Reading Time: 8 minutesSometimes, no matter how much time and money you pour into search engine optimization (SEO) and keyword research, your website won’t appear when users search. You may simply have too much competition to make your mark – at least at first.
SEM (Search engine marketing) can be the answer to achieving visibility and cinching sales faster than SEO alone. It’s the strategy of using paid advertising to get your website to appear on the first page of the search engine results pages (SERP).
Keep reading to discover all about search engine marketing basics, pros, and cons. We’ll also discuss how it differs from SEO and how to create an effective paid search campaign.
How Is SEM Different From SEO?
In the land of digital marketing, people often confuse SEO and SEM. While closely related and both under the umbrella of “search marketing,” they are two very different concepts.
SEO revolves around increasing clicks organically, while SEM relies on paid advertising to show ads on the first pages of the SERP.
Both are fundamental to a business’s marketing strategy today.
SEO uses several rules and best practices (according to Google’s ever-changing algorithms) to help a business’s website make it to the first page of search results organically, without having to pay for the position.
Meanwhile, SEM allows businesses to skip steps and reach the top faster, helping companies achieve positive results without the wait.
In essence, SEO is unpaid while SEM is paid.
Boost Your Results with a One-Time Audit!
The Basics of SEM
So, what is SEM? A breakdown of everything that SEM entails starts with paid search ads.
Paid search advertising is just that – ads the business owner pays for appearing at the top of the first page of SERPs when a user searches for a certain keyword. The pay schemes differ according to the type of paid advertising a company wishes to invest in.
Whichever types of search engine marketing you decide to leverage, some of the terms you’ll most likely meet are:
PPC (Pay-Per-Click)
PPC advertising is the most popular form of SEM which entails what the name suggests—the marketer only pays for the ad when a user clicks the link. All the other times when the searcher sees the page but doesn’t click are free to the advertiser.
Search engine PPC advertising charges a small fee for each click, but the potential returns on investment (ROI) are much greater than the fee. For example, if you pay $3 for the click but the user purchases $100 in goods, you’ve made a considerable profit.
CPA (Cost-Per-Acquisition)
Your CPA is the total cost of your PPC campaign divided by the conversions you secured.
Calculating your CPA will help you determine whether your paid SEM strategy is resulting in a profit or costing more than you’re making. CPA can help you understand the financial impact of your marketing campaign. You can determine an acceptable CPA by calculating the average order value (AOV) and customer lifetime value (CLV) of your business.
CPC (Cost-Per-Click)
CPC refers to the actual cost of each click in a PPC marketing campaign. It is an average of bids against your competitors over a certain amount of time. Your CPC will be equal to or less than your maximum keyword bid.
The average CPC across all industries is $2.69.
Calculating CPC is the total ad spend divided by the total click count. Though doable manually, the simplest route is to use a CPC calculator to see where you stand in your industry.
Understanding your CPC can help you know how much to bid.
Plus, this figure is crucial in ROI calculation, which helps you determine the profitability of your campaign.
CPM (Cost-Per-Thousand-Impressions)
CPM is the most common price scheme for web ads. It refers to how much 1,000 advertisement impressions on a webpage cost the marketer (The M is the Roman numeral for 1,000).
For example, if the site charges $2 CPM, you’ll pay $2 for every 1,000 impressions of your ad.
You can measure the ROI of your CPM campaign by analyzing your click-through rates, or how often users click your ad compared to the number of impressions.
What Are the Advantages and Disadvantages of SEM?
Although ideal for online visibility enhancement and introducing customers to your brand, many small and medium businesses waste their ad spend. So, before diving into SEM, it’s crucial to know the importance of search engine marketing and what challenges you’ll face.
Benefits of Search Engine Marketing
The key search engine marketing advantages are:
- Speed: SEM allows your brand to appear on the top page quicker than other techniques like SEO. This sudden visibility boost may increase your chances of attracting more of your target audience faster.
- Personalized targeting: SEM lets you filter audiences based on aspects like behavior, location, and language. Since you’re bidding on specific keywords, it ensures you only reach users interested in your offerings.
