What is Search Engine Marketing?
Search Engine Marketing (SEM), where the digital terrain is your playground and success is just a single click away! You might have heard about it but must be wondering what exactly it is.
So, let me help you with this, SEM is all about getting your business noticed online through different kinds of paid ads on search engines like Google, Bing, etc. It’s as similar as putting up a poster on the busiest highway of the internet – where people search for something related to your content and your ad shows up right in front of their eye!
Let’s break it down a little more, While Search Engine Optimization (SEO) focuses on an organic way of getting your website rank higher without paying any amount, SEM uses paid advertising to make your content visible in search engine results pages (SERPs). SEM leverages paid advertising methods like Pay-Per-Click (PPC), Cost-Per-Click (CPC), Cost-Per-Mille (CPM) etc. It seems more like paying for a prime spot in the competitive digital space to attract the audience and increase brand visibility.
Now that we have got the fundamentals, let’s go deeper into the working of a successful SEM campaign. Starting from keyword research and ad planning and creation to bid management and performance tracking, every single aspect plays an important role in maximizing the effectiveness of your SEM campaign.
By strategically using the power of relevant keyword research, analyzing your competitors, strategic bidding strategies, and robust analytics, you can easily craft campaigns that resonate with your target audience and give great results that catch people’s attention. Finally, you need to keep an eye on how your ads are working and what adjustments are needed to make them more engaging.
Google Ads and SEM (Search Engine Marketing) are very closely related, with Google Ads being one of the primary tools used in SEM strategies as Google is the most used platform in the digital space. Google Ads is the platform where people can create and manage their SEM campaigns.
It generally offers different types of ads, such as Search Ads that are shown when people search for specific keywords, Display Ads that appear on websites, and Video Ads that play before or during YouTube videos. In clear words, we can say that Google Ads is like a one-stop destination for reaching potential audiences whenever they come online and it helps in brand recognition.
Let’s dive into other SEM Platforms
While Google Ads is the major platform of SEM, there are other platforms like Bing Ads and Yahoo etc, that are great too, especially if your target audience generally comes up on those search engines. And do not forget about the social media platforms like Facebook Ads, Instagram Ads etc that also offer different targeting options based on user interests, behaviour, and demographics.
What’s Next? – Turning your clicks into Conversion!
Turning Clicks into Conversion needs proper optimization. So, suppose you’ve got some people clicking on your ads but now what’s next? Well, that’s the point where conversion optimization comes into action.