Before we dive into the meaning of Search Engine Marketing (SEM), let’s dig in a bit on how it started.
In the early days of the Internet, search engines set the stage for search engine marketing (SEM). Pay-per-click ads were introduced by OpenText Corporation, but they weren’t called SEM. Even its name was unknown. The term search engine marketing wasn’t coined until Danny Sullivan, a technologist, and entrepreneur published an article in Search Engine Land in 2001.
Now we can clearly define what is SEM and how it helps the digital era evolves through searching the internet.
Search engine marketing (SEM) is a powerful tool that can help reach your target audience and generate leads through digital marketing.
It is the process of making businesses more visible to potential customers through search engines. SEM is one of the most effective ways to attract new customers and build brand awareness, trust, and loyalty for a business, especially with the evolution of Artificial Intelligence.
A significant portion of SEM is based on pay-per-click
It is a marketing strategy that uses paid advertising to drive traffic to a website. SEM includes search engine optimization (SEO), pay-per-click advertising (PPC), and other forms of online content.
The brand will appear at the top of Google, Bing, and the other search engine players around the world if the SEM campaign is executed properly.
Keywords are the foundation of Search Engine Marketing. With search engines allowing users to enter keywords to find what they’re looking for, it should come as no surprise that keywords are the key to search engine marketing.
WHY SEM is Important and HOW does it work?
There are many different strategies that we could use in SEM campaigns: content marketing, social media marketing, email marketing, video ads…etc. Each of these strategies is designed specifically for driving more traffic to every site from a specific source.
Here’s the list of how SEM works and its importance to a marketing plan for a business:
1. SEM helps Increase Brand Awareness
Despite the fact that SEM is generally considered a bottom-funnel marketing strategy, it can aid with brand visibility. Through search ads, SEM can help increase brand awareness by 80%.
Even if ads aren’t clicked, brand names are still clearly displayed above the fold, and searchers could still read or identify the product, brand name, or URL when they come across the ad. Searchers may also pay attention to advertisements that contain keywords and search terms for competing brands because it instinctively compares each brand that are placed next to one another.
2. SEM drives Conversion
Even though making money is frequently the major objective of marketing campaigns, other kinds of conversions shouldn’t be overlooked.
For all kinds of marketing strategies, Search engine marketing plays a vital role in driving conversions. In order to increase conversions and direct visitors through the sales funnel, sponsored adverts commonly link to sales or landing pages. Organic results, in contrast to sponsored advertisements, frequently link to landing pages. Given this, SEO can aid in building brand recognition and top-of-funnel activity while paid advertising like SEM can primarily focus on a specific goal and end-of-funnel conversions.
3. SEM is accessible to all types of Accounts
Cost is one of the primary concerns with sponsored search advertising. The fact that SEM is now accessible to even small accounts is fantastic news for agencies who work with small and medium-sized businesses and multi-location franchises that must divide their budget across numerous location-based campaigns.
Advertising on search engines doesn’t cost much now. Additionally, there is no minimum spend requirement; if on a tight budget, advertisers may run advertisements for as little as $5.
4. SEM Produces Quick Results
Search Engine Marketing has the potential to produce quick results, whereas SEO and other online marketing methods are typically “long game” strategies that create web traffic over a long period of time. It takes more than six months to get desired results.
Although there is an approval process that all ads must go through before they show in the SERPs (Search Engine Results Page), the normal delay between ad production and launch is about one business day or just a few minutes.
5. SEM is a Consistent Traffic Source
Every company wants steady online traffic so they can plan, predict, and budget as well as retain visibility and sales. Unfortunately, traffic rises and drops are frequently seen and occasionally unexplained. Search advertisements can be used to produce steady traffic for specific keywords and help you manage the volume of traffic arriving at your site at any moment, which can help reduce some of the chaos.
6. SEM Generates More Qualified Leads
SEM is not all about generating traffic. The ability to attract the proper traffic is one of search advertisements’ main advantages. Search Engine Marketing allows businesses to create a tailored audience of searchers who are more likely than the average searcher to view and engage with the ads, even if it is not controllable who sees the organic search results. PPC search ads provide the ability to target particular demographics as well as users at any stage of the sales process, so traffic from paid advertisements is more likely to be qualified than traffic from organic SEO.
7. SEM means ROI and more!
The primary benefit of pitching SEM to clients is more money for any marketing firm. Anyone who has ever managed a Search Engine Marketing campaign in AdWords is aware that, although it is technically feasible, one must have a solid understanding to get the desired outcomes. SEM ultimately provides companies and agencies with the opportunity to increase the financial success of their marketing initiatives.
8. SEM helps in understanding Search Intent
Search Engine Marketing can be useful for both traffic analysis and determining search intent. It is easy to spot patterns in search keywords, which advertisements get the most hits, and the number of conversions for each ad by examining the data from the PPC search campaigns, which helps to spot significant trends.
Knowing what the customers are searching for through understanding keywords, especially long-tail ones, it might help better in targeting other marketing channels. Finding search intent through paid search channels and bringing it back into organic has been a common tactic since the dawn of the Not Provided era. For the purpose of improving the CTAs and landing page copy, search intent is also useful.
9. SEM shows Competitive Data
SEM can provide information about the competition in addition to the clients! It may improve the efficacy of the campaign and, in certain situations, rank higher than rivals for the same terms by looking at the competitors’ advertising and comparing targeted keywords at hand.
Search Engine Marketing may track keywords and evaluate other important data with the use of competitive analysis tools, which will help in optimizing the marketing efforts and increase traffic.
10. SEM is perfect for Mobile Marketing
SEM offers the ideal opportunity for sites to take advantage of mobile marketing while still generating traffic across many platforms since a rising portion of the mobile market engages in search. After all, when conducting research on mobile devices, the majority of users turn to search engines.
In conclusion, Search Engine Marketing (SEM) is an essential part of a successful digital marketing strategy. It plays an important role in what kind of keywords should go into these ad campaigns. You’ll need to learn about the different types of ads available on search engines in order to determine which ones are most appropriate for your business goals.