- Rich insights: Tools like Google Ads offer comprehensive metrics to assess your campaigns, such as CTR, impressions, and conversion rates. Such stats help you understand your audience better to personalize current and future ads and offers for maximum returns.
- Increased organic performance: While paid advertising doesn’t directly impact organic performance, combining search engine marketing and SEO helps maximize your exposure, as you appear twice. Also, SEM allows you to test and establish the most effective keywords faster. Once you pause your paid search campaigns, you can leverage these keywords in SEO to drive more organic traffic.
Disadvantages of SEM
The less you optimize your campaigns to suit your audience and platform, the fewer benefits you’ll get. And the more you’ll feel the weight of the disadvantages of SEM, such as:
- Short-term benefits: Without good SEO backing up your paid search campaigns, your SERP visibility diminishes significantly when you quit or pause SEM.
- Competition: SEM is highly competitive and you’ll be bidding for the same keywords with numerous brands within your industry.
- Cost: SEM often needs a substantial monetary investment. Depending on your industry’s competitiveness and the popularity of selected keywords, this marketing strategy can be quite pricey.
- Limited reach: Over 900 million (31.5%) internet users use ad blockers, which means about one in three people never see your ads. Additionally, some consumers who see them never click due to little trust.
Which PPC Platform Is Best for You?
Maximize the success of your SEM campaign by using the right platform for your specific needs, or a combination of different platforms.
The most popular PPC platforms are:
- Google Ads (best known): This platform lets you create an account for free and start bidding instantly and at any budget. With Google Ads, you’ll only pay when someone clicks on or engages with your ad.
- Bing Ads: Bing’s SEM solution shows ads on the Bing Network – currently catering to around 27 billion monthly searches. There’s no minimum fee, you only pay for clicks, and you can test keywords and bids to maximize ROI. Note that Yahoo: Search Ads and Bing are on the same network.
- Social networks also offer SEM ad campaigns and when users sign into your chosen network, they’ll see your ad campaign. Facebook Ads, for example, allow you to run advertisements on Facebook, Instagram, and other apps/sites in the Audience Network. Just set your budget, choose your ad format, and place a bid at auction.
Knowing the best outlet to place your search engine marketing ads depends on your goals, company, and budget. Consider advertising through all outlets for maximum coverage and visibility or pick and choose the best locations for your ads depending on your desired customer demographic or marketing goals.
If your budget only allows for one platform and you’re unsure which to use, this comparison between the two most popular should help you decide:
| Google Ads | Bing Ads | |
| Targeting options | Google Audiences features numerous targeting options and relies on imported and first-party data | Many targeting options, including LinkedIn targeting that supports industry, company, and job targeting |
| Average CTR | 6.42% | 2.83% |
| Average CPC | $4.66 | $1.54 |
| Average Conversion Rates | 6.96% | 2.94% |
| Search Market Share | 90% | Between 3%-10% |
| Audience Profile | Vast, diverse audience (almost everyone) | Leans toward older, industry-focused, B2B audiences. |
How to Craft an Effective SEM Strategy
Your SEM strategy will change according to your budget and advertising goals.
All forms of paid SEM, however, rely on keyword research. You must bid on certain keywords for your advertisements to appear when users search for those words. To appear on the SERP for “digital marketing firm,” for example, you would need to win a bid on those keywords.
To succeed with paid search advertising, you must first master keyword research and bidding.
Keyword Research
Before you start with SEM, you must first understand which keywords are right for your company to bid on. Keyword research can seem daunting if you’re new, but it’s relatively simple thanks to the resources available.
In a nutshell, performing SEM keyword research involves two key steps.
First, brainstorm for keywords that make sense for your brand. Create a list of terms that relate to your brand, generic terms, terms related to generic terms, and competitor terms. Put yourself in your target customer’s shoes and think of which terms they would use to come upon your brand.
Next, use a research tool (such as Google Keyword Planner) to dive deeper into keyword research. WordStream, Soovle, and Ubersuggest also offer keyword research tools.
