Search Engine Marketing (SEM)

Search Engine Marketing o (SEM) is the internet marketing option to promote websites by increasing their visibility in search engine research pages (SERPS) through optimization and advertising.

(SEM) and (PPC) Explained

SEM or search engine marketing is a marketing strategy that involves using paid strategies to increase search visibility. PPC stands for pay per click and it’s a type of online marketing in which marketers pay a fee every time one of their ads is clicked.

SEM-and-PPC-Explained

SEM is arguably one of the best marketing strategies that could help you gain more customers and give you the opportunities you need to grow your business. SEM may overlap with other marketing strategies such as SEO and SMM, but the primary difference is that it encompasses paid advertising, such as paid-per-click advertising.

You may be an experienced marketer or might be new to the world of SEM. In either case, let’s use this opportunity to sharpen our pencil and refresh our knowledge on some key terminology used in Paid Campaigns. 

  • Quality Score (QS): Google assigns you this particular score at the keyword-level and it is representative of the overall quality of your marketing for that keyword. 
  • Click through Rate (CTR): Is calculated by dividing the number of clicks you received from a specific ad by the number of times your ad was shown. (impressions)
  • Ad Ranking: Is a combination of various factors such as Score and Max CPC determining your position in paid search results. 
  • SERP: Search Engine Results Page. The batch of links to web pages appearing after a search query is performed. These are grouped in pages of about 10 results per page.
  • Avg. Position: This a reference to the average position of your ad in paid search results over the period of time your ad is running.

Search Engine Marketing (SEM): What Is It?

SEM is a process of gaining website traffic by purchasing positional ads on search engines.​

SEARCH ENGINE MARKETING (SEM)- WHAT IS IT-

Did you know that an average of 50% of users that arrive at websites through paid search are more likely to make a purchase compared to those from organic searches? Additionally, about 33% of users click on paid ads because they answer their queries directly. This is what search engine marketing is all about!

What Is Search Engine Marketing?

SEM or search engine marketing is a marketing strategy that involves using paid strategies to increase search visibility. With SEM marketing, you pay for adverts to appear on SERPs or search engine result pages. When users search for your designated keywords, they see your ads, and if you have what they need, they click on the ads.

Technically, you’ll only pay when users click on your ads. Paid ads are usually located at the top or bottom of SERPs, and users know that they are clicking on advertisements.

SEM is arguably one of the best marketing strategies that could help you gain more customers and give you the opportunities you need to grow your business. SEM may overlap with other marketing strategies such as SEO and SMM, but the primary difference is that it encompasses paid advertising, such as paid-per-click advertising.

What Are the Elements of SEM?

Search engine marketing is generally composed of four elements, which are PPC advertising, search engine optimization, landing pages, and website optimization. SEO is a long term strategy for building website visibility through organic traffic.

PPC or paid advertising involves creating paid ads that appear among top SERPs based on designated keywords. It’s one of the quickest ways to rank high for your keywords, making it an incredible short-term strategy for gaining traffic.

Landing pages are website pages specifically designed for paid ad campaigns. This is where users who click on your ads will be directed. This makes it your sales tool and will help you reinforce the messages on your ads and help drive conversions.

Website optimization involves constantly improving and optimizing your website to rank high on SERPs. The thing is, even when you get to the top, you must continue working to maintain that rank. Otherwise, your competitors will easily take the spot away from you.

You need to use these elements to build a well-rounded and solid marketing strategy that will help you improve your ranking and grow your business. For this to work and for you to drive sales, though, you need to have a high-quality website and top-notch content.

What the Benefits of Search Engine Marketing

There are several benefits that come with search engine marketing, but the most significant one is instant brand awareness.

With paid advertising, your target audience will see your company’s ads on the very first SERPs. You will also enjoy sustainable growth as you can control how big or small your campaign is depending on current needs.

You’ll also get to enjoy quick revenue generation if your ads are effective, and you’ll have the ability to target the right customers.

You see, search engine marketing is based on targeted keywords, so you know that the people searching for said keywords are likely to be looking for the products or services your company is offering. Beyond that, SEM reinforces brand recognition, gives you a competitive advantage, and is incredibly cost-effective.

What Is SEM Keyword Research

Search engine marketing revolves around keyword research.

Keywords are the terms and phrases you use for your marketing campaign because your target market is likely to use them when searching for your products or services. You must consider both negative and positive keyword alignment to your ads. Positive keywords are those directly aligned with your products or service, while negative keywords are those that don’t.

The trick here is to match your keywords with user intent. For instance, if you sell sporting equipment, you may want to rank for footballs, soccer nets, sports equipment, tennis racquets, and the like. However, since you’re selling products, you don’t want to rank for soccer practice or basketball games and tennis lessons.

