What do most successful companies have in common? In the online world, they’re all on the first page of search engines. We’re talking Google, Bing, Yahoo, YouTube, and Amazon. The whole shebang. Search engine optimisation (SEO) and search engine marