Search Engine Marketing



There are plenty of ways to grow your business and make it even more successful. To compete in an ever growing marketplace, your business needs to constantly adopt new strategies to get ahead in the game. One such strategy that seems to work almost every single time if done right is digital marketing. Whereas, Search Engine Marketing ( SEM ) comes under the umbrella of digital marketing. It is extremely important today to make an effective presentation of your business online and SEM does just that.

What is Search Engine Marketing?

According to Wikipedia, " Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of improving the quality and quantity of website traffic to a website or a web page from search engines. SEO targets unpaid traffic (known as "natural" or "organic" results) rather than direct traffic or paid traffic. Unpaid traffic may originate from different kinds of searches, including image search, video search, academic search, news search, and industry-specific vertical search engines. "

In easy words, Search engine marketing is the practice of marketing a business using paid advertisements that appear on search engine results pages (or SERPs). Services like Google and Bing give advertisers the opportunity to let their apps appear alongside certain links of products or services. It involves promoting your website by increasing its visibility on the Search Engine Result Pages through paid advertising or through SEO. It helps you promote your business or website across the search engine with a certain keyword

Search Engine Optimization

Difference between Search Engine Marketing ( SEM ) & Search Engine Optimization ( SEO )

  • SEM uses PAID strategies to appear in search whereas SEO uses ORGANIC strategies to appear in search
  • SEM search would include an ad designation whereas SEO would not. Paid ads which receive placement using the SEM tactics are recognised as an ad (e.g., by an icon appearing next to the placement). On the other hand, the search results that appear as a result of organic SEO are not marked in such manner.
  • SEM search results have ad extensions. SEO search results have featured snippets.
  • Whenever you click on an SEM result, it is paid each time. You pay nothing when a user clicks on an SEO result.
  • SEM results are mostly being shown to a selected audience which is targeted by the company. SEO results do not.
  • The impact of SEM is immediate. SEO takes time.
  • SEM is better for testing than SEO.
  • SEO adds value over time. SEM does not
  • SEO has a higher click-through rate (CTR) than SEM … if you can get to the top.

Why is SEM important?

1. It helps to earn more money:

By running SEM ad campaigns, it provides your business with more options to the target audience and earns money. Many digital platforms like that of Bing, Baidu and Yandex etc. provide companies with a level playing field to bring in more money through Search Engine Marketing. According to Google, any business can double their investment in AdWords. SEM offers companies through ads to make more money.

2. SEM is conversion focused:

Converting the efforts into money is the end goal and aim for any business and that is what SEM wants you to achieve. With that being said, it is also essential to focus on other aspects as well. Like newsletters, new subscribers, signups or even contest entries are all alternative types of conversions that a marketer may be trying to achieve. It even is linked with increasing brand awareness about your company among the consumers.

3. SEM increases brand awareness:

According to Google, search ads can increase brand awareness by 80%. Even if the link or the ad does not get clicked, brand names are very much visible on top of the link and the researchers 9 out of 10 times end up reading and recognizing the brand name. The users also might end up noticing whenever advertisements use and include keywords & search for the competitive brand's as any normal brain would compare service providers side by side.

4. Accessible to Small Amounts:

People usually hesitate to spend money on ad campaigns. But in reality, it does not take much to advertise on search engines. There’s also no minimum amount you have to spend to run ads. As little as $5 will get you started if you’re on a budget.

5. SEM is good for Local Marketing:

Local marketing aims to connect regional businesses with the surrounding community and the people that it can provide its services to. When detailed information of a local store is provided online, it becomes convenient for people to know more about the products that stores provide, sitting in their homes and if they want to make any kind of purchases, it is very easy to visit the store and buy those products. Google has proven to be of a great help since, Google released an advertising package called Local 3-Pack in 2016, which gives local ads the top 3 positions in search results for location-based search terms like city or region names or phrases like “near me.”

Research shows that " 75% of searchers who find local business information online will then visit a physical store within 24 hours, hoping to make that purchase. "

6. Direct Response Marketing

It is been said that DRM ( Direct Response Marketing ) and SEM ( Search Engine Marketing ) works in a similar manner. Thus, DRM also encourages the public to take some action that will positively affect in lead generation.

When looking for any products or service, every consumer uses the search engine for information. People are very much dependent on the internet for carrying out every single activity and access it through computers but mostly mobile phones. And many a time consumer searches for products on the internet which is targeted for them only, through SEM. With the help of this approach, a business now has the opportunity to target the consumers based on what they search so that they can out their brand ahead and generating awareness and traffic to their website.

