What is SEM? Your guide to search engine marketing

Search engine marketing is about gaining visibility on search engines when users search for terms that relate to your business. For most companies, ranking highly in search results isn’t luck, it’s a result of solid effort in one or both categories of search marketing.

SEM has become a crucial part of marketing. In search engine marketing, companies focus on driving more traffic to targeted areas of their website. They understand how to use search engine marketing to:

• Generate new leads
• Sell products
• Build their brand
• Divert traffic from their competitors

There are a lot of terms in digital marketing that sound the same or have similar definitions. We’ll do a dive deep into the meaning of search engine marketing (SEM) and the best practices you should follow in order to execute successful paid search marketing strategies.

What is SEM?

SEM is the abbreviation for Search Engine Marketing. It is the act of using paid ads to increase a webpage’s visibility on SERPs. SEM can also be used as more of an umbrella term that often encompasses other types of digital marketing strategies, such as PPC and SEO. In general though, when we talk about SEM, we’re referring to advertisements and SERP optimization strategies that are paid rather than organic.

Since Google is the most popular search engine, a lot of marketers work with Google Ads to create paid ads, but there are some other platforms you can use as well. 

SEO vs. SEM: What’s the difference?

SEM is all about placing ads at the top of a SERP. Now you’ll think SEO is also the same thing, well it’s not exactly the same.

SEO focuses mainly on organic search results, in other words, getting to the top of a SERP without paying for a click. With SEO, websites rank well on search engines by being the most relevant webpage for the user’s query, without spending a penny on the placement.

Search engine marketing components

1. Keyword research

Strategy starts with choosing the right keywords. When it comes to working with search engines, whether you’re focused on SEM or SEO, it is getting used to keyword research. Keyword research is the process of discovering the terms that online searchers are using that are relevant to your product or business.

A keyword isn’t necessarily just one word, but usually, a short phrase that a user would use as their search query. The purpose of keyword research is to discover terms that are related to your business and that users typically use when searching online. If you do your research well, you can match the terms that someone searches for with targeted campaigns and ads and in so doing, gain a better shot of your website appearing on their results page.

There are a lot of different tools you can use to conduct keyword research. You can use free tools like Google Keyword Planner or Wordstream’s Keyword Tool, or opt for paid programs like Ahrefs or SEMRush. If you’re just starting out, play around with the free tools until you’re comfortable, and once you want more specific data, opt for a paid research tool.

Types of SEM keywords

SEM keywords are the terms and phrases that you target in your search engine marketing campaigns. When users search for those keywords, they see your ads. For example, if your campaign targets the term “virtual assistant,” your ad may show when a user searches for that phrase. When you set up an SEM campaign, you choose the keywords you want to target and/or avoid. There are four types of keywords you can use in your SEM campaigns.

1. Broad match keywords target variations of a term. This includes similar phrases, singular or plural forms, misspellings, stemmings, or synonyms of the target term. For example, when targeting the broad match keyword virtual assistant, a campaign may also target virtual assistants, online assistant, and virtual teams.
2. Phrase match keywords target the exact phrase, plus any phrases that have words that come before or after the target keyword. For example, when targeting the phrase match keyword virtual assistant, a campaign may also target the best virtual assistant, find a virtual assistant, and hire a virtual assistant.
3. Exact match keywords target words that are very closely related to the target term. This includes misspellings, singular or plural forms, stemmings, abbreviations, reordered words, paraphrases, or closely related words with the same search intent of the exact match term. For example, when targeting the exact match keyword virtual assistant, a campaign may also target virtual assistants, virtual assistance, and virtual assistant.
4. Negative keywords exclude terms that you don’t want to target. Negative keywords are variations of broad match, phrase match, and exact match keywords that you don’t want to use in your campaign. These terms may be semantically related to your keywords but unrelated to the search intent of the target term, your campaign, or ad copy. Examples of negative keywords for the target term virtual assistant may include virtual assistant salary or virtual assistant training. If the ad were trying to target companies looking to hire a virtual assistant, the intent for those terms wouldn’t be relevant; therefore, they should be excluded from the campaign.

