Search Engine Marketing
"SEM is about improving visibility on Search Engines."
The definition of Search Engine Marketing, or SEM, is the deceptively simple act of marketing a website via search engines. SEM encompasses both Organic Search and Paid Search listings.
Improving organic listing refers to Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and purchasing paid listings refers to Pay-per-Click Advertising (PPC), which is also referred to as Cost-Per-Click Advertising (CPC). SEM is the umbrella phrase that encompasses the combination of Organic & Paid Search listings. However, it should be noted that when most marketing personnel refer to SEM they are usually only referring to Paid Search listings, like Google AdWords.
Yellow Pages Online
Search Engines like Google, Yahoo and Bing display a series of paid and unpaid results which, when combined, create the Search Engine Result Page (SERP). From a business perspective, the SERP is something like the “Yellow Pages” in a digital manifestation. The SERP is simply the sum of the Organic and Paid Search listings – and ideally where you want your business to be.
It should be noted that Google and the other Search Engines generally dislike being known as simply a collection of paid and unpaid ads. As a result, everyone in the digital world refers to this online “Yellow Pages” as the SERP, among other new age terms like “organic search result”, “PPC”, “CPC advertising”, and “SEM”.
Think of your unpaid and paid ads as your online advertisement. Just make sure you get them right, and you are talking directly to your customer.
Remember, the cheapest customer capture you get is at their initial point of entry into the market, which is now likely to occur via Search Engines like Google or Yahoo. So, get your paid and unpaid ads working for you.
Free Leads!
Search Engine Optimization or SEO focuses on your Organic Search results, also known colloquially as your Free Ad. SEO is about improving your ranking on Search Engines like Google or Yahoo so people click via the Organic Search result through to your website.
Clicks on your organic search results are your 'Free Leads' (or, as we affectionately call them, Fleads). As SEO consists of many components, many businesses do not bring their full attention to their Fleads. Our experience is that often little thought goes into actually formulating the Organic Search result – oftentimes websites tend to still have their original search result, the one that was made when the website was first made or created by an SEO consultant. These websites are missing out on potential clicks and business.
What would you think of a company that never changed its ads or marketing campaign over a 10-year period? What would you think of it, especially if that ad campaign just didn’t work? Many web-based businesses have the same Organic Search.
Progressive businesses use common practices or tactics found on the internet for creating an attractive search result. For some businesses, this works; for others it doesn't. However this is where Predikkta steps in: we add science to the equation.
SERP Optimizer
Predikkta assists you in creating the most enticing Organic Search result to entice customers to click through to your website. Predikkta helps with optimizing your customer capture rate at the initial market entry, which is the most cost-effective way to secure a customer.
We've created the SERP Optimizer Self Test and Competitor Test. Both SEM Tools help businesses create and test organic search results to find the optimum one for their business. Test which search results appeals customers to click and stand out from your competitors.
PPC and CPC Advertising?
Pay-Per-Click (PPC) or Cost-Per-Click (CPC) Advertising is a web-based marketing model in which advertisers pay a fee each time one of their ads is clicked on. With PPC, you buy yourself into the market as you pay for visits to your website.
PPC or paid listings are popular, as it is the fastest way to be top ranked on the Search Engine Result Page. Much attention by potential customers goes to the 'Top Ads'. As a result, businesses will always pay an incentive to be top ranked. Despite the positioning of PPC advertising at the top of the page, the CTR is still behind those Fleads or your Organic (unpaid) Search results.
That said, the key advantage of PPC Advertising is that you have significant control of where your paid result shows up on the SERP. . When it is combined with the effective use of keyword targeting, PPC is a phenomenally powerful marketing tool. For example, if a searcher is searching for the keywords “Blue Shoes” or “Buy Blue Shoes Online”, the search terms tells you that the searcher is most likely in a different research phase for “Blue Shoes”. Ideally, you optimize your PPC campaigns around these ideas. By doing this you can create relevant Ad text for each phase of the buying cycle.
AdWords Optimizer
Predikkta's AdWords Optimizer Tool helps businesses find their optimum PPC advertisement for every phase of the buying cycle. You can test different kinds of Adword variations against each other in a simulated environment. Test wide ranges – after all, it may be something improbable or not thought of that might influence a decision.
Share your survey with internal and external databases to test which ad is most enticing in which phase of the buying cycle. Enter new markets with the ad that most appeals to prospective customers. The AdWords Optimizer lets you manage and create innovative and high-performance Pay-Per-Click campaigns.
Why Search Engine Marketing
To focus on only one factor of SEM, either SEO or PPC ads, is a huge mistake that many businesses make. Blue chip operators focus on harnessing both arms of SEM, as both SEO and PPC have their unique way of targeting customers to their website.
Ranking matters, and positions 1, 2 and 3 receive much more traffic than results down the page, and considerably more than results on deeper pages. No matter how search may change in the future, websites and businesses will always compete with one another for the higher ranking given the traffic, branding, and visibility it provides.
Ranking high on the SERP will always have the highest influence on CTR, but it is also vital to optimize your paid and unpaid listings to entice customers to click. Capturing customers at their initial market entry is the cheapest way to secure a customer. The final 10% in customer capture makes the difference between average and highly successful companies. It is a momentum that is worth capturing.
Predikkta's SERP and AdWords Optimizer Tool are the perfect tools to optimize customer capture, and increase Click-Through Rate for organic and paid search results.
