What is SEM, and how to build an SEM strategy for instant gain?

Are you trying to find a way to get featured atop search engines? Believe it or not, you can achieve it without taking the “organic path”. All you need to do is pay for it! The terminology for that shortcut is called search engine marketing (SEM). It is the best available way to promote your product or services and make a profit. To many marketers, SEM is a puzzle. They refrain from investing in it because they don’t know how to proceed or manage a campaign.

This guide will help you gain enough knowledge about search engine marketing and everything required to run a successful SEM campaign.

Let’s begin.

What is SEM?

SEM is a result-driven digital marketing strategy that leverages payment-based advertising models to achieve website traffic. As a result, your paid ads will find a place at the top of SERPs. SEM helps you easily connect with people who are prepared to buy things online.

What is required for a high-performing search advertising strategy?

The results that appear on the topmost position of the pages are called paid ads or pay-per-click ads (PPC ads). Such ads show instant results in the form of website traffic. For that to happen, you must perform three key steps: account setting, ad placement, and keyword bidding. Afterwhich, every time the chosen keyword is entered, your ad shows up at the top. This SERP placement will depend on your quality score and the bid amount of other people.

Even if it sounds simple, structuring an SEM is not easy.

However, setting up a search engine marketing strategy is not a walk in the park.

• Build SEM ploy

Everything in marketing that involves money needs a purpose. Decide why you need to include SEM in your marketing strategy. Is that because you want to benefit from website traffic? Or is it for people to download your software? The goals are endless and ensure you have a clear-cut idea about them before setting foot in the SEM arena. In the upcoming steps, try to know more about your competitors and the metrics to target. Doing so will help you plan a bid strategy that facilitates your journey towards accomplishing your campaign objectives. Finally, choose the right advertising channels, audience, and budget.

• Pick the right search words

The keywords you select for your google ads campaigns decide the fate of their success. Those keywords are responsible for prompting your ads to reach the right audience, and in-depth research is required to find them. Such an exercise will help you identify keywords best suited to your business, the ones you want to target, and their average cost-per-click.

• Create a compelling ad copy

The creative part of your advertising influences the overall success of your campaigns. For that, your content writers must curate enticing ad copy and must be able to generate the expected number of leads. To make your ad copy stand out and attract customers, you can include promos, offers, discounts, a top-notch CTA, links to landing pages, etc. Since you won’t have space to elaborate, make your PPC ads short that directly addresses the customers' problems.

• Bidding tactics

Upon deciding to enter the exciting world of SEM, you must participate in an ad auction process. This is mandatory for every ad that gets featured on SERPs. For an ad to get a spot on search engine results, it has to attain maximum bids and ensure a quality score. The maximum bid is the agreed amount you are ready to pay each time your ads get clicked. The quality score is the metric ad platforms use to rate your ads, landing pages, and keywords. Based on relevance, your ads will receive a score ranging from 1-10. All better-performing ads have a higher quality score. After considering all ranking factors, the ad that acquires rank will be at the helm. SEM also allows you to adjust your bids midway through the campaign process.

• Structuring relevant landing pages

A landing page is where people who click the ads are taken to. That said, landing pages must be relevant because Google considers them when calculating the quality score. A good landing page has to align with your ad copy and keywords. Create landing pages that encourage visitors to consider committing a meaningful action, such as subscribing to a newsletter service or downloading a copy of your eBook. Ensure the quality of your landing pages to increase links and decrease bounce rates.

• Perform a performance analysis

Monitoring your PPC campaigns and landing page performance is essential as it provides real-time information about metrics intertwined with specific ad campaign goals. It is also quintessential to figure out the KPIs you need to consider to improve your campaign performance. For a successful ad campaign, you must prioritize quality score, impression share, conversions, and click-through rates as your KPIs for your ad campaigns.