Search Engine Marketing – or SEM as it is popularly known – is not the future of marketing and advertising. It is what has been used for the past 2 decades or so and continues to be a popular form of advertising. Yes, the numbers indicate that the use of SEM has been falling rapidly with the rise of Content Marketing or Inbound Marketing as a more cost-effective and measurable solution. However, Search Engine Marketing still exists and will be here for the foreseeable future.
Search Engine Marketing is a form of paid marketing but on search engines like Google or Bing.
Search Engine Marketing could be quite intriguing and complex which can become an obstacle in using SEM to its maximum potential. One needs to truly understand the nitty-gritty of SEM in order to employ it beneficially for one’s business or enterprise. This is what we intend to do in this article. Below we are going to discuss five rules of using Search Engine Marketing and advertising which can help the businesses to devise a plan of action.
5 rules of using search engine marketing
Targeting the right keywords
Search Engine Marketing revolves around keywords. Businesses need to attach their products or services to a series of keywords. So whenever a user types that particular keyword, the advertisement of the business which paid for it will appear. Thus, it is very crucial that one chooses a keyword which is absolutely relevant to their business and which the prospective clients will type when searching for the products or services that you are offering.
Google offers a great tool to do this research called Google Keyword Planner as part of it’s Adword tool.
Working your way through ad auction
Whether your business will be able to advertise itself on search engines like Google depends on a process known as ad auction. Whenever a user types a particular keyword, all the related businesses bid for it and as is the normal practice, the highest bidder wins. Google takes into consideration two factors while allotting a space on its results page: maximum bid per click and quality score of ads.
Make sure you are spending wisely and monitoring the bids regularly. Some keywords have bids changing practically every minute.
Ensuring high quality score
In order to win a place on Google’s Search Engine Results Page (SERP), having a high-quality score is crucial. This is because, when bidding for keywords, Google is likely to select an ad which might have a relatively low budget but high-quality score. Google tends to choose ads which are highly relevant for a particular keyword, which actually brings us to the first point wherein a business must choose keyword judiciously.
QUality can be determined by various algorithms, but essentially, the AI of the search engine will take into consideration the relevance of the keywords towards your business and how much of that keyword relates to the page you want the user to land on. Hence, in order to have a good SEM campaign – you must have a strong strategy for your website and towards your content
Increase organic traffic to your website
Search Engines like Google tend to provide a place to businesses which are performing well. One of the ways to assess a website or a businesses performance is the traffic it is able to maintain organically other than paid search. So, if your website is not faring well in this regard, no matter how high you might bid for a keyword, it is unlikely that you’ll get a space on Google’s SERP.
Concentrating on SEO – or Search engine optimization is part of SEM. Making sure your website is ranking high on Google organically is part of the game.
Know the strengths of your competitors
Search Engine Marketing is a highly competitive space. Since many businesses would be vying for the same keyword, it is essential to know what your competitor is doing right and follow the lead. Monitor your keywords regularly and make value additions to your website in order to secure a better place for your business on SERP.
Having some sort of tracking in place for your competitors also keeps you updated on what you could perhaps avoid.
Conclusion
These are some golden rules which can assist you to make sense of how to work around Search Engine Marketing to give a boost to your business.
It is essential to keep in mind that this costs money. Bidding for a space on Google or any search engine means spending money per click or impression. If not done right, you could burn through a bulk load of cash without results. The key towards achieving results is a good marketing strategy that ties into all your other efforts such as your web design and development, content creation and SEO.
Get in touch with us if you are looking for a team of digital marketers who can manage SEM for you.
