Welcome to another Marketing Monday!
This week’s blog covers the top 3 things you need to know about SEM – Search Engine Marketing (I know – we really love three-letter acronyms in marketing!)
Last week we covered SEO, and if SEO is an organic way to rank higher in Google searches, then SEM is like the paid version of that. Let’s explore it further in these top 3 things to know about Search Engine Marketing!
1. What exactly is SEM?
Have you ever searched for something on Google and noticed a few results with a little “AD” logo next to it? That’s SEM in action!
Search Engine Marketing is pretty much exactly what it sounds like. Marketing your company on a search engine. Instead of optimizing your website content to rank higher organically on a search engine, you can instead pay a fee to show up in the first few results of a search.
SEM is a reliable form of paid advertising since your potential client is looking for your services. This makes for an attractive incentive for companies to use SEM to target their audience and is particularly useful if you get the right keywords and phrases!
2. Words are Key!
Keywords are, well, key. They form the foundation of your SEM strategy and research is highly recommended.
Luckily there are a number of tools you can use to figure out which keywords and phrases are worth bidding on. Google has a free keyword planner that helps you figure out what people are searching for and how many people are searching a particular keyword or phrase.
It can also help you isolate negative keywords. These are keywords that you want to exclude, as they may be related to your industry but not your company. For example, you might be a garden services company in Bryanston. You would want to exclude related searches such as “garden service tools” as the intent behind the search is not to book your services (it relates more to DIY).
3. Get busy bidding
The world of Search Engine Marketing is a bidding war! So you may have accurately identified relevant keywords and phrases but now it’s time to bid, because as unique and niche as your phrases might be – this is the internet, and there is nothing new in this database!
The Ad Auction works on two things: your maximum bid and your quality score.
Your bid is determined by how much you’re willing to pay for each person to click on your ad. This is your CPC, Cost Per Click. The maximum bid is the most you’d be willing to pay for your CPC (there are a number of ways to derive this amount).
The Quality Score is a little like a mini-SEO score. It determines how relevant your ad is to the search. This is really important as the Quality Score determines how you rank and where your ad is placed on the results page.
If you have a higher Quality Score, you can outbid someone with a bigger budget and a higher maximum bid!
Digital marketing is only growing every year – help your customers find you!
Search Engine Marketing is a valuable tool for business with an excellent return on investment when used correctly.
We hope this post has been helpful!
With Love,
Splendid Marketing and Communications