SEM: Develop Your Own "Sticky" Strategy – by Jennifer Miller
October 20, 2007
Following on from last month's discussion about search engine optimization (SEO), it's only natural to bring up the question of search engine marketing, as the two are closely related–yet essentially different.
Search engine marketing (SEM), unlike search engine optimization, is the deliberate tack of promoting your website and consequently increasing traffic to it. A broad umbrella term, it includes anything that makes your site "sticky" and increases your overall profits.
By this definition, SEO is actually a subset of SEM. Remember, SEO works by creating free traffic–web crawlers, or spiders, decide what landing page visitors to your site will see based on words search terms they've typed into an engine. SEM, on the other hand, brings traffic to your site through various methods that you have paid for as part of your marketing campaign, such as:
Search Advertising
Also known as Pay-Per-Click (PPC) or Keyword Advertising, the term specifically refers to a web page that is linked to when your potential customers type specific words or phrases into a search engine. When these words match the products and services that your business has to offer, your text-only ad appears in a highly visible section of the search results page. You pay only when the searcher clicks on your ad.
Search advertising is flexible in that you can target a specific audience by the type of people they are, for example, 18- to 34-year old men who like to play online games. You can also target them by where they live and even the time of day they might be surfing the Internet.
Since you decide which keywords should bring up your ads, as well as who, where, and when you want to target, you have a significant level of control over the type of searchers you attract to your online business presence.
As an advertising product, search advertising can be can be an effective, low-cost way to get new customers to find your business when they're actively searching online. Most major search advertising networks, such as Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft allow you to track and measure individual and multiple search campaigns. You can then use up-to-the-minute data to change your strategy, should you find a particular set of keywords or target demographics aren't as productive you'd like.
Display and Rich Media Ads
Although not traditionally thought of as an aspect of search engine marketing, display and rich media ads–those banners, skyscrapers, and even the short 30-second video ads–are accessed via keywords that potential customers enter into a search engine. Unlike the PPC model, however, the fee structure is based on how many times your ad appears when a keyword triggers it to appear on a search results page. In other words, you pay whether or not someone ever sees your website or not.
Paid Inclusion
A somewhat less popular SEM product, paid inclusion is the practice of paying a search engine company a fee to add your site to its search index for a website or various websites. The fee structure usually covers a yearly subscription for one webpage, which is automatically catalogued on a regularly scheduled basis.
Paid inclusion is a good fit for pages with content that changes regularly–such as a weekly or daily special. It also ensures your page is listed quickly and crawled frequently. Nonetheless, it doesn't necessarily improve your search clicks. Search advertising giants Microsoft and Google do not offer paid inclusion–which is a sign that it may not yet be a profitable product to offer their customers.
Put Your Money on the Table or Stick with SEO?
So with SEO being the free option and SEM requiring both money and campaign management, which should you opt for? In truth, it isn't a question of using one or the other if you truly want to increase your overall traffic. SEO strategies might bring traffic to your site–but it can also bring anybody and everybody to your site.
SSEM strategies bring people to your site who have converted from searchers into potential customers. This means that–although you have paid for this potential customer to visit your site–you are much more likely to have an SEM-lead searcher purchase your products or services.
The wise practice would be to incorporate both SEO and SEM strategies into your overall online advertising strategy–and, just like a beginning chess player, be prepared to learn as you go and adjust your strategy based on what you've learned. You'll be playing amongst the best before you know it.
SEM Overview: Five Strategies for Making It Work
Now that you're armed with basics, take it to the next level. These advanced SEM tips can help you convert more searchers into customers and increase the return on your ad spend:
- Set revenue goals for cost-per-click (CPC), click-through rate (CTR), and conversions.
- Optimize your landing pages for search engine optimization (SEO) to boost conversions.
- Continually measure the results of your campaign to improve keyword selection, landing pages, and ad copy.
- Measure the success of your campaign against your other marketing lead generating activities.
- Be aware of the stage in the sales cycle your target customer may be in–then choose keywords that are relevant to each stage.