What Is SEM?
Search Engine Marketing or SEM is the portion of search marketing that uses paid tactics to help your website gain more visibility in the SERPs. This strategy will typically include activities that are completed to set up and optimize your ads. Budgeting used for ad placement is also involved in this process. The most used SEM search provider is Google Ads.
SEM, also known as paid search or pay-per-click (PPC) marketing, involves conducting research to find the best keywords for your company. Using these top keywords for your services, products, or industry, we create effective campaigns. With this strategy, a user will search for these specific keywords, which will show them your ads at the top or bottom of the search engine results. Each time a user clicks on this ad, you are charged. That is where the term pay-per-click comes from.
Different Types of SEM
When it comes to paid search marketing, there are a variety of choices such as Display Ads, social media, Google Ads, and OTT.
Display Ads
At Higher Images, we have powerful data computing methods that allow us to help you create your ideal audience and deliver your impactful messages to them using WebTracker technology. We offer a range of WebTracker campaign opportunities to ensure that we find the best audience and method to generate more leads for you. With WebTracker, we utilize:
- Contextual Retargeting – With this technology, you can serve ads to customers who are showing an interest in your brand, services, or products.
- Geo-Fencing – This technology enables businesses to customize audiences through custom targeting map locations. With this technology, you can target people who have previously visited your location, have attended a specific event at a specific date, and even those who have recently visited a competitor. You can also target customers during conventions, sporting events, concerts, etc., or customers who have visited a specific place such as a car dealership or school.
- Custom Audiences – We can create a custom target audience using the interests, demographics, user data to create an audience that is most likely to use your services or products.
- Search Retargeting – With search retargeting, you can serve your ads to customers who have been searching for keywords that are related to your products, services, or industry.
Social Media
Facebook Ads and Instagram Ads are cost-effective advertising options that can be customized to help you reach your current and potential mobile and desktop customers. On social media, there are millions of active users you can reach to build your customer database. With Facebook and Instagram ads, you can increase your brand awareness by gaining follows and increasing your customer engagement with shares and likes. These ads also help to drive website traffic and increase conversions.
Google Ads
Google Ads is a paid search advertising platform that works to drive new customers to your site to increase your site traffic and sales. When potential customers enter search terms in Google that match your chosen terms, your ad pops up on the search page and offers a link to your eCommerce site or website. This is one of the quickest ways to drive potential clients to your website, and it also works to enhance your SEO marketing. Additionally, it can help you increase your brand awareness while beating your competitors on top search engines.
OTT/CTV
With our WebTracker Technology, we can serve your ads to users who are using tablets, mobile phones, and internet-enabled TVs to ensure you are maximizing your reach. This type of advertising allows for advanced targeting. You can target a customer no matter where they are or what device they are using. OTT also provides you with a variety of data about the viewers, including what they watch and how they behave. This allows you to target them based on their viewing habits.
How Does SEM Work?
With SEM, you will have a budget that is used to pay for impressions. These impressions result in visitors to your website. When you are ready to invest in SEM, you will enter an ad auction on a platform such as Google.
Before entering an ad auction, you will first need to identify the keywords you would like to bid on, and you will also decide how much you’re willing to spend per click for each keyword. Google will then need to determine whether the keywords you bid on are contained within a user’s search query. Once this has been determined, you will be entered into the ad auction.
If your keyword is a good fit for the ad, it doesn’t necessarily mean that you will win the bidding. During an ad auction, two main factors are used to determine when an ad should be placed on a SERP:
- Your maximum bid
- Quality score – This is an estimate of the quality of your landing pages, keywords, and ads. The more relevant your ad is, how likely the user is to click on the ad, and how likely they are to have a good user experience on the landing page all factor into this score.
- Ad extensions – Additional information that is provided in your ads, such as a link to a specific page or a phone number.
Benefits of SEM
SEM offers a variety of benefits to your marketing strategy, including:
Quickest Way to Drive Potential Clients
With Google search paid ads, you can create a short-term strategy to bring quick visibility to your services and products. When you compare SEM to Search Engine Optimization (SEO), you can get quicker results since you can target your audience almost instantly.
Enhances Search Engine Optimization Marketing
There are several ways that using SEM can enhance your current SEO efforts.
SEO uses on-page and off-page tactics to help you gain visibility in the SERPs and drive traffic to your website organically. With SEM, you use paid tactics to achieve the same goals of increasing conversions, website traffic, and visibility. They can also work together to help you achieve your goals.
For example, when a user is exposed to your company through paid advertising, they are more likely to search for your brand and return to your website, which can boost your organic traffic. Another way SEM enhances SEO is that the paid ad can drive a user to your website, and then if the user decides to share your website on social media, it can boost SEO.
Increases Website Traffic and Brand Awareness
SEM targets the relevant audience from Google through your paid ad. These ads make you more visible on the SERPs, placing you near the top of the page driving traffic to your website. To increase your brand awareness, you can highlight your brand name in the ad’s headlines, display URL, extension links, or the description. This allows you to create higher brand awareness as your ad appears at the top of the Google search results.
Beat Your Competitors on Top of Search Engines
SEM puts your ads at the tops of the search results, above your competitors’ ads. With SEM, you can create ads that are triggered to appear on your competitors’ related keywords. This helps to secure your company’s exposure on those keywords while giving you the chance to convert clients from your competitor to you.
Professional SEM Services in Pittsburgh
At higher Images, we can tailor PPC campaigns to meet the specific goals of your business. When you work with our expert team, you will receive a dedicated Google certified rep, measurable results and reports, and special financing options for every budget. Contact us today to learn more!
Bryan Thornberg founded Higher Images. 22 years ago. As Owner and Chief Marketing Officer, he leads his team in all digital projects, consultations, development, marketing, public relations, sales, analytics, account management, and product support.
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