What is Search Engine Marketing?

Search engine marketing, or SEM, is a type of internet marketing that focuses on increasing a website’s visibility and user traffic through paid ads in search engine results. It’s one of the most effective online marketing tactics to help improve business.?

Why? Well, advertising is all about garnering attention, and the numbers speak for themselves :?

• 68% of all online experiences begin with a search engine?
• There are more than 8.5 billion searches a day on Google alone?
• The top three Google results for a given search get more than 50% of all clicks??
• Over 90% of web pages on the internet get ZERO organic traffic from Google (likely because they don’t rank highly enough for searches)?

These stats show why getting your brand to the top of a search result might go a long way in helping generate business. But in order to do so, you need to understand exactly how SEM works.??

How does SEM work??

SEM and search go hand in hand. SEM is a paid result that works by providing brands with a way to “cut in line” on the search engine results page (SERP), giving them a unique opportunity to be a top result for a given keyword search that they might not appear organically. There are two kinds of search results that appear on Google’s SERP: organic and paid.?

• Organic results are determined by a search engine’s algorithm, which ranks a webpage based on how trustworthy and useful it seems for solving a user’s search query. They cost no money but require a website to be completely optimized for the algorithm itself through the use of SEO, which can take time and a lot of tweaking.?
• Paid results are determined by a separate search engine algorithm – one that considers how useful the content is for the user, but also “auctions” result space at the top of their SERP based on how much a brand is willing to pay for users’ clicks. Sometimes this can be pennies, and other times it can be $10, $20, or even $50 or more depending on the popularity of the terms.?

?But getting to the top isn’t easy and requires an understanding of how ad auctions work.?

How Ad Auctions Work?

Every time you perform a search, an ad auction takes place. Here’s how it goes:?

1. After a search is performed, Google Ads pulls together the ads of brands whose targeted keywords match that search.?
2. Ineligible, insufficient and unrelated ads are removed, making it so only ads that have a high Google Ad Rank will be “at auction.” To earn a high Ad Rank, Google takes into account things like ad quality, bidding price, the context of a person’s search (such as location) and more.?
3. Once the best ad is chosen for that search, it’s given the highest position among paid ads, and the account is charged whatever price was required to outbid the competition, with the second-best ad appearing after, and so on.??

Just to think, all of that happens within a few seconds! This process is repeated any time there’s a search on Google, and the competition for a given keyword can vary throughout the day.??

How to Win an Ad Auction??

Winning an ad auction comes down to having the highest Ad Rank among all other ads competing against you. The key to remaining a consistent winner in ad auctions is to continuously optimize ads as long as your campaign is active.??

Let’s start with your cost per click. Similar to most marketing campaigns, you’ll want to get your acquisition cost as low as possible. In SEM, that starts with looking over the keywords you’re bidding on.??

Keywords?

All keywords in the Google Ads space have a cost per click (CPC) associated with them. After creating your campaign, you’ll want to optimize for cost per click and cost efficiency. Which keywords are converting? Which aren’t? By removing keywords that are performing poorly, you can focus more of your budget on keywords that are performing well, giving you more money to spend converting users into paying customers.?

Calls to Action?

Similarly, you’ll want to look across your ads to see which calls to action (or CTA) are performing the best. If some aren’t working at all, consider removing them entirely or editing them to better replicate what your more successful CTA.??

Continue focusing on the CTA that work, and keep your eyes peeled for actionable insights that might tell you why they’re working so well.?

Keyword Research: Choosing the Right Keywords?

Keywords are the foundation of SEM. However, not all are created equal.?

Finding the right mix of keywords is paramount to any great SEM campaign. But in order to find that Goldilocks collection of keywords, it’s important to know how to narrow them down to match the needs of your brand.?

Keyword Volume?

As you might expect, some keywords are searched more frequently than others. While more vague keywords like “orthopedic doctor” have around 33,000 searches a month, a more specific search like “best orthopedic knee surgeon near me” might only have 480. Each of these serves different purposes though.????

Short-tailed keywords?

More vague keywords, also known as short-tailed keywords, are generally searched by folks who are simply looking for information. They’re often at the beginning of the buyer's journey, and so are less likely to convert as a customer.??

The benefit: Even if you get just a small percentage of those 33,000 to convert, say 0.5%, you’re still getting more than 1,600 converting customers. For that reason, these keywords generally cost more to bid on.?

Long-tailed keywords?

A long-tailed keyword like “best orthopedic knee surgeon near me” indicates that the searcher is further down the funnel of their buyer journey and are therefore more likely to click with the intent to use that service.??

The benefit: Although it’s only 480 users searching per month, keywords like this have a high conversion rate. These sorts of keywords can be much less expensive and generally have less competition than short-tailed keywords.?

Do your due diligence before deciding which sorts of keywords are right for your brand.?

Keyword Competition?