What Are the Different Types of SEM Keywords Used?

There are several types of keywords used for various strategies for SEM to be successful. Let’s look at what they are, shall we?

Broad Match Keywords

Broad keywords command the widest target market. When you use these keywords, your ads will appear whenever a user searches for queries that include any words on your key phrases.

Phrase Match Keywords

Phrase match keywords offer more control compared to broad match keywords. Your adverts will only appear when users search for your key phrases in a designated exact order. There can be other words before or after that phrase, though.

Exact Match Keywords

These keywords, as the name stipulates, must be exact. Users much search for your exact given keywords down to the last details for your ads to appear. This is the most complicated keyword type, but it’s also the one with the highest possibilities of converting.

Negative Keywords

Negative keywords are the terms and phrases you would rather not target. These are varieties of the other types of keywords that you don’t want to use for your marketing campaign. They could be related to your keywords but still be unrelated to your search intent, ad copy, or campaign.

All this sounds complicated, right? How do you know which ones meet your user intent and work best for your campaign? It’s advisable to hire the best search engine marketing company you can find so you can get professional services.

Try Search Engine Marketing Today

Search engine marketing is a highly effective marketing strategy that all businesses should use. It’s an accumulation of various marketing strategies that involve paid search, and they could give you the big break you’re looking for to get your brand out there to the masses.

However, understand that SEM is not an easy process, and hiring the best search engine marketing agency can be your best bet.

That said, for all your digital marketing needs, including search engine marketing, please get in touch with us. We have highly knowledgeable experts that will take your website to new heights. 

Digital Marketing Services

  • Brand Strategy
  • Social Media Brand Management
  • Social Media Listening ( Real Time brand Monitoring)
  • Social Media Identity Workshop
  • Corporate Identity / Branding
  • Marketing & Sales Automation
  • Customer Relationship Management (CRM)
  • Leads Nurturing

What is Pay Per Click (PPC)?

PPC stands for pay per click and it's a type of online marketing in which marketers pay a fee every time one of their ads is clicked

SEM_-WHAT IS PAY PER CLICK (PPC)-

If you’re interested in driving traffic to your website through internet advertising, then you should definitely consider pay per click (PPC) marketing. PPC advertising is incredibly effective. In fact, traffic that’s brought via PPC marketing tends to yield fifty percent more conversions than organic advertising. 

So how does pay per click advertising work? And how can your business benefit from it? We’re glad you asked. Keep on reading and we’ll take you through everything you’ll want to know about PPC advertising. 

What Is PPC?

PPC stands for pay per click and it’s a type of online marketing in which marketers pay a fee every time one of their ads is clicked. Basically, it’s a way of buying traffic to your site, as opposed to organically getting that traffic.  

Most of the time PPC marketers will advertise on search engines. This way, their ads can show up in the sponsored links of the search results.  

Every time your ad gets clicked and a person is taken to your website, you’ll have to pay a small fee to the search engine. When PPC is working properly, the fee should be negligible because the visit to your site will hopefully be worth more than what you paid for it. 

In other words, if you pay $5 for a click but that click results in a $500 sale, then you’ve received a very nice ROI. 

A lot of work goes into creating a winning PPC strategy. From researching to choose the proper keywords, to organizing those keywords into ad groups and campaigns. You also have to set up PPC landing pages that are designed to increase your chances of conversion.

Advertisers who make intelligent and relevant targeted PPC campaigns will be rewarded by search engines and will be charged less for ad clicks. If your advertisements and landing pages are satisfying and useful to users, then Google will charge you less per click. This will lead to bigger profits for your business.

What Is Google Ads?

One of the most used PPC marketing systems out there is Google Ads. This platform allows companies to make ads that show up on the Google search engine as well as other Google channels. 

Google Ads works on a PPC model. This means that users bid on keywords and then pay for each click that their ads get.

Each time a user initiates a search, Google goes into its pool of advertisers and chooses a group of winners to show up on its search results page.

These “winners” are selected based on a variety of factors, including the relevance and quality of their keywords and ad campaigns. The size of their keyword bids is also an important factor. 

Another factor that helps decide who gets to show up in the page is the advertiser’s Ad Rank. This is a metric that’s determined by multiplying two factors.

First is the Quality Score. This is a value that takes your landing page quality, relevance, and click-through-rate into account. There is also CPC Bid, which is the highest amount that the advertiser is willing to pay.

This system works so that winning advertisers can reach new customers at a price that matches their budget. It’s basically a kind of auction. Google Ads is so effective that it actually makes up 97 percent of Google’s revenues.

PPC Keyword Research

It can end up taking a lot of time to research keywords for your PPC campaign. However, this research is also extremely important.

Your entire campaign is going to be based on keywords, and the most successful advertisers on Google Ads are continuously refining and growing their list of PPC keywords.

