DEFINITION:

Search Engine Marketing (SEM) is defined as the paid strategy for increasing search visibility.

 

INTRODUCTION:

By using SEM brands pay for ads to appear as search results on search engine results page, by targeting the selected keywords. Whenever a user searches for those terms, they will see an ad from the brand. The brand is charged only if the ad is clicked.

We can find these paid search ads on almost every search engine. These paid ads are usually located at the top and bottom of the page. They include an “Ad” designation SO THAT THE users know that it is a paid placement.

Throughout our blog, we have used the terms that are used in Google ads because Google is the most used search engine nowadays.

 

HISTORY OF SEM:

In the past, search engine marketing was a term that was used to describe both search engine optimization (SEO) and paid search. But today, it refers only to paid search marketing.

 

WHY IS SEM IMPORTANT IN TODAY’S WORLD?

It is a very effective way for businesses to reach specific customers based on what they are searching for. You can display your ads to targeted consumers who are searching using keywords closely related to your products or services.

SEM is best when it comes to driving traffic to your website, there are several ways to get visitors. It is paid to advertise as most of the individuals and businesses find it difficult to invest their time into researching keywords and following the search engine high ranking strategy.

 

SEARCH MARKETING, SEO & SEM:

• Search Marketing can be defined as the strategy that is used to increase a brand’s search visibility or in other words, it helps the brand to appear more frequently in searches. It can include a paid SEM strategy, an organic SEO strategy, or both strategies combined.
• SEO refers to the organic placement of web pages on search engines or it can also be defined as the method of taking steps to help a website or content achieve a higher rank on Google.
• SEM refers to the paid strategies for increasing search visibility.

 

SEM WORKS ON THESE FACTORS:

So, now we have a clear concept of SEM. Now we should have a look at what factors SEM depends and by improving these we can rank our content or webpage higher.

Keywords

Search engine marketing depends upon keywords. Keywords are the words, groups of words, or phrases that will make your ad appear to users, which means the better the combination of words the more customers you will get.

Text ad

This is the standard type of ad that is shown in search engines. These ads usually have a title, two lines of text, and a customizable link.

Ad group

These refer to the ad sets and keywords. These are grouped into campaigns, in which you can specify the daily budget and the countries or the regions where these ads will appear.

Search network

This is defined as the part of the search engine where your ads can appear. The common thing is to work with text ads on the top and right of the results page but you can show ads on other sites too such as Google Maps.

Impression

It refers to the number of times an ad is shown.

Clicks

It refers to the number of times an ad is clicked.

CTR

It refers to the percentage of impressions that generate a click.

CPC

This is the average cost per click of the user. It depends upon the quality of your ad.

Quality level

It is the score that is determined by Google, of a keyword and an ad to determine your CPC. In theory, the higher the quality of an ad, the less you pay for each click.

 

BENEFITS OF SEM:

Now let’s have a look at the benefits of SEM:

Easily Measurable

There are tools available like Google Ads that give you highly detailed reports of the evolution of your campaign, in this way you know what is happening to your ads.

Also, you can take advantage of the integration with Analytics and can manage things according to the results. For example, you are getting more likes and comments on a certain post on the Facebook page, you will be aware of that by seeing your ad insight and can run that ad that is getting more engagements.

Real-Time Monitoring

The analytics interface allows you to see what is happening at each moment and it also corrects the course to the moment if you are not getting desired results.

Pay Per Click

As describe from a name you will only be charged if you get results. You can customize the daily budget that you are willing to invest and also the maximum cost per click you can pay. In this way, you make sure that your campaign is profitable.

Speed

Regarding other strategies such as SEO or content marketing, search engine advertising will allow you to achieve relatively fast, large-scale results.

Time-Saving:

Your company does not need to spend time on building the strategies to rank higher on the search engine so that you can bring traffic to the webpage or service. SEM will automatically bring the audience to your webpage or product.

Great Reach

You can target an audience from any part of the world by paying more therefore small as well as big companies can use SEM for bringing traffic to their webpage.

Segmentation

This tool has great segmentation possibilities. By focusing on keywords, you will reach the public that is actively interested in you. You can also filter it according to your choices such as filtering the age of the audience or the location or region in which you want your ad to run.

 

THE FUTURE OF SEM:

Today SEM is a need of many big organizations. However, it is much more powerful when it is used with other tools such as SEO. In the future, SEM will be more popular as individuals as well as companies find it easy to spend money rather than investing time on their web pages.