Currently, a company’s and small business’s online presence is more important than ever, which is why more and more marketing managers are paying special attention to digital campaigns every day.
Among these, SEM strategies stand out as one of the best tools for enhancing a brand’s online visibility. However, many are still not familiar with this campaign model and, therefore, are not getting the most out of it.
We have created this article to help you generate brand awareness and attract more leads through SEM advertising. To do this, we will tell you what it consists of and how it works. This way, you can soon become an expert in these online advertising strategies.
What is SEM Advertising and What is it for?
The acronym SEM (Search Engine Marketing) refers to all digital marketing strategies focused on Internet search engines, such as Google or Bing, two of the most popular worldwide. The objective of this type of digital advertising campaign is to attract more visitors to websites and convert these users into paying customers.
Many professionals think that advertising in SEM is only reduced to trying to place websites among the first positions of search engine results pages or SERPs, but this is only one part (SEO) of this kind of marketing. In reality, SEM Advertising encompasses a wide variety of marketing activities that are based on paid advertising to improve visibility in search engines, which they achieve in a very short period of time.
Differences between SEM and SEO
Before continuing to delve into SEM Advertising, it is important to clarify the distinction between the terms SEM and SEO, because as we have already seen, they are used as synonyms too often, even by marketers.
The main difference between SEM and SEO is that the traffic that is obtained through advertising in SEM is paid; in fact, these strategies are also known as PPC (pay-per-click) marketing. In this way, every time a user clicks on one of the company’s ads, the advertiser must pay. In this way, the increase in brand visibility is immediate. For its part, SEO, in addition to the paid one, attracts organic traffic. This means that websites reach good positions in the results pages thanks to the quality and interesting content they offer. Therefore, these strategies focus on creating attractive websites with useful information content for users, so it can take months to see the results of these efforts.
Components of Advertising in SEM
These digital strategies go beyond creating relevant content or offering a pleasant user experience. Key components of SEM include the following practices:
- Use keywords: it is advisable to choose and use in the ads the words or phrases that users use most when doing their searches on the Internet. This way you will make sure that your ads reach people interested in what you offer.
- Paid ads: which can be CPC (Cost Per Click) for which you pay for each click made on the ad, Cost per Acquisition (CPA) in which you pay for the effective purchases made by users, or CPM (Cost Per Thousand Impressions) for which you pay for every thousand impressions of the ad, regardless of the clicks made.
- Use management platforms: these online platforms help to track SEM advertising, facilitating the analysis of results. They also allow you to better control the budget and make the necessary adjustments to optimize campaigns.
SEM advertising can also be combined with other marketing strategies such as advertising on social networks through TikTok Ads, YouTube Ads or Twitter Ads, among others.
What is Achieved through SEM Advertising?
Although the main function of including SEM advertising in your brand’s digital strategy is to attract the public and increase its visibility, this type of activity also entails other benefits that we list below:
Increase in Qualified Traffic
Given its basic operation, the users who go to your website are people who have searched for information about the product or service you offer and click on your website because they associate it with their need. Thanks to these paid ads you will see how the number of visitors of this type increases.
Increase in Online Visibility
Investing in SEM advertising guarantees that your ad appears among the first positions in search engines, so users will come into contact with your brand whenever they search for keywords related to your business. Even if they don’t click, they will see your name and relate it to their need.
Convert Leads into Customers
In addition to attracting more public to your company’s website, paid ads also make it possible for potential consumers who visit your website to end up acquiring what you offer. After all, your ad appears as a response to their search that they make because they need something related
Facilitates the Analysis of Results
We have mentioned that SEM campaigns are usually carried out with management platforms, which greatly facilitates the collection of metrics for each advertising action. Having all the information clearly makes its analysis easier and makes it possible to make relevant decisions and, at the same time, measure the ROI (return on investment rate).
How Does SEM Advertising Work?
In order to obtain the best results from SEM campaigns, it is necessary that you understand how it works. Only then will you be able to get the greatest benefits from your investment.
1. Explore Keywords
The first step to carry out a successful SEM campaign is to know which keywords are the most used by users when searching on the Internet. There are tools such as SEMrush, Google Keyword Planner or similar that can do an effective search of these words and provide data on the search volume, its competition or the trend.
2. Design the Ads to be Published
Next, it’s time to create ads that are attractive to users and invite them to click on them. In general, a good ad will have an eye-catching title that attracts attention, a clear brief description and a call to action or call to action (CTA). The landing page can be your homepage, any other page on your website, a location, etc.
3. Set the Budget and Bids to be Made
It is important that you set a budget and how it will be distributed. The same goes for the bidding strategy that is done on campaign management platforms, which can be CPC, CPM or CPA. Choosing one or the other will depend on the objectives you pursue with the campaign: increase traffic, increase impressions or maximize conversions.
4. Monitor the Campaign
Once the SEM strategy is launched, you must do a continuous monitoring. Pay special attention to data such as the CTR (Click-Through Rate) that shows the percentage of Internet users who click, the CPC that indicates the average cost per click, the CPA that represents the average cost of each conversion and the ROI that measures the profitability of the strategy.
5. Optimize SEM Advertising
Monitoring and analyzing the previous metrics will allow you to measure the performance of each SEM action performed, which in turn will help you know what is being successful and what is not. Thus, you can adjust and optimize the digital marketing efforts you are making to obtain better results in your next campaign.
As you have seen throughout the article, SEM advertising is a fundamental part of digital marketing to increase the visibility of brands and attract a larger audience that can become paying customers. For this reason, it is key to reserve part of the company marketing budget for this type of action.
If you want to boost your strategy, at 2btube we are specialists in SEM, audiovisual, social media and influencer marketing advertising campaigns. We have a long history of accompanying companies to grow in the digital field and achieve their objectives through different strategies. If you are also looking for support, contact our team and we will give you advice without obligation!