If you only do keyword research one time, when you first make your campaign, then you’re likely going to end up missing out on a lot of valuable keywords that can drive traffic to your website. 

There are several characteristics that your PPC keyword list should be.

First, it should be relevant. You don’t want to end up paying for traffic to your site when the search results have nothing to do with what you’re advertising. This will result in a lot of wasted time and money.

You need to make sure that you find targeted keywords that are going to lead to a higher PPC click-through-rate. You want to only bid on keywords that are closely related to what you’re selling. 

Your list should also be exhaustive. You don’t just want the most popular searched terms in your industry but also long-tail keywords. These are keywords that aren’t as common but can help you target people who may be overlooked by your competitors. 

Lastly, you want your list to be expansive. You should be constantly reviewing and growing your list so that you can adapt to changing and evolving trends. 

The Importance of Knowing About Pay Per Click Advertising

As we can see, pay per click advertising can be a useful and effective way to drive more traffic to your site. And when you do it correctly, it can be extremely cost-effective and lucrative. The important thing to remember is that you need to make sure that your keywords are relevant and high-quality.

PPC makes up an important part of most businesses’ online marketing strategies. But when internet users finally click their way to your landing page, you need to make sure that you’re site is optimized for conversions. 

If you’re interested in utilizing responsive web design that will look good on all devices, then contact us today and see what we can do for you!

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SEM Marketing Agency: Our ROLE

An SEM marketing agency will help you attract more visitors to your website. They will help you find the right keywords that your market is using. They will also create ads that reach your audience.

SEM MARKETING AGENCY - OUR ROLE

Search engine marketing is one of the best ways to spread brand awareness

It makes your business more visible. It helps you target your audience and it drives more traffic to your website. As a result, you end up with more leads and more sales. 

But how exactly does SEM work? How does it generate more leads for your business? And what is an SEM marketing agency? 

It’s important to find out if you want to use SEM in your business and use it effectively. You need to know how it works so you benefit the most from it. 

Here’s a guide on everything you need to know about SEM. 

What Is an SEM Marketing Agency? 

An SEM marketing agency will help you attract more visitors to your website. They will help you find the right keywords that your market is using. They will also create ads that reach your audience. 

There are a lot of benefits to hiring an SEM marketing agency, but there are also some things you need to be aware of. You need to know their credibility and ask the right questions. 

Here are some things you should consider before hiring an SEM agency. 

How Experienced Are They? 

If you are considering hiring an SEM marketing agency, you need to know their experience. You need to know if they’ve worked with other similar agencies. 

Don’t be afraid to ask the digital marketing questions about who’ve they’ve worked with and what kind of results they were able to get for clients. 

You should also ask to see their testimonials or see if they have any case studies of the work they’ve done for clients. It will give you more insight on if you should hire that particular SEM marketing agency. 

What Does the Data Say? 

You should also consider asking the SEM agency what kind of data they look at. 

Do they measure clicks, page visits, and cost per lead? You should know beforehand so you have an idea of what is considered a good measurement in your industry. 

You should also ask about the kind of reports they provide you with. This gives you insight into how your advertisements are doing on a weekly or bi-weekly basis. 

Now that you have an understanding of SEM, it’s important to see the benefits of what it can do for your business.

SEM Helps Develop Your Brand

One of the benefits of SEM is that it helps develop brand awareness in your business. It gives you consumers an idea of what they are buying and how it can help them to overcome a problem. 

Every brand tells a story about the consumer. SEM helps convey your brand to more people by showing up higher on Google. Your story is more widely told to more people. 

You Have Instant Results

Another benefit of SEM is that it gives you instant results. You can see right away who clicked on your ad. 

There’s often less warming up of leads and more sales. When you bring someone to your website, it’s designed to make a sale. 

Search engine marketing allows for more website visibility. This allows for more brand awareness. Consumers are becoming more familiar with your business and what products you sell. 

You don’t have to wait for an organic search for someone to see your business. With search engine marketing, someone can quickly see what you have to offer. They can quickly make a purchase from your business.  

SEM Helps You Understand Your Target Market

Similar to SEO, search engine marketing also has keywords you can use to attract your target audience

By adding keywords to your advertisements, you can rank higher on a Google search, just like with SEO. You can also add negative keywords that prevent the wrong audience from finding your business. 

Another way you can understand and reach your target market is by retargeting them. With search engine marketing, you can retarget your audience based on their past behavior. 

You can target them based on their clicks or people who may have viewed your website. 

Another option is targeting based on location. If your business is in a specific location, you can target consumers based on where they live. If you know your audience really well, you can also do ad schedule targeting, which means you only show your ad during a specific time of the day. 

This is ideal if you have a general idea when you know your target market is searching for something. 

