Many marketers may have heard about search engine optimisation (SEO), but not all are familiar with search engine marketing (SEM). Like SEO, SEM is a keyword tool used to promote products and services. As a marketer, you should not only look for an SEO agency. Your agency should also know about other ways to grow your business online. If you want to know more about SEM, this article presents the essentials.
What Is SEM?
Search Engine Marketing (SEM) is a form of internet marketing that involves a marketing campaign that aims to attract free traffic from search engines like Google, Yahoo! or Bing.
In terms of costs, SEM is cheaper compared to SEO since it only involves low-cost pay per click (PPC) advertising, like Google Adwords or Facebook ads.
For marketers, SEM is beneficial since it helps them get qualified leads from search engine users. The major advantage of SEM over SEO is that the SEM is measurable.
SEM can help determine the number of people coming to one’s site through pay per click (PPC) methods. It is also helpful in optimising and analysing search engine rankings.
You can adjust and improve your marketing campaign by setting goals and measuring the activities and results. Doing so avoids wasted spending in a marketing campaign.
How Does It Work?
SEM is done through an internet marketing technique known as pay per click (PPC). It is the act of showing ads on search engines like Google.
PPC advertising is a cost per click (CPC) approach. In other words, SEM is used to promote a product or service in exchange for a certain fee. The cost is determined by the number of clicks that the advertisement gets.
The other standard method used in SEM is pay per impression (PPM). Under the PPM method, advertisers may be charged according to their ads’ number of times on the search results.
PPC and PPM are the primary search techniques used in SEM.
Why Do You Need Good Keyword Research for Paid Search?
Keyword research helps in deciding what keyword to use for an ad. If done correctly, one can get many potential customers who can potentially buy their products or services. That means your ad will have a higher chance of being shown on the top search results on search engines.
Also, good keyword research will help the marketer decide the most appropriate and least expensive keywords. By doing this, you could select which keywords to focus on.
For example, if there is a keyword you want to target, and you find it shows a minimal number of searches, then it is not a good idea to focus on that keyword. Instead, you can focus on another more popular keyword and make better use of your budget.
How to Create an Effective SEM Strategy
When creating a strategy for SEM, these tips could help you.
Tip #1: Use Relevant Keywords
Choosing the right keywords is the most critical step in SEM. You can’t create an effective campaign if you don’t consider this a crucial step.
Tip #2: Produce High-Quality Content
In the digital world, content is king. As they say, if you want to rank, you need interesting content. This will ensure that people will want to visit your site and see your brand as an industry leader.
Tip #3: Analyse Your Competitors
You can do this by checking the number of pages indexed on Google, the number of Twitter and Facebook followers, and whether or not they are active.
Tip #4: Make Sure Your Site and Content are Accessible to Search Engines
One of the essential things in SEM is to ensure that your site and content are accessible to search engines. Otherwise, you can’t expect to rank. The same goes for your content.
Conclusion
SEM is an integral part of a business’s marketing strategy. It is good to invest in SEM, especially if you don’t have much budget. It helps create a broad exposure of your products or services while providing you with enough data to optimise your content and improve your marketing strategy. It can also help in improving your website’s SEO performance.
Do you need an SEO agency in Sydney to help you out in this aspect? Kiin is a full-service digital agency purpose-built to help brands thrive in an increasingly complex landscape. We combine strategy, creative thinking, design, tech, and media to make your products stand tall and grow. Get in touch with us today!