How to Optimize SEM in Digital Marketing

How to Optimize SEM in Digital Marketing

Marketers are leveraging the benefits of search engine marketing, or SEM, to promote their products and grow their business online in the increasingly competitive marketplace. It has become an essential paid digital marketing channel for capturing new and more qualified audiences by increasing search engine visibility. In this article, we’re going to shed light on SEM in digital marketing—what it is, why it plays an important role as a part of your overall online marketing strategy, and how you can build a solid foundation.

What is SEM?

SEM is the marketing strategy to attract target users via paid advertisements that appear on the search engine results page (or SERP)—the page that a search engine returns after a user submits a search query. You bid on keywords most likely to be searched by online users when looking for certain products or services. As a result, your ad appears alongside results for those search queries.

The benefits of SEM

Google search engine marketing is essential because it allows you to get in front of your target audience by landing ads in their search query results. You’re reaching people at exactly the moment they’re looking for an answer or solution. Seventy-five percent of users say that paid search engine advertisements make it easier for them to find the information they’re looking for.

Building organic traffic via Search Engine Optimization (SEO) may take time with a lot of competition in the space already. Paid search engine marketing allows your brand to be seen immediately, as your advertisements are shown at the top of the first SERP page. And with more brand presence and online visibility, you’re able to elevate your website traffic and generate high-quality leads, conversions, and sales.

Choosing the right keywords and writing the perfect description for your ad will allow you to stay ahead of competitors. Google SEM also helps you retarget users who may have visited your website or clicked on your ad before but did not take any specific action.

Another advantage of Google SEM is that it’s cost-effective for advertisers—your ad is shown for free, and you only pay when someone clicks and takes the desired action, such as filling out a demo request, downloading a case study, or purchasing a product. This is often called pay-per-click, or PPC, in online marketing.

Best strategies to craft an optimal SEM strategy

As search engines are becoming the primary way people find products, a strong SEM strategy is becoming even more essential for a business’s success. Here are some of the proven strategies to craft a successful SEM campaign.

1. Do thorough keyword research

Start with choosing the right keywords to bid on and incorporate into your ad campaign (i.e., what user queries you want your ad to show up for). Depending on your business goals—brand awareness, thought leadership, or boosting sales—identify whether you want to target brand terms, terms that describe trending themes, or something that resonates with your product or industry.

2. Find a sweet spot between keyword volume and competition

And before you implement keywords in the ad campaign, evaluate keyword difficulty (competitiveness of the keyword) and search volume (the number of search queries for a specific search term in a search engine). Ideally, it will be best to choose words or phrases with high search volume to get in front of a larger audience, but such terms also bring in high competition. So, it’s important to find your own sweet spot of targeting. Overall, with keywords, avoid overstuffing.

3. Create compelling ad copy

To create engaging ad copy, focus on these core elements: an eye-catching heading, an engaging description, and a compelling CTA. It’s important to understand your target audience and their pain points to efficiently position your product and brand messaging in a way that they will resonate with and help them solve their challenges.

4. Optimize your landing page

For driving actual conversions with SEM ads, remove all the friction points throughout the purchase journey. And for that, optimize your landing page where customers reach after clicking your ad copy. There are several important considerations to take care of in your landing page, including clear product features, transparent pricing and other terms and conditions, mobile friendliness, optimal site load speed, and a clear CTA.

Once these elements are taken care of, you should be good at running your SEM campaign. Remember, measuring the results is also critical to identify the gaps and replicate the success factors to improve your SEM strategy.

Are you looking to increase traffic and win high-intent audiences and customers to your website? While a good SEO strategy may take time to land your brand far up in the SERPs organically, it might be time to complement it with SEM in digital marketing to elevate your brand presence in no time.

We specialize in SEO and SEM services for niche businesses and help them tap significant ranking opportunities. Contact us now and we’d be happy to help you get started with running a cost-effective and results-oriented digital marketing strategy!