Search engine marketing (SEM) is a form of internet marketing that involves the promotion of websites by increasing their visibility in search engine results pages through optimization, and paid placement advertising. There are several advantages to implementing a search engine marketing campaign to promote your business. Below are 5 of many reasons SEM can help your business:
SEM helps your business be at the right place, at the right time
Individuals who see your SEM advertisements are actively searching for the keywords you buy. You gain visibility when a user has an interest that matches your offering – which ensures you reach a qualified audience and ultimately have stronger return for your marketing investment.
SEM allows your company to be more agile
Search engine marketing can be planned within the scope of your marketing strategy and is scalable. You are in control of how much or how little you are able to invest in SEM. With paid search, the results are clear, fast, and measurable. And you can stop spending money instantly if you conclude that it’s not working. Search engine marketing like pay-per-click advertising can complement your SEO strategy by targeting other related keywords that you have not optimized your website for. Your business can react to changes in the market quickly.
SEM helps you build and protect your brand
Your brand is one of your most valuable assets. Search engine marketing helps you reinforce your brand. Including your company name in your paid keywords helps protect your brand name from being used by your competition to drive traffic to their site. (Tip: if your brand name is often misspelled, consider buying that keyword too.) Because brand keywords are typically the least costly to bid on it’s a smart and affordable option to protect your company and boost your brand visibility.
As an element of SEM, SEO has multiple benefits
Search engine optimization is an element of SEM, used to promote your business higher in natural and organic search engine results. It’s often considered one of the most cost-effective function of SEM. It’s also the leading tactic most businesses use search engine marketing to promote their business among search engines like GoogleTM and BingTM. By defining keywords and keyword phrases, many businesses rely on SEO as a cost-effective way to drive leads to their site. It does not demand pay-for-click per visitor so that means you can rank higher in search engine results without having to pay.
As part of a SEM program, SEO can have long term benefits and is great for businesses on a budget. Organic search engine results are also often more trusted by customers and can help build your brands’ credibility.
Sponsored listings help promote quick results for your business
With some SEM tactics you are basically buying traffic to your site. So not only will you be bringing in targeted visitors, you will drive traffic to your site and help you rank higher on search engine results. Sponsored listings like pay-per-click campaigns can bring traffic to your site immediately. When you are looking for a fast way to get traffic and targeted visitors, sponsored listings can be a solution.
Search engine marketing can be very beneficial to your online marketing efforts. It is a cost effective way to generate leads, increase sales, and create brand awareness. Give your business a competitive advantage, by targeting ready –to-buy consumers with SEM.
In what ways has SEM helped your business succeed? Let us know, we’d love to hear from you.
