Let’s say you’re new to an area and want to find the best pizza joints around town. The first thing you do is pull up Google and plug in “pizza near me,” right? When you click search, you’ll see a list of pizza restaurants based on your location. Advertisers (the pizza shop owner in this case) pay Google to be ranked in the top of your search results based on keywords or phrases. When you finally bite into that perfectly seasoned, crispy, cheesy slice of pizza, rest assured you will remember the name of the restaurant you got it from, and possibly become a regular customer. That is thanks to the power of Search Engine Marketing (SEM). You may have heard this word tossed around a few times in your own research. It involves search engine visibility through paid advertising engines such as Google. If you are a business owner looking for a strong foundation to increase your company’s website traffic, look no further.
Set Reachable Goals for Your Campaign
Reachable, meaning realistic. A realistic goal could be to increase your company’s website visitors by 10%. Whereas, if you wanted to land at the top of a search results page continuously—that’s a little farfetched. The two most important key elements relevant to SEM are: website traffic and conversion rate. Traffic means more visibility on your website, while a conversion rate indicates more convincing content. This could mean spicing up content on your website to make it more appealing to your audience. Or if you are feeling confident with your current budget, you can pay more on SEM.
Research Your Customers
You should have a good understanding of what your customers are using search engines for. This can include things like their own research about a brand, entertainment (content can range anywhere from news stories to video games), or shopping—they can often be convinced to buy something immediately if your ad is compelling enough. It’s crucial to center your ads around your customers’ interests.
Select Your Keywords
Once you have a good idea of who your audience is, it’s important to do an analysis of choosing keywords that identify with your audience. There are multiple research tools available to help you identify these keywords. The most frequently used is Google Keyword Planner. When you have an understanding of what words you want to appear in your search results, you’ll bid for them against your competitors to win your ad’s display on search engines such as Google or Bing.
Conclusion
If you take anything away from this, always keep in mind the attainable goals you want to achieve, the kind of people your market consists of, and the identifiable keywords your target audience would type in the good old Google search bar. If you’d like to learn how Martin Communications, Inc., can provide SEM for your business, click here.
Below you’ll find more information on general SEM understanding, along with a more in-depth guide on landing a successful SEM campaign:
https://www.doz.com/search-engine/sem-campaign