Why You Need Search Engine Marketing?

First things first most of you are wondering what is search engine marketing? It is like this, search marketing is a form of digital marketing that delivers highly targeted, relevant ad placement within the search results of Google, Yahoo and Bing among others.

It is considered one of the most effective forms of instant and quantifiable marketing methods. SEM, in the conventional sense, is mainly used to fill the void but place in such a way that it can deliver a large number of visitors to your website in a short period of time. It is mainly there to get you traffic ASAP until you start getting it naturally through the search engine.

Why You Need Search Engine Marketing

Having a well planned and executed search marketing campaign can do wonders for your business and if done by professionals a paid search campaign or multiple campaigns can be a very cost-effective and highly profitable that will generate new revenues and repeat business, because we all know that the name of the game when it comes to business.

So why do you need Search Engine Marketing?


Well, actually there are five reasons why you need search engine marketing or as some call it Pay Per Click Marketing.

1. Drive More sales

Having more traffic to your website will bring more leads and ultimately more sales. The number of people buying products and services online today is staggering and having a paid search campaign will ensure that you are seen by the millions of consumers who use search engines as an entry point to the web.

2. Build Brand awareness

When people go to Google they usually have an idea of want they are looking for. Using search engine marketing can help your potential customers to find and get more information about your product that they may have heard of or seen in TV or newspaper ads.

3. Make competitors Unhappier

If your competitors were not happy before they are not going to be happy now with you investing in search engine marketing. Getting that advantage you need you will require improving conversion rates on your website. Converting more visitors will allow you to outbid competitors and reduce your costs in the long run.

4. It’s a deeply demand-driven World

Search is truly demand-driven. People type want they want into the search engine and Google returns what it believes are the most relevant results (ie ‘organic listings’). At the same time matching the user’s search query with Adwords ads (’sponsored links’). It is these ads if made compelling enough that will entice searchers to click through to your site.

5. It Supports Your Other Marketing Efforts

Most companies allocate an advertising budget to help promote their product and service offering. Depending on the size of the company, some will use Television, Newspaper and Radio as their primary marketing channel with a link to their website to find more information.

Unless you have a well-recognized brand or a short domain name, most people online will use a search engine to find your products or services. Unfortunately, your website is not at the top of the search engines so visitors often move on to your competitors because you were not there.

What is Search Engine Marketing ?

This is a really good question for those people who are just starting out on their journey into the world of internet marketing. It always helps to understand what it is you are doing, and why you are doing it.

Search Engine Marketing, aka SEM, is a form of internet marketing that seeks to promote any given website by increasing its visibility with the search engines in their results pages through the use of paid placement, contextual advertising, and paid inclusion. The New York Times has defined SEM as ‘the practice of buying paid search listings’.

Let us go back a minute and go over some of the types of paid placement. Forms of paid payment include "Pay Per Click" and "Cost Per Click". "Pay Per Click" or PPC is a paid placement is an internet advertising model that is used on websites.

 This is where advertisers pay the host of the site only when their ad has been clicked on. With a search engine, advertisers generally bid on keyword phrases relevant to the market they are trying to target. Content sites, however, very commonly charge fixed prices per click rather than using a bidding system.

There are many PPC providers out there. The three largest ones that everyone knows are Google AdWords, Yahoo! Search Marketing and Microsoft adCenter. Websites that use PPC ads will display an advertisement when a keyword query matches an advertiser’s keyword list, or when a content site displays any relevant content. These advertisements are called "sponsored links" or "sponsored ads". They appear adjacent to or above any organic results on search engine results pages. The PPC model is really open to all kinds of abuse through what is called click fraud. Google and others have implemented automated systems to guard against abuse such as this from competitors and corrupt web developers.

"Cost Per Click" or CPC is the amount of money that advertisers pay a search engine and any other internet publisher for a single click on the ad that brings anyone visitor to the site it is linked to. All three of these providers operate under the bid-based model. CPC varies in costs, depending on the search engine and the level of competition for any given keywords.

Did you know that in 2008, North American advertisers spend 13.5 million of US dollars on search engine marketing? That is a whole lot of money spent on advertising on the internet. It makes you wonder how all of it is being seen by potential customers.

I hope that this clears up the subject of search engine marketing a wee bit for you. By all means, do your research and find out as much information as you can before you begin your advertising campaigns.

Using Paid Search to Complement SEO

Online Marketing can encompass a range of techniques including search engine marketing (‘SEM’), social media, and paid search. While paid search can be the more expensive option in the long term, it can be a useful complementary tool in the shorter term, perhaps when you are waiting for your rankings to improve through SEO strategies. Here is a quick overview of using paid search to complement your SEO strategy. 

Benefits of Using Paid Search

Generate Traffic Immediately

Paid search can be used to generate traffic immediately. As SEO strategies can take weeks or months to produce results, allocating a budget for paid search in the short run can ensure that you start getting traffic to your website straight away.

Highly Targeted Traffic

Paid search, such as pay-per-click or search engine marketing advertisements, can produce highly targeted traffic. Like SEO, it can enable you to direct traffic from specific geographical regions or target traffic on the basis of specific keywords or phrases.

Cost-Control Benefits

Paid search might be more expensive in the long run, but you can usually control how much you pay. You might be able to set a daily budget and use other cost-control tools depending on the program you choose.

Measure Performance

As with SEO, paid search can offer you the option of being able to measure performance. You can usually find out the number of clicks for specific keywords, volumes for specific regions, how long visitors stay, and whether they are converted into customers. 

Different Paid Search Options

There are different paid search options available. An online marketing specialist will be able to assist you with the right combination of options for your particular marketing needs.

The most common paid-search option is through search engines. These advertisements come up next to search engine results and their cost is usually calculated on the basis of clicks rather than impressions. One of the most popular examples of this type of online advertising is Google Adwords.

Some social media platforms, such as Facebook, also offer paid-search advertising. These types of advertisements can differ slightly from search-engine marketing as they usually target search queries through interests, location, age, and other factors rather than keywords. As such they might create less specific results.

Reviewing and Adjusting Advertisements

Undertaking paid-search advertising can be a highly technical process. It’s ideal to spend some time checking the interface of your paid search program and making sure you are familiar with the different metrics.

Making the most of paid search requires good keyword research and ongoing review and adjustment of your advertisements. Many programs allow you to run different ads at the same time.

You can adjust the keywords targeted and change the wording of your ad to see which one generates the best conversion rate. You can also use graphical advertisement in paid search advertising, which enables you to also test different advert designs.

Many businesses use landing pages to target specific customers. For example, you could create a series of landing pages that address a different product or customer profile and see which one generates the best result.

Getting Professional Help

Paid search can feel technical and overwhelming if you’re new to the process of taking out online advertisements. It’s useful to remember that you can seek help from paid search professionals or online marketing specialists.

They can assist you with adjusting your daily keyword bids so you are not paying more than you have to, and save you time by taking you through the basics of paid advertising.