Lastly, you can target consumers based on their age and gender. Your product may be more applicable to women of a certain age, which is why search engine marketing is ideal if you want to target that specific group. 

However, it’s important to figure out your target market before you run any ads so you know how to sell to them and what they are looking for. 

Should You Hire an SEM Marketing Agency?

A search engine marketing agency can help in various ways in your business. Depending on your goal, you can have brand awareness campaigns, lead generation campaigns, or conversion campaigns. 

After you figure out your goal, you should figure out what kind of SEM marketing agency can best help you. You want to see their prior work and what kind of results they’ve achieved for other companies. It will give you insight on if they can help you in your business.

If you need help with developing your marketing strategy, you can contact us here.   

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Understanding Digital Marketing Agency Fees

Before you figure out agency fees, you need to figure out what your marketing budget is. This means having a set amount set aside for advertising.

UNDERSTANDING DIGITAL MARKETING AGENCY FEES

Digital marketing for businesses is more important than ever. 

Marketing can elevate your business by bringing in new customers. It can help your brand stand out among your competitors. 

However, with marketing, there are a lot of strategies. You have to invest in these strategies to see results. You may have to invest in content, social ads, email, and more. 

But how much you should you pay for agency fees? How much you should pay a digital marketing agency to create and run a campaign for your business? 

Here’s a guide that can help you understand how much to invest in a digital marketing agency. 

How Much Do You Want to Spend on Advertising? 

Before you figure out agency fees, you need to figure out what your marketing budget is. This means having a set amount set aside for advertising. 

You don’t want to tell an agency that you’ll spend anything because it doesn’t help them and it doesn’t help you get the results you want. 

This is why you should be asking the marketing agency how much is needed to produce results. You have to think about the results you want before you consider the cost. 

For example, if you want to produce 10 more sales a month for your e-commerce business, you need to ask the agency how much it would cost to generate that result. 

You would need to know how many leads can produce 10 sales. YOu have to consider how many sales calls you make from the leads the agency is generating for you. 

Retainer or No Retainer

Another factor that goes into the pricing is if you are on a retainer with the agency. 

Some agencies offer discounts when you pay for a 6-month to a yearlong retainer. It allows the agency to adjust and get the desired results you want. There’s also a lot of time to build a relationship and understand what the agency is trying to accomplish. 

However, before you pay for a retainer, you should ask for testimonials. You want to see what kind of work the agency has produced for similar clients on a retainer. 

You don’t want to spend thousands on a year-long service to only realize that it’s not working. Yet it’s too late to get a refund. 

Cost of Different Advertising Strategies

Another consideration when you think about the advertising costs is what kind of strategy do you want. 

Facebook ads cost differently than blog content. Email marketing costs differently than SEO. Think about what you are trying to accomplish in your marketing strategy and what you need from an agency. 

Facebook ads might cost more than other marketing strategies because you also have to pay Facebook. The same applies to Google Adwords. You have to pay Google to show your ads. 

Package Pricing

You also might find agencies that provide package pricing. This is when they group together Facebook ads, SEO, and something else as a package price. 

It might be more cost-effective than choosing a single package when you are trying to decide on a price. 

Research Competitors

Before you agree to any terms and conditions with an advertising or marketing agency, you should look at competitive pricing. 

Look at other agencies and see what their prices are. You also shouldn’t be afraid to ask how they come up with that pricing. You want to see what fees you will have to pay on a month per month basis. 

You may discover that different agencies have different pricing models. You want to choose a model that you’re most comfortable with. 

What Value Are You Getting From It? 

Before you hire an agency, you should ask about the value you are getting from them. 

You want to assess the return of investment. For example, if you pay $2,000 per month on marketing, you want to make sure you have a return of investment that is paying you more than $2,000. 

You should want a return on investment that is going to give you profit and make it worth your while. 

This is why it’s important to ask about the leads and the quality of the leads you are getting when you are running ads. 

You should also consider the value of time when you hire an agency. While you want a high return on investment, you also want to make sure the agency you hire isn’t going to give you any headaches. This means they don’t need to talk to you on a daily basis. 

It means they can help you save time by handling your marketing and advertising needs. 

Lastly, an agency should also help you save on costs. Although you are paying the agency to run ads and marketing strategies, they should be saving you time and money by not having to do it yourself. 

You’ll save countless hours by having someone who is a professional do it for you. 

Now You Know About Agency Fees

When it comes to hiring an agency and figuring out their fees, there’s a lot that goes into it. You need to have a list of questions that can help you figure out if they are the right agency to hire. 

This guide gives you insight on what to look for when assessing agency fees. You can figure out what you need to pay for and compare it with other agencies. You can then determine if it’s a good fit and if it’s worth paying for. 

If you want help with your marketing strategy, you can contact us here

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