With daily searches on search engines quantified in millions these days (billions for Google), advertising on search engines has gone from being a good choice to a necessity. With 92% of adult U.S. internet users using search engines, you can bet the odds of your potential prospects being part of that percentage are high.
You may still be wondering why you should care. Perhaps you’ve got a good thing going with the way you advertise. The question is can you afford to miss out on reaching people actively searching for what you offer?
Search engine marketing prevents that from happening. With the top 3 paid ad spots getting 41% of the clicks on a search engine results page<, Search Engine Marketing greatly increases your chances of improving traffic to your website, landing pages, etc.
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How Does SEM Work?
Search Engine Marketing allows your paid advertisements to appear toward the top of a search engine results page (SERP). You, and other advertisers, bid on keywords the users you’re looking for are most likely to search.
Identify the Right Keywords
Keywords are the key (pun intended) to Search Engine Marketing. They’re what make it possible for your ads to display on search engines. It takes comprehensive research to identify the right keywords. The keywords must be related to your business while having high searchability.
Remember that the people searching these keywords are already interested, people actively looking for products and services. So in a sense, you are meeting them halfway.
Make Sure What a User Sees Is What They Get
When a user clicks on an ad, the expectation is they’ll be taken to where they can find the product or content they saw in the ad. Your ads should lead directly to what is offered to make the process as easy and straightforward as possible.
The page a user is directed to after clicking an ad should be centered around what was offered. Nothing more, nothing less.
Here are a few things that will increase the success of your SEM campaign:
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Determine who you want to reach
Before you start getting your ads out there, you need to know who you want clicking on your ads. If you cast too wide a net, you’ll end up sifting through a long list of people who don’t fall into your criteria for an ideal prospect.
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Determine where your prospects are
Factoring in location allows your ads to show up in specific geographical areas. Adding this layer further narrows down who sees your ads.
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Determine what your ads are promoting
This can range from promoting your entire company to a specific product or service. You don’t need to offer everything you’ve got in only one ad. You can have specific ads for one product, specific ads promoting your content, or maybe ads for a job offer highlighting an open position.
Bombarding a user with too much info in one ad can drive them off. So be specific in your ad messaging.
You would be doing a great disservice to your marketing by missing out on all the people/companies you could reach through Search Engine Marketing. Once you try it, you’ll see that the metrics speak for themselves.
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