Enter the keywords on your list to find other related keywords. You’ll also see the search volume for each word, as well as how competitive the PPC bidding is for that word. The more competition the keyword has, the more you’ll have to bid to win.
The ideal situation is finding a keyword with high search volume but low competition. You’ll get the best price and reach your target audience fast.
PPC Campaign Creation
Structure your marketing campaigns and ad groups around specific products and themes to ensure good Quality Scores. These scores are vital in ad placements and impact your spending and campaign effectiveness. High scores allow your ads to appear higher for less, which helps you maximize ROI.
Ensure ad groups feature closely-knit keywords. Also, ads and landing pages in each group should directly relate to chosen keywords to enhance relevance, hence the Quality Score.
Ad Copy Drafting
Customized, accurate ad copy with a clear value proposition attracts the most attention and distinguishes you from competitors.
Create attention-grabbing headlines tailored to your desired audience. Then include your unique selling points within descriptions, so that searches know what they’re getting into from the get-go.
Don’t forget clear calls to action to ensure users know precisely how to respond. Clarity improves conversion likelihood.
Also, use ad extensions, such as phone numbers and website links to increase your ad space and offer more ways for consumers to reach you.
Landing Page Optimization
Any disconnect between your ads and landing pages creates issues for searchers. Your ads become less effective, and the likelihood of bounces (users leaving your site) increases. That’s why it’s crucial to create tailored, relevant landing pages that deliver on the promises within your ad copy.
Ensure strong value propositions, clear, consistent messages, compelling calls to action, and an intuitive user experience (mobile-friendliness, fast loading, etc.).
Bid Strategy Management
Many platforms support both manual and automated bidding. The former may be more suitable when dealing with a limited ad budget, while the latter may suit companies with ample resources and limited time.
In manual bidding, you’ll establish maximum and minimum CPC for ads. While this offers extensive flexibility, including how much you pay at the keyword level, it’s tedious and requires in-depth knowledge and regular optimization.
Meanwhile, automated bidding leaves the process to the platform and only needs you to select a strategy best aligned with your goals. For example, if you want more conversions, the platform analyzes user data to show your ads to customers with a high purchasing potential.
The disadvantage of automation is the inability to tweak your ads, and the likelihood of wasted ad spend if the system uses insufficient or irrelevant data.
Budget Allocation
Prioritize your budget based on keyword and segment potential and value.
Begin with campaign-level allocation and distribute resources in the order of success from best to worst. Then, go for high-intent keywords with a decent conversion likelihood.
Also, consider niche keywords with little competition and more affordable CPC. These allow you to target specific users with a high purchase intent for more qualifying leads and better conversion rates.
Monitoring and Refining
Failing to assess and adjust your campaigns based on KPIs can quickly deplete your SEM budget with nothing to show.
For example, if you’re not achieving your desired CTR, your ad copy, landing pages, and targeting may be the issue. These call for improving your keyword relevance, adjusting your ad copy, format, and targeting options, or enhancing the user experience.
Do sequential changes while adhering to search engine marketing best practices discussed. While at it, perform A/B tests to establish ideal elements that allow you to maximize ROI.
Get Professional Help with SEM
Paid search engine marketing can transform your business. It can take you from the third or fourth page of the SERP to the very top of the first page.
Paid search ads can boost brand visibility, increase site traffic and click-throughs, seal more conversions, and ultimately help you gain organic recognition and business.
Moreover, SEM is one of the most affordable and effective types of advertising, with options suitable for any budget. So, there’s every reason to try it.
Want a reliable search engine marketing agency to help with that?
Partnering with Vizion Interactive elevates your SEM strategy and PPC ad campaigns to new heights. Our Paid Search Program Management services provide expert guidance on how to achieve remarkable ROI on Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and more. Contact us to learn more about our monthly PPC management services.
At Vizion Interactive, we have the expertise, experience, and enthusiasm to get results and keep clients happy! Learn more about how our status as a Google Partner, along with our PPC Management, Google Shopping Ads, Social Media Advertising, Amazon Advertising, and other Paid Media services can increase sales and boost your ROI. But don’t just take our word for it, check out what our clients have to say, along with our case studies.
