How To Do Search Engine Marketing The Right Way

If you're running a business, it's important to make sure that you're doing everything you can to market it effectively. One of the most important tools in your marketing arsenal is search engine marketing (SEM). SEM is a process by which you use keywords and other techniques to get your website ranked as high as possible on search engine results pages (SERPs). In this article, we'll discuss what SEM is, the importance of keywords in search engine marketing, how to structure your google ads or bing ads, and how Google Ad auctions work.

What is search engine marketing (SEM)?

Search engine marketing is the process of using specific keywords and phrases to drive traffic from search engines. The goal of any SEM campaign, within a company's website, is to get as many eyeballs on the site as possible.

What's the difference between SEO and SEM?

Search engine marketing is a subset of search engine optimization. Although the terms SEO and SEM are sometimes used interchangeably, they do have slightly different meanings. Search engine optimization refers to any activity that has the aim of improving your site's rankings in SERPs for specific keywords or phrases. On the other hand, search engine marketing goes a step further, incorporating the use of pay-per-click ads and other types of advertising.

What is pay-per-click?

In a pay-per-click ad, you only have to pay when people click on the ad. PPC ads are a great way to achieve higher visibility for your website and can also help you increase conversions, as these ads appear near or above organic search results.

The importance of keywords in SEM

The main premise of SEM is that it's vital to reach your target audience at the moment when they're actively looking for a product or service like yours. To do this, you'll need to incorporate keywords - search term phrases that people type into a search engine - into all aspects of your marketing campaign, including ad text and website copy. If you neglect to include keywords - or if you use irrelevant ones - your ads may not show up when users are looking for something that's very relevant to what you offer. Keyword research is absolutely a critical step in search engine marketing.

How to effectively do keyword research for search engine marketing

Before you start doing SEM, it's important to perform keyword research. This involves finding out which keywords or phrases users are currently typing into the search engines. To figure this out, you'll need to use tools like Google Ads Keyword Planner, SEMrush, AnswerThePublic, Google Trends, SpyFu, Google Search Console, Moz Keyword Explorer, and others that can show you the volume of searches performed, the list of possible keywords that you could target, and their related competition.

During the process, pay close attention to the keywords that have lower competition but higher search volume. The lower the competition, the easier it will be for you to outrank competing websites on top of SERPs. After you begin to rank for lower difficulty keywords, you can slowly start to incorporate medium difficulty keywords into your strategy. Sooner or later, you'll be able to rank for the most difficult keywords as well.

For more information, check out this article on how to do keyword research the smart way.

How to structure your Google Ads account

In order to run a successful PPC campaign, you'll need to have an account with either Google Ads or Bing Ads. In this account, you'll create ad groups that consist of keywords and ads that will appear alongside those keywords. If your ads appear, users will click on them and you'll be charged a fee.

How to create an ad group for Google Ads or Bing Ads

Start by typing in the name of your business and select "Search Network only" to make sure you're targeting keywords that people search on Google and/or Bing and not on other websites. Then, click on "Keywords" and begin to add your main keywords to the list.

When you're done adding keywords, click on "Ad group ideas" in order to find more related keywords that you can target. You may also be able to find new keywords by doing searches within Google Ads for phrases that are relevant to your business.

If you're looking for a more in-depth approach on how to structure your google ads account, Wordstream did a great job of the 6 steps to creating a structured paid search account.

Google Ad auction process

In a pay-per-click search engine marketing ad auction, there are three main parties involved: Google as the owner of the platform - also known as the "search engine" - advertisers, and users. Advertisers place bids and how much they want to pay for certain keywords that they want to show up for. Once a search query is made, the keywords set by the advertiser are displayed at the top of Google searches. In turn, if a user clicks on one of those ads, the advertiser pays Google. However, advertisers don't pay for ads that users see but don't click on.

Google then ranks the ads based on its "Ad Rank" system. This includes taking into account your ad's bid, quality, and other factors related to how likely you are to have someone click on it. The higher the Ad Rank of an ad, the more likely it is to be shown in search results.  

Hiring an SEM Agency like DigiGrowth can help you manage your search engine marketing to increase traffic to your website, get more leads and sales, and boost your online presence. DigiGrowth Marketing is a top SEM Agency In Tampa, Florida with over 20 years of producing effective SEM campaigns. Our team of experienced professionals will work with you to create a campaign that uses the latest techniques in search engine marketing to help you reach your business goals. For more information, visit our website to book a free consultation or email us at [email protected]!