Keyword competition is Google’s measure of how easy or difficult it will be to rank for a given keyword. Some keywords have little to no competition, while other auctions can be fierce, forcing brands to cough up more dough just to enter the ring.?

Successfully ranking for a specific keyword just comes down to trial and error. If you find that you’re losing a lot of bids and aren’t able or willing to bid higher, search for a more opportunistic set of keywords and refine your approach.?

There are also tools available on the internet for brands working in the SEM space. A quick search on Google will guide you in the right direction, but in our agency, we like SEMRush and Ahrefs as a good starting place.?

Cost Per Click (CPC)?

Cost per click is the amount that an advertiser pays when a user clicks on their paid ad. Paying attention to this metric is crucial when measuring the success of your campaign and user acquisition.?

The goal in most SEM campaigns is to get as many high-converting clicks as possible for as cheap as you can get them.??

Here are some ways you can begin optimizing your cost per click:?

• Making your ads more relevant to the query?
• Improving your landing page content?
• Bidding on long-tailed keywords?
• Use negative keywords effectively???

Negative Keywords?

Negative keywords are keywords that you want to omit from your search campaigns.??

Removing certain keywords that you don’t want to rank for is one very easy way to lower your CPC. This can include very competitive, generic terms. It can also include words you don’t want to associate your brand with, like “cheap” or “fake.”?

By adding negative keywords to your campaign, you help ensure that the ads you’re putting in front of users are relevant to their needs. It makes sure you avoid bidding on a user who was looking for blue tennis shoes when you sell tennis rackets.?

Writing Good Ad Copy?

With all the know-how necessary to build a strong SEM campaign, it’s time to create the ad itself. The copy for paid ads can be broken up into four parts: A headline, a description, a display URL (or landing page) and ad extensions.?

Writing an Eye-Catching Headline?

As the most noticeable piece of your ad, your headline copy should do two things: offer clear language about what’s being offered and use keywords in a very natural, fluent way.?

Offering clear language will help Google determine if your ad addresses a user’s intent. Similarly, using keywords in a natural, human voice will show that your webpage matches the user’s needs without seeming like it’s trying too hard to meet some sort of criteria.??

The good news is that Google now uses Responsive Search Ads, or RSAs, to help those using its platform. Teams can now create up to 15 headlines and four descriptions, which Google’s machine learning puts together as it deems most fit based on the search. This helps generate the most relevant ad for that particular auction.?

Once your ad(s) have been running for a period of time, consider reviewing the data and tweaking headlines to see which version of headline copy is performing best for your business.?

Describing Your Webpage?

The description of your landing page should be seen as an opportunity to provide the user with an elevator pitch for your business. You want to write lines that will make users understand what they’ll find on the page but will also entice them to click. They should be anywhere from 50 to 90 characters.?

Here are some tips on writing strong ad descriptions:?

• Keep the messaging concise?
• Explain what your business offers?
• Use keywords here and there to show the user that you’re the right destination for their query?
• Create a strong CTA that shows the type of services or information you’re offering (i.e., “Take advantage,” “Subscribe here,” “Buy now,” “Learn more,” etc.)?

Creating a Landing Page?

Once a user clicks on your ad, they’ll find themselves on what’s known as a landing page. The user experience of this webpage impacts the quality score of your ad itself, so it’s very important that this page offers clear solutions for what the user was searching for.?

Though most ads are written for a webpage that already exists, lots of SEM experts have found success in creating specific landing pages for their ads.????

No matter what you choose to do, your landing page should do the following:?

• Offer useful information that’s relevant to the user’s search?
• Be easy/simple to navigate?
• Provide links to other areas of the website that may be helpful to the user?
• Match the same topic as the headline and description in the ad itself?

Choosing Your Ad Extensions?

Ad extensions offer users up to three additional links that may pertain to their search and influence their user journey on your website. According to Google, ads frequently perform better when they offer ad extensions.??

These extensions can be a number of things, including:?

• A call button or contact page?
• Additional descriptive text?
• Links to other relevant pages of your website?
• Information around location?

There are 14 different types of ad extensions that can be used, so look over your options before selecting which is right for you.??

It’s important to note, however, that ad extensions may not always appear in the SERP. Often times, it depends on your ad’s ranking and how much space is left to use in the SERP.?

Looking to optimize your website for search? Find an SEM Agency.?

As you may have gathered, there’s a lot that goes in to creating a strong SEM campaign. And we didn’t even get to cover it all here. Beyond creating the ad campaign itself, you also need to understand how to navigate the Google Analytics Dashboard , a hub for all the data and insights that can help you grow these campaigns even further.?

While most business leaders might not have the time to learn the ins-and-outs of the SEM industry, full-service ad agencies everywhere offer the services, each with their own team of experts. Take a look around and see if there’s an ad agency that suits you and your brand.??

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Not sure where to start with your SEM? You came to the right place.?Drop us a line and tell us how we might be able to help you rank higher in your paid search results.?