SEM (Search Engine Marketing) is the placement and management of ads on search engines. These ads are more prominently displayed than the organic (free) listings and usually generate more clicks, which can lead to more calls and more sales. The most common form of SEM is Pay-Per-Click advertising, where advertisers bid on the keywords they want their ads to appear under.
SEM ads are fast-tracked to the top and right side of search results pages and the advertiser only pays when a user clicks on the listing to visit the advertisers' website.
2. How does SEM differ from SEO?
Like SEM, the goal of SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is to promote a website by increasing their ranking in search results. SEO promotes websites by improving a website’s structure, technology, and content so that it will achieve high rankings in the organic (free) search results of a search engine.
Given the amount of information on the Internet, a company can fully optimize their web site and still find it appearing several pages down in the search results. This is why many companies invest so heavily in SEM, as it increases the likelihood your website will get noticed.
3. Do I need an SEM program if my business appears on Google Maps/Local Business Listings?
The answer is yes, because different users search in different ways. Some only look at the top listings while others go several pages deep to find what they are looking for. Similarly, some users only look at the ads in the middle of the page while others explore left to right. It is important to expose yourself to a wide variety of user preferences to ensure the broadest group of people see your advertising.
4. What makes an effective SEM program?
Simply slapping a low bid on a bunch of keywords is becoming less likely to earn sales. Greater sophistication is needed to maximize your website’s exposure while minimizing your costs. An effective SEM program must include the following four components:
KEYWORDS—This refers to selecting a set of terms or phrases that, when searched, will deliver your ad to those who are searching. Pick the right ones and you are well on your way to bringing targeted, qualified visitors to your site. Pick the wrong words and you will sabotage your SEM campaign.
GEOGRAPHY—If your business is in any way location-specific, you’ll want to take advantage of geographical targeting. Choosing where your ads will appear can be done in a variety of ways - at a city/metro level, based on a radius (in miles) from your location/service area, or the geography can be fully customized to include only the cities or ZIP codes that you want to reach.
DAYPARTING—Is a person conducting
a search at 3:00 AM on a Tuesday morning a good prospect for your business?
Targeting your advertising by time of day or by day of the week is a technique often
underutilized in SEM programs. It drives conversions (clicks) and reduces
wasteful spending. By reducing bids at poorly performing hours and reallocating
those funds to hours with better conversion rates, advertisers
can expect greater conversion volumes and better returns on advertising spend.
BID LEVEL/BUDGET—Budgets are limited, so determining a maximum bid level
for each keyword and developing daily and monthly budgets is crucial to
ensuring funds are properly allocated throughout the year.
5. How can I measure the effectiveness of an SEM program?
There is no guessing when it
comes to measuring the performance of an SEM program. Clicks, impressions,
spend, and online orders can all be tracked to provide conversion rates and cost-per-call metrics. However, the real value
of tracking an SEM program is using the data to further refine the program and
to maximize its effectiveness.
No comments:
Post a Comment