Search Engine Marketing in 2021.

Some of our newest clients come to us not really understanding just what “search engine marketing” is.

Some would argue that it is the phrase used to describe and include any and all forms of marketing your business on the internet – specifically Google, Yahoo and Bing. Some would say the SEM covers whatever marketing strategies you might want to use to market your website to include:

Organic Rankings (SEO) and
Paid Search Listings or Adwords, PPC, etc.

For most digital marketing firms, the SEM or Search Engine Marketing distinction refers only to describe PAID SEARCH activities.

When You Should Use SEM or PPC Strategies.

Here at Appnet New Media Studio, we have a healthy respect for your budget. Most often, we will side on the idea of creating ORGANIC rankings and traffic for your website, because nine times out of ten, SEO converts better in terms of creating new clients in the most cost-efficient manner.

For most new website clients, SEO will be the way to go because SEM can be very expensive and simply put, when you quit spending money, the traffic and leads stop.

However, there are times when PPC is THE ONLY way to go. For example, let’s assume you want to build a small jewelry website to promote your own, unique, custom jewelry. As competitive as jewelry is on the internet with countless, major, name-brands spending millions to market their websites both organically and with PPC/SEM…

YOU WILL NEVER GET RANKED ORGANICALLY
ABOVE THOSE BIG BOX STORES.

Your ONLY real options would be to create PAID AD campaigns on Facebook and Instagram OR to implement a PAID AD campaign on Google.

Since this page is about Search Engine Marketing, let’s cover some of the basics.

Search engine marketing is the practice of marketing a business using paid advertisements that appear on search engine results pages (or SERPs). Advertisers bid on keywords that users of services such as Google and Bing might enter when looking for certain products or services, which gives the advertiser the opportunity for their ads to appear alongside results for those search queries.

These ads, often known by the term pay-per-click ads, come in a variety of formats. Some are small, text-based ads, whereas others, such as product listing ads (PLAs, also known as Shopping ads) are more visual, product-based advertisements that allow consumers to see important information at-a-glance, such as price and reviews.

These ads, often known by the term pay-per-click ads, come in a variety of formats. Some are small, text-based ads, whereas others, such as product listing ads (PLAs, also known as Shopping ads) are more visual, product-based advertisements that allow consumers to see important information at-a-glance, such as price and reviews.

No matter the option, choosing KEYWORDS is important. Depending on the industry you are in, KEYWORDS or keyword phrases can cost anywhere from $2 to $50 for every click. Setting up those keywords to combine with effective ads and strong landing pages that are designed to convert visits to customers – is all part of the process.

Get it Right, and You Are in Business. Get it Wrong, and You Are Wasting Thousands of Dollars.

If not setup correctly, Google and even Spammers and Scammers will burn through your budget and leads will be scarce.

It is not uncommon to see SEM/PPC campaigns that are only converting on 5-10% of the ad investment. Think about that. You budget $500 to generate leads, customers or sales and only $25-$50 of that investment becomes a lead!

When PPC is perfectly setup, you should be able to greatly minimize the amount of your investment or budget that will be wasted on clicks that will never turn into a customer.

Before you OPT IN to do a PPC campaign, why not call one of our experienced reps. We can usually help to implement a strategy that can combine a smart PPC campaign that also works WITH an Organic SEO campaign to maximize your budget.

When PPC is the only way to go, we can consult in the best strategy, using the best keywords and strong ad creative and landing pages to convert clicks to leads to sales.