2. PPC marketing

Pay-per-click marketing is when an advertiser pays every time someone clicks on their ad. PPC marketing can cover a number of different advertising directions including some banner ads and, of course, search engine marketing. This type of marketing differs from more static advertising with which you might pay a flat rate for your ad to appear for a specific amount of time, regardless of how many people interact with it.

However, PPC is a little more involved than just paying for clicks. If it were that straightforward, brands with higher budgets would dominate by simply dedicating more money to their ads. Instead, PPC platforms like Google Ads, subject ads to an auction where they are vetted before being displayed on a SERP. In this way, more advertisers have a chance of getting their product in front of an audience.

3. Ad structure

Depending on the search engine advertising platform you are using, there might be slightly different rules regarding your ad structure. However, generally speaking, SEM ads are composed of headlines, which are bold and easily visible to the searcher, and descriptions which sit beneath the headlines and provide more detailed information. Ads also usually contain a URL to let the searcher understand more about where they will land when they click.

There is usually a character limit to all ad components. It is therefore essential that you utilize the limited space allotted to you wisely. Choose actionable words that clearly describe your product or service. Make it clear to the searcher why they should choose your business over the competition. We suggest utilizing CTAs to help get searchers clicking on your ads.

4. Ad auction and set up

The auction an ad goes through is an automated process that begins every time a user searches for a query on a search engine. Essentially, the search engine considers numerous factors regarding the available ads for each query, and decides which ads best answer the searcher’s needs.

In an auction, the search engine will determine which ads get displayed on the SERP based on a few different factors. For example, Google will pick winners of ad auctions based on the ads’ relevance, maximum bid and what they refer to as an ad’s quality score, or in other words how relevant and clear your ad content is. These factors together determine the chances of your ads showing up on SERPs.

In order for advertisers to participate in ad auctions, they have to set up a few parameters. We touch below on setting up your Google Ads account, but generally speaking here are the essentials for getting your ads up and running. First, provide a list of keywords that you would like to generally compete for. Then, you must provide at least one ad that matches those selected keywords as well as set a budget that you are willing to spend for clicks on these specific ads.

When making these selections, refer back to your keyword research. You want to ensure that you’re spending your ad budget well and your ads participate in fruitful auctions. Choose keywords that your intended audience is actually searching for so that you don’t bid on clicks that are irrelevant to your brand. This way, searchers that end up clicking on your ads, will be relevant customers or leads for your business.

5. Quality score for ads

The ad’s quality score, or essentially how on target your ad is, is a crucial metric that can be the determining factor of how often your ad gets displayed to the right users. Google takes both quality score and bid into consideration when placing an ad, so even if your bid is significantly higher than your competitors’, if your ad isn’t well written and relevant to the searchers query it might not get displayed as often. This also impacts how much an advertiser ends up paying per click as the stronger their quality score, the lower their bid may need to be in order to rank.

A quality score is a rank given out of 10, and of course, the higher your score the better. It is based on three main factors: the expected CTR of a given ad, the relevance of that ad to the query’s intent, and landing page experience, or how relevant your landing page is when people click on your ad.

Therefore, to improve your quality score, focus on using keywords that are relevant and specific to the page you’re linking to, writing ads that relate to those keywords, and providing informative and pertinent landing pages. To create landing pages that display information clearly and help drive visitors towards conversion, we suggest using a landing page builder.

6. Ad account structure

When opening an account on a platform like Google Ads, you’ll need to invest time into setting up your campaigns so that they’re organized and strategized. With Google Ads you have the opportunity to build a structure that ensures that your ads are placed in a thoughtful manner and helps keep your strategy well organized.

You can create campaigns that are centered around a certain goal or alternatively a geographic region of your customers. Within your campaigns you’ll be able to set up ad groups which can revolve around a certain theme or type of keyword that you would like to target. Finally, within each ad group sit multiple keywords that you are targeting, as well as ads. These ads will be in line with the goals and keywords selected for your campaign and ad group.

