SEM (search engine marketing) is one of the best ways to grow your company in a highly competitive market. There are millions of businesses competing for the same customers, making it more important than ever to market online. Search engine marketing is the best way to promote your products, grow your business, and increase your visibility.
This guide will give you an overview of search engine optimization basics and offer tips and strategies to make search engine marketing successful.
Search Engine Marketing – A Overview
Search engine marketing refers to the marketing of a business through paid advertisements that appear on search engine results pages (or SERPs). Advertisers place bids on keywords that users of search engines such as Google or Bing may use to find certain products and services. This gives them the chance for their ads alongside those results.
These ads are often known as pay-per-click ads. They come in many formats. Some ads are text-based and small. Others, such as product listing ads (PLAs), also known as Shopping advertisements, are visual product-based advertisements. These allow customers to quickly see key information such as reviews and prices.
The greatest strength of search engine marketing is its ability to place ads in front of customers who are willing to purchase at the exact moment they want. Search engine marketing can achieve this feat better than any other advertising medium. This is why it is such a powerful and effective way to grow your company.
SEM vs. SEO
What is the difference between SEO and SEM?
Search engine marketing is generally defined as paid search marketing. This refers to a system in which businesses pay Google to display their ads in search results.
Search engine optimization (or SEO) is different. Businesses don’t pay Google to get traffic or clicks. Instead, they earn a spot in search results by providing the most relevant content for a keyword search.
SEM and SEO should be integral parts of your online marketing strategy. Search engine advertising is an effective way to drive traffic to your website from the top, and SEO is a powerful tool to drive long-term traffic to the bottom.
Keywords: The Foundation of Search Engine Marketing
Search engine marketing is built on keywords. Search engines allow users to enter keywords as part of search queries. This is why search engine marketing can be seen as an advertising strategy.
SEM Keyword Research
You must conduct extensive research before you can decide which keywords you will use in your search engine marketing campaigns.
You need to first identify keywords relevant to your business that potential customers will use to search for your products or services. WordStream’s Free Keyword Tool is one way to do this.
Enter a keyword relevant to your service or business, and you’ll see suggestions for keywords that could be used as the basis of different search engine marketing campaigns.
The Search Engine Marketing Ad Auction
The most common misconception about search engine marketing is that the person with the biggest advertising budget wins. A larger advertising budget is a benefit, especially for highly competitive keywords, but it’s not a prerequisite to success in search engine marketing. All ads must go through an ad auction process before they appear in search results. We’ll focus on Google AdWords’ ad auction.
How does the Ad Auction Work
Every time someone searches for something on Google, the ad auction takes place. Advertisers must identify the keywords they wish to bid on and indicate how much they will spend per click to have their ads appear beside results related to those keywords. Your ads will be entered into the ad sale if Google finds that the keywords you bid on are in a user’s search query.
