What is Search Engine Marketing (SEM)

What is Search Engine Marketing
OR Paid Search Advertising ?
Search Engine Marketing (SEM) is a
process of gaining traffic to your
website through placing your ads on
various advertising platforms like
Google AdWords, Yahoo-Bing ads, MSN
ads etc. Search Engine Marketing (SEM)
is also called as Paid search advertising
or paid search marketing.
What is Search Engine Marketing
(SEM) or Paid Search Advertising?
Other Search Engine Marketing (SEM)
Synonyms and Acronyms
There are various names for Search
Engine Marketing (SEM). Let me list
down these for you:
Search Engine Marketing (SEM) was
once served as an umbrella for
different skill sets of digital marketing
like
Search engine optimization (SEO)
Paid search advertising.
Social media optimization
Social media marketing
Advanced SEO (video, mobile,
local optimization strategies )
Over the years, online industry world
has adopted this term SEM is only for
paid search advertising solely.
At “Ramston Digital” we call SEM/Paid
search solely for paid listing ads and
the term “search marketing” is solely
used for “SEO & SEM” both. Hence, let’s
now look at the synonyms and
acronyms of SEM:
PPC (pay per click services)
Paid search ads
Paid search marketing
Paid search advertising
CPC (cost per click advertising)
CPM (cost per thousand
impressions advertising)
CPA (cost per acquisition
advertising)
Search Engine Marketing (SEM) basics for
beginners:
Google AdWords tops the list of paid
search advertising platforms which is
followed by Yahoo-Bing ads, MSN ads.
Google AdWords platform is a self
managed program is highly robust,
sophisticated and easy to navigate
through the features of AdWords.
Though the cost per click is high in
Google AdWords compared to Yahoo-
bing ads & MSN ads, business owners
tend to lean towards Google, because of
the return on investment(ROI) rate is
high as it gets huge traffic compared to
other search engines.
There are few successful PPC advertising
strategies which you must be aware while
starting:
1. Proper keyword targeting
2. Effective text ad
3. Proper landing page
4. Bid strategy
5. Ad distribution
6. Effective targeting methods
But that doesn’t end the paid search
advertising. There are so many rules
and regulations which are associated
for all these PPC campaigns. You can’t
just purchase & use what ever the
keywords that you want to (or) write
the ad text what ever you wish.
Representatives associated to search
engine platforms should approve your
ad text, keywords and the landing
pages of yours. You might need to
learn more in depth concepts of Google
AdWords or Yahoo Bing adcenter.
There are various certification
programs which are also available in
place. If you can at-least get certified
for AdWords fundamentals & search
program, you would be in a position
handle the ad campaigns to some
extent.
There are so many businesses across
the globe who generally spends
thousands & millions of pounds on just
paid search advertising. There are
some business who might require lot of
research and testing in the beginning.
You might need to work on lot of
keyword research, campaign
management, budget allocation, ad
strategies, A/B testing etc and many
more.
This might look lot of work for you,
But, yes it’s true that PPC campaigns
eat up lot of your time. If you thing you
are unable to manage your time, then I
would suggest you to get in touch with
a PPC specialist who can do that work
for you. But remember, besides paid
search advertising, try to concentrate
on search engine optimization(SEO) for
your website too.