Search Engine Marketing | SEM Services Meath

Guide to Search Engine Marketing (SEM)

Note: you should read the Guide to SEO before reading this.

Thankfully, SEM is less complicated than SEO. It is used by some businesses to replace investment in SEO and by other businesses to supplement SEO investment.

SEM is also referred to as ‘pay per click’ advertising. This is because you pay to have your advertisement displayed once a certain key word or phrase is input into a search engine. You are charged a variable fee only if the advertisement is clicked on. Usually these ads are displayed to the right of the normal search results or sometimes just above them. There are also options that allow your ad to appear on other third party sites that are interested in generating fee income from advertising.

Any business can easily run an SEM campaign. Each of the main search engines offers self-service options for business owners. The set up can be a little daunting but once you have run one campaign it gets much easier. There are limitations as to what you can include in your ad. There are a set number of letters and lines and there are also editorial guidelines that you must not breach or your ad will be refused.

Again, as with most areas of promotion, there are specialist companies willing to advise you and this can prove an attractive option for business owners who do not have the time to research this area fully.

Similar to SEO, there is a ranking system that decides which order the ads appear on the screen. Unlike SEO, money is the sole arbiter as to who finishes higher up the list. A somewhat complicate bidding system operates and the exact rules vary from one search engine to another. The bidding prices vary greatly depending on what is being advertised and the level of competition for the particular search term. For example, “solicitor galway” might be a popular search term so the cost of appearing first on the ads might be quite high. However, “probate lawyer galway” might have no competition and the cost per click might be minimal. Cost per click can vary from €0.10 to €7.00 and higher. “Mortgages” and “Mortgage brokers” are traditionally seen as one of the most high cost search terms to be targeting.

From a budgeting perspective, there is huge flexibility with SEM in that you can set a monthly budget and then leave the search engine to manage it for you. At any time, you can increase or reduce your budget or simply postpone or cancel your campaign. Highly advanced analytical tools allow advertisers to drill down into a great level of detail to assess which campaigns and within that, which search terms are working best for them and delivering the best return on investment.

To get the most out of SEM, you need to focus on the following:

Firstly, selecting the best search terms that will deliver the best value for your budget. You could select a strategy that targets just a few of the most popular search terms for your business or select a large number of less obvious ones. Or you could try a combination of both strategies.
Secondly, you need to ensure that your ads are sufficiently enticing that when a potential customer sees the ad, that they are likely to click on it to see further information. This is not as easy as it sounds as most search engines limit your use of bold lettering, exclamation marks, duplicated wording and capitalisation.

SEM is an incredibly powerful form of advertising. It is often criticised because click through rates tend to be poor compared to what can be achieved with SEO. But if no one clicks, you don’t pay! What other advertising medium charges on this basis? Another criticism is that it is possible for competitors to click on your ads to drive down your advertising budget. The search engines have been working hard to reduce the effect of this and this is now less of a worry for advertisers. One of the key advantages is just how specific you can be with your message. It’s amazing how creative you can be with such a small number of words to use.

With the vast majority of businesses not using SEM in any serious way, there is plenty of value left in this medium. It is unlikely to remain that way. In certain competitive sectors there is already evidence of some advertisers pulling back on their spend as the cost per click has risen sharply as the market has become more competitive. Each business needs to assess SEM on its merits to see what, if any, role it can play in the overall promotions effort.

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Guide to Search Engine Marketing (SEM)

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