What is Search Engine Marketing?
Search engine marketing (SEM) is a digital marketing strategy used to increase the visibility of a website in search engine results pages (SERPs). It refers to paid search advertising and is also alternately referred to as paid search or pay-per-click (PPC).
Why is SEM Important?
With an increasing number of consumers researching and shopping for products online, search engine marketing has become a crucial online marketing strategy for increasing a company’s reach. In search engine marketing, advertisers only pay for impressions that result in visitors, making it an efficient way for a company to spend its marketing dollars. As an added bonus, each visitor incrementally improves the website’s rankings in organic search results. Since consumers enter search queries with the intent of finding information of a commercial nature, they are in an excellent state of mind to make a purchase, compared to other sites such as social media where users are not explicitly searching for something. Results are immediate with SEM. It is arguably the fastest way to drive traffic to a website.
How SEM Works
In paid search advertising, sponsored ads appear at the top of and on the side of search engine results pages to gain more visibility and prominence than the organic results. In your search results page, you will come across various company ads whose keywords match the keywords in your search. These ads appear in prominent locations on the page – along with the other search listings that match your keywords. The paid listings are highly relevant to your specific search, making it likely that you will click on them. Text-only ads are easy to produce. Marketers enter a headline, text for the body of the ad, a call-to-action and a URL for the hyperlink. Search engine marketing is considered by many to be the most efficient way to spend marketing dollars. When setting up a campaign within an SEM network, the marketer is prompted to:
- Conduct keyword research and select a set of keywords related to their website or product
- Select a geographic location for the ad to be displayed within
- Create a text-based ad to display in the search results
- Evaluate the cost per click (CPC) of given keywords
Create Ad Copy
Most forms of SEM will allow you to create headlines, descriptions, and ad extensions. Start with compelling headlines that really speak to the search intent behind the keywords you’re targeting. Next, highlight unique selling points in your description so that searchers can get a sense of what they can expect when they click on your ad. Ad extensions are an effective way to maximize your ads with relevant content that enhances the user experience. Some examples of ad extensions are sitelinks, phone numbers, callouts, structured snippets, and in some cases, user ratings.
Optimize Landing Pages
Ensure your landing pages are relevant to the ad copy that got your users there in the first place. This will boost ad rank and quality score (your potential to rank higher while paying less for target keywords), increase website traffic, and ultimately improve conversion rates. Some simple ways to improve your landing pages is to include clear calls-to-action (CTA), implement responsive design for mobile users, optimize page speed, and quality content.
- Improve quality score to lower the total cost of ads showing up.
- Add extensions like sitelinks to highlight specific web pages, callouts to highlight specific features, call extensions for phone numbers, or even customized URLs to improve click-through rates (CTR).
- Implement remarketing to reinforce brand awareness and ensure your ads are staying top of mind as they continue browsing onto other apps or pages.