You can write individualized ads per ad group, or you can create a general structure for your ad and then substitute in certain themes or keywords to fit the specific ad group in which they are located. In this way you can create targeted ad copy to match specific goals. We also suggest trying multiple ads within each ad group. This can help you match more than one keyword that is placed in that ad group, as well as enable you to test different ad variations.

For example, if you own a shoe store, you might want to focus one campaign on winter boots, and then an entirely different one on sandals for summer. The keywords, landing pages, and text you would use for each would be very different. You may also be willing to bid more money on one than the other, making it wise to split these campaigns up. It might seem time-consuming, but by getting your ads organized, you’ll have an easier time managing them.

7. Targeted ads

A good strategy when it comes to creating relevant ads is to target them based on the audience you’re trying to reach. If we continue with the shoe store example, it is likely more lucrative to advertise stiletto heels to women than men, so when setting up your ad campaign, you can opt to not show that specific ad to men in order to make the most of your ad budget.

There are a number of ways you can target your ads so that they’re seen by the right people, such as:

• By age: set age ranges to show your ad only to a certain age group.
• By gender: opt to display your ad only to men or women.
• By location: if you have a promo in a specific location, you can set your ad to be displayed to people in the same region only.
• By device: your product might only be relevant to a certain device, like a mobile app download, so set ads to be displayed to users browsing on specific devices.
• By schedule: set ads to only be displayed between certain hours so you don’t waste ad clicks during hours when you’re not available or the ad isn’t relevant.

At first, you might think that you want your ads to be visible to as many people as possible, but the more constraints and targets you set on each ad, the more relevant they’ll become to the users who actually see them, in turn giving you a better ROI.

8. SEM platforms

The most popular SEM platform, but there are others you can consider using as well. Here are some of the main SEM platforms you can use:

• Google Ads: as the largest search engine, it’s a no-brainer that running ads on Google will put you in front of the widest audience and generate a good ROI.
• Microsoft Advertising: formerly known as Bing Ads, Microsoft Advertising is Google’s main runner-up, and it’s worth investing time and budget into this platform alongside your Google ads.
• Verizon Media Native: what used to be Yahoo! Gemini, Verizon Media Native is now Yahoo!’s PPC platform and is a great alternative to Microsoft Advertising if you’re looking for a secondary SEM platform aside from Google.

9. Campaign and ad optimization

Even after you’ve started to run your ads, you should be constantly monitoring and updating them. Take a look at your campaigns regularly to see how they’re performing and adjust your ad spend, keywords or ad copy accordingly.

After some time, you’ll be able to see which keywords and ads are strong performers and which aren’t yielding the results you expected. The ones that are generating more clicks are the ones you should be paying more attention to, both because they’re gaining you more traffic and because you’re spending more on those ads.

Once you’re comfortable analyzing your ad metrics and you can pinpoint where you’re succeeding, you can then set negative keywords. These are keywords you’re telling a search engine you don’t want to rank for because they’re irrelevant to your brand and eating up your ad spend budget. You can also narrow down your targets such as demographic or location once you get a better overview of who your audience is and where they’re coming from.

Essential tools for your SEM campaign

Just like most other marketing functions, many aspects of SEM can be automated. The right suite of tools can help speed things up and reduce the chance of human error. Not to mention everything becomes easier to track, making it easier to be data-driven.

There are all sorts of tools you can take advantage of to make paid search marketing a little less overwhelming. Here are just some areas you can optimize with software:

• Keyword Strategy (finding, qualifying, and tracking keywords)
• Ad Copywriting (optimizing copy for search engines)
• Ad Formatting (ad types, sizes, and placements)
• Competitor Research (competitor keyword and audience targeting strategies)
• Account Management (managing ads at account/campaign/group level)
• Budgeting (intelligent tools for optimizing SEM budgets)

So, you’ve got quite a few options here when it comes to choosing an SEM tool. But your best bet will always be to research which tools best fit your business model and advertising strategy. 

Conclusion

Search Engine Marketing is one of the most effective ways to grow your business and reach new customers. While search engine marketing has allowed advertisers to create their own ads and optimize their campaigns as they see fit for years, they are now shifting towards a more automatic and centered approach.