7. Focused Targeting

According to the latest status, over 30 billion searches are performed every single month on Google globally. And 99.99% of these global searches probably won’t be applied to your consumer targeting approach.

Obviously, the keyword setting is important because you want to advertise or aware of the consumers that are interested in your products and services. You will be able to improve and enhance the performance by incorporating many approaches such as Geo-targeting, device targeting or Ad scheduling and much more. But, these above mentioned setting are mostly not available \through advertising channels. Hence, in order to improve your performance, you have to go through paid search.

Basic Concepts Relating to Search Engine Marketing

1. Keywords

Keywords are the terms that users enter in the search engines and that cause a particular ad or search result to be shown. These do not consist of single words but in general, it is normal to use groups of words or phrases, such as "buy skin-enhancing soaps" or "ways to improve your search results " or " buy suits ".

2. Concordance

When setting up a campaign in Google Ads, we must define the degree of correspondence between the keywords we have selected and the term that the user enters in the search engine. This is what is known as "concordance".

3. Text ad:

Text Ad is the standard ad type that is shown in search engines, although today we have more options, such as shopping ads. It usually includes a title, a visible URL that can be customized and a short description.

4. Ad group:

In Google Ads, an ad group consists of several ads that appear with the same keywords. In this way, we can see which are the most effective ads.

5. Campaign:

In Google Ads, the campaign is like the "umbrella" under which we organize different ad groups with similar goals. For example, if we have an online store of school supplies, one campaign could include ad groups on textbooks, another on backpacks and a third on drawing material.

6. Page destination or landing page:

The website to which the user is directed after having clicked on an advertisement. To achieve good results with search engine marketing, this web page must be optimized to get conversions or for users to perform a certain action (for example, completing a form to download an ebook). The keywords, the ad is shown and the landing page should always be aligned to ensure good user experience.

7. Search Network:

The places where your ads can appear. Many search advertisements are shown on popular sites like Google, Youtube or Facebook on the top and right of the result pages.

8. Impressions

The number of times an ad was shown.

9. Clicks

The number of times an ad has been clicked

10. CTR

The percentage of clicks on total impressions.

11. CPC

Average cost per click.

12. Quality Score

Score awarded by Google to ads and keywords and which influences your cost per click. This score is determined based on the relevance of the ad, the percentage of clicks obtained and the experience of the landing page. The objective of the system is that higher quality ads occupy higher positions and have a lower cost per click.

Strict Don'ts of Search Engine Marketing

1. Do not forget to make landing pages for your keywords on the website

The main point to keep in mind is that the way you formulate your search engine marketing strategy is how people will come to your website. But, once they visit your website, what it present will determine them staying and scrolling through your website for a longer period or just closing it instantly. If by chance they come across the kind of landing page that does not contain the keywords which they were initially searching for, it is a high chance that they will not stay on your website and by the end, you won't be able to make any money by that ' click through'. As a result, each search term you use in your PPC (or SEO) campaign should link to a landing page specifically designed for that keyword. By doing this, you are more likely to increase the chances that visitors will find your landing pages to be relevant and engaging.

2. Do not use broad keywords on the website

While your keyword research might turn up some broad search terms for your industry, you should avoid these in favour of terms that address specific aspects of your business. For instance, the keyword “shoes” is way less preferable or interactive as compared to " Nike shoes for your comfort".

There are many reasons as to why you should avoid using broad keywords on the website.

  • Firstly, since you already deal with facing a large high level of competition in the industry under which you are operating. using broad terms seem very vague and becomes somewhat, virtually impossible to carry out the search engine marketing perfectly.
  • Secondly, search engine marketing is all about targeting the right audience and inviting them to your website. Whereas, using broad and vague terms will not only attract an irreverent audience to the website. For example, many people looking for “shoes” may not be interested in " Nike shoes for your comfort". This means that you will end up paying for numerous click-throughs that do not convert into paying customers at your site.

3. Do not forget to stay on top of industry changes

Most importantly with changes taking place by the minute, a big mistake that you can commit is not keeping your website up to date with these trends. Search engine marketing, like search engine optimization and web design, is for a fact an ever-changing field. In order to succeed, you must stay on top of industry changes. The best way to do so is to hire a search engine marketing service that can lend you the skill and expertise you need to succeed with PPC.

Conclusion

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