Digital marketing has become an integral part of building a brand’s identity. Your business cannot grow at the rate you expect if you don’t optimize your marketing strategy to the current trends. One of the emerging techniques used by many digital marketers is Search Engine Marketing.
What is Search Engine Marketing (SEM)?
SEM is a paid digital marketing strategy used to make a business visible on the Search Engine Results Page (SERP). A majority of the population searches for products and services online and goes through Google’s SERP. SEM allows you to display your business’s services on these pages ensuring your customers can easily find you. With the right search engine marketing strategy, you can easily reach a wider audience.
How does Search Engine Marketing work?
SEM works on bids placed on relevant keywords. If your bid wins, your advertisement is placed on the SERP. However, finding and winning bids is not simple. Furthermore, personalized ads need to be created to get the best conversion rate.
This is one of the reasons why search engine marketing services have become popular.
What are the types of search engine marketing?
SEM covers PPC, CPC, Geotargeting, AdWords, Youtube Ads, Google product listing, mobile search advertising, etc. Among these, the most popular SEM method is Google Ads.
What is the difference between SEM & SEO?
While both SEM and SEO are marketing techniques, there are some differences between the two.
Search Engine Optimization techniques are employed to bring unpaid traffic. This is a free advertising technique. The traffic your website gets depends entirely on optimization and keywords on the page.
On the other hand, SEM is a paid technique. You are paying to advertise the services on a page that is relevant and most visited. It is a straightforward and economical method of generating traffic. You are expected to ‘bid’ on the right keywords and create personalized, creative ads that lead directly to your landing page.
Both these techniques are effective and can be employed regardless of your business size, location, and industry.
What is the most popular Search Engine Marketing platform?
While SEM can be used on a variety of platforms, most marketers often associate it with Google. The reason for this is simple: Google is one of the most popular search engines used. Google sees over 2.5 trillion searches per year and has over 1 million active users. This makes SEM on Google one of the most effective methods to generate a customer base. This is also the reason why you see search engine marketing tips usually focused on Google SERP.
How do Google Ads work?
Google Ads is a simple advertising platform used by advertisers to bid. The bid can be for advertisements, product listings, video or web users, etc. If they win the bid, they can display their products or services. The ad can be displayed on various mediums – Google SERP, mobile pages, mobile apps, videos, etc.
Since Google Ads is a pay-per-click model, you will get paid every time someone clicks on your ad. Therefore, this had doubled advantages. First, you can increase your visibility. And secondly, you get paid every time someone clicks on your ad. This is how search engine marketing and Google Ads help you build your revenue.
Are Google Ads free?
While creating a Google Ads Account is free, you have to pay for the actual service. Unfortunately, there is no simple price for Google Ads. It depends on various factors including your business’ industry, location, customer lifecycle, etc. Therefore, the more competitive your local market, the higher the bid price on Google Ads.
How can I get Google Ads for free?
While it isn’t possible to get Google Ads free of cost, you can bid on less relevant sections. Since these sections rarely generate high traffic, you will have to compete with fewer businesses. However, the downside to this is that you may find it difficult to generate steady traffic for your website.
How to measure performance in Google Ads?
You can measure the performance of your Google Ad using various parameters. These metrics are divided into three:
Traffic metrics:
Traffic metrics are used when you want to determine the visibility of your campaign.
Conversion metrics:
Conversion metrics are ideal if you want to track the success of your campaign.
ROI-based metrics:
ROI-based metrics track your success with the actual business, sales, and marketing goals.
Out of the three, ROI-based metrics are the best method of measuring your SEM strategy. Search Engine Marketing recommends using ROI metrics to track the success of your campaign.
5 tips to increase Google Ads ROI
You can track the success of your SEM strategy by using Google AdWords. Here are our tips to increase the ROI on your Google Ad.
- Optimize your website to be user-friendly, informative, and compatible on all devices.
- Constantly optimize the loading page of your web pages to ensure your customers don’t have a poor experience.
- Understand your ad’s quality score and regularly update your ad according to the rating. This will ensure your ad remains relevant and creative.
- Ensure your landing page is relevant to your ad. If your Ad is focused on service, make sure the user is redirected to the services page.
- Choose mid-length keywords. Short keywords are expensive and may not be relevant to your business.
These are the five tips that will improve the ROI of any ad you publish. SEM with Google Ads is simple and efficient once you understand the importance of updating. Like with SEO, SEM isn’t a static model. Finding your business’s sweet spot is the perfect way to develop an SEM strategy that’ll increase your ROI.
