some of which include the following:
Cost. SEM can become expensive, even with cost-effective models like PPC. Businesses must pay every time their advertisement is clicked. There are no costs associated with clicks or rankings when using SEO.
Competition. Depending on the campaign’s intended audience, purchasing ads and securing the top spot on search engine results pages (SERPs) can become difficult and costly. Increasing competition for the top ad position drives up CPC and related costs.
Customer trust and ad blockers. Many customers don’t like or trust ads, so they use ad blockers to get rid of them. Some people find ads annoying and don’t trust them as much as organic search results from inbound marketing.
Keywords: The Foundation of Search Engine Marketing
The cornerstone of search engine marketing is keywords. It should come as no surprise that keywords are the foundation of search engine marketing as an advertising strategy, given that users enter keywords (as part of search queries) into search engines to find what they’re looking for.
SEM Keyword Research
You must conduct in-depth research as part of your keyword management strategy before deciding which keywords to use in your search engine marketing campaigns.
You must first choose the keywords most likely to be used by potential customers to find your goods and services online. Utilizing the Free Keyword Planner Tool from Google is one way to achieve this.
You can see related keyword suggestion ideas that can serve as the foundation for various search engine marketing campaigns by simply entering a keyword related to your product or service.
You can get useful information from Google’s Free Keyword Planner Tool, including the number of Google searches for each keyword and how competitive it is overall.
Thorough keyword research can help you find keywords you should bid on and can also help you find negative keywords, which are search terms you should leave out of your campaigns.
Negative keywords aren’t words that have negative connotations. Instead, they are words that aren’t relevant and are very unlikely to lead to conversions. For example, if you sell ice cream, you might not want to include the keyword “ice cream recipes” since people looking for ice cream recipes are probably not looking for your product.
This idea is called “search intent,” which is the likelihood that a prospect will buy something or do something else they want to do after searching for a certain term. Some keywords have a lot to do with business or give a strong hint that the person searching for them wants to buy something. Some examples of keywords with high commercial intent are:
- Buy
- Discount(s)
- Deal(s)
- Coupon(s)
- Free shipping
The Search Engine Marketing Ad Auction
A common misconception about search engine marketing is that the company with the biggest advertising budget comes out on top. A larger advertising budget is helpful for search engine marketing, especially when considering highly competitive keywords. However, it is by no means necessary. It is because ads go through an auction process before they appear next to search results. We’ll use the Google AdWords auction as an example.
How does the Ad Auction Work?
The ad auction process starts when someone types a search query into Google. Advertisers enter the ad auction by putting in the keywords they want to bid on and how much they are willing to pay per click to have their ads appear next to results related to those keywords. Let’s say Google finds that a user’s search query includes the keywords you have bid on. Then, your ads will be put into the ad auction.
How Ads ‘Win’ the Ad Auction?
Not every advertisement will show up for every search. It is because not every keyword has enough commercial intent to warrant displaying ads next to results and because the ad auction considers several factors when determining the placement of ads on the SERP. However, your maximum bid and the Quality Score of your ads are the two main factors that Google considers when conducting the ad auction process.
The maximum bid is the most you’ve indicated you’re willing to shell out for a click. A metric based on the overall quality of your advertisement is called a quality score. Google uses these metrics to determine where to place advertisements during the ad auction. The outcome of this calculation is referred to as the ad rank.
The Importance of Quality Scores in SEM
Since the Quality Score for Google AdWords is half of the formula for ad rank, it is one of the most important metrics that search engine marketers can pay attention to. High-Quality Scores can help you get better ad positions for less money because Google gives more weight to ads highly relevant to user searches.
In the table below, you can see that Advertiser 1 has the lowest maximum bid. However, they also have the highest Quality Score. It means that their ads get placed first during the ad auction:
Quality Score is a metric used in search engine marketing, which may be the most important. Read this page at PPC University to learn more about Quality Score and how it affects your campaigns.
Defining SEM for the Future
If you believe that “SEM” has reached its peak of development, raise your hand. Anyone?
I see hints that SEM’s definition will develop in the future.
Search engine marketing (SEM) conferences in 2019 covered more than just search engine marketing.
Exhibit A: SMX West
The most recent SMX West conference tracks were split into SEO (organic) and SEM (paid). Thus, the division is evident. In the SEO track, you can anticipate learning about organic ranking. Sessions in the SEM track concentrate on PPC issues like enhancing a Google Ads campaign.
The addition of advertising platforms other than Google and Bing is noteworthy. The SEM track’s sessions also cover the following:
- YouTube
- Amazon
Exhibit B: Pubcon Las Vegas
I questioned whether SMX was the exception in this case. So I took a look at Pubcon, a significant marketing conference.
As it turns out, Pubcon’s “SEM” theme extends beyond conventional search engines. Facebook ad spending declines. And some others might not be mentioned in the executive summary.
SEM can refer to a wide range of online ad placements, at least in the context of conferences. (This is somewhat illogical.)
Sessions are no longer restricted to Google and Bing. They also cover ad-accepting non-search outlets.
Will the definition of SEM change as a result of this? Or will a different phrase entirely replace it to describe the dynamic and exciting world of Internet marketing?
Our work as search marketers has expanded in scope. Likewise, our definitions must.
In my opinion, search marketing must now go beyond just organic SEO and paid SEM in the major search engines. Additionally, it involves voice, video, server problems, poor site performance, YouTube, Amazon, etc.
There is no doubt that the search market is expanding. The language we employ to describe it will change as well.
At least you won’t be shocked if you ask what SEM is in ten years and find out the definition has changed once more.
Succeed at Search Engine Marketing with Mahira Digital
Here at Mahira Digital, SEO is what drives us day and night. We aim to give you everything you need to succeed in search engine marketing, whether you’re a complete beginner or a seasoned pro in paid search advertising.