SEM, what’s that? Is SEM the same as PPC, Paid Advertising? What’s the difference between SEO and SEM? Today I’ll go through SEM with all of you.
What is SEM?
SEM stands for “Search Engine Marketing”. It is a term which is used in a specific type of marketing on search engines such as Google. Let me show you an example of how does it looks like on search engines. Let’s take a look at Google’s Search Engine Result Page (or SERP):
As you can see the first 3 links on Google’s SERP have a word “Ad” besides them, that’s SEM. It shows websites which are related to what users are looking for on the top of the result page. The greatest advantage of using Search Engine Marketing is that it provides advertisers the chances to put their ready ads in front of customers who are having the thoughts to purchase that certain product at that time. It is different from ads that you see from websites. It only shows the ads according to the keywords relevancy that users search for. To be frank, this is a marketing strategy which cannot be provided by other advertising medium. As a result, SEM is one of the most effective way to grow your business in a competitive marketplace.
PPC, Paid Advertising. Are they the same?
Yes, they are the same with SEM! PPC stands for “Pay-per-click”. Because SEM features a pay-per-click function where advertiser can choose to pay according to the number of click from users. Therefore, if the “clicks” ran out the ad will not show on the search engine page for the day. Normally the “clicks” resets everyday.
SEO vs SEM — What’s the difference?
Search Engine Optimization (or SEO) is a technique which optimizes the website’s ranking in SERPs without paying search engines. While in other hand, SEM is the way of paying search engines such as Google to show your link as an advertisement in the SERP according to the relevancy of the keywords users entered. Breaking it down, SEO is free (if you know how to do it yourself) while SEM requires you to invest money in it. If you are interesting in making a SEO-friendly and SEM website, visit our site and facebook or call us at 04 – 608 3073. We provide the most affordable pricing in website design and more!
How can SEM benefits your business?
1. Instant grow of brand awareness
Unlike SEO which requires time, SEM can instantly put your website’s link up to the top as soon as you finish the procedure required. When users search for queries which are related to your service or product, your company’s website will be listed on the top of the SERPs.
2. Offering your product and service to the right person and at the right time.
As I previously mentioned, SEM only shows your ads to people who are interested and have to motivation to purchase a certain product or service. SEM doesn’t show your ads to people who are not interested in your product or services. Thus, increasing the chances of your website being clicked in and viewed. Ultimately, increasing the chances of your website generating higher profits.
3. Low entry cost
SEM doesn’t require you to invest large amount in it at the beginning. SEM is actually more affordable compared to traditional marketing. This is because SEM targets only the users which are interested. Users which are not interested will see the ads and thus decreasing the chances of them clicking in to your website. SEM calculates the fees by calculating the “clicks” therefore if there are less irrelevant “clicks”. The chances of relevant “clicks” are higher!
Should I use SEM in conjunction with SEO?
Absolutely yes! SEO and SEM works similarly. Both of them shares the same goal — increase the ranking of your website in SERPs. SEO allows your website to be ranked organically while SEM targets users with similar intentions through advertisement campaign which the keywords that your website is not ranked for.
When working together, both SEO and SEM can produce magnificent results. According to Nielsen Research which conducted in 2016, it reveals that when a brand name appear in both organic and paid search, the click-rate is high up to 92%. Whereas if it display only in organic search, it only have 60% of click-rates only.
Conclusion
If you are willing to invest, SEM is a very useful marketing strategy to increase your brand awareness in a short time. It doesn’t require large amount of money to invest if you know how to do. By using SEM in conjunction with SEO, your website is surely to be getting more and more traffic. As a result, increasing your profits made!
If you are looking for an expert to implement SEM to your website because you are afraid of investing in a wrong way, feel free to visit our site and our facebook page or call us at 04 – 608 3073. We provide the best SEM solution and affordable pricing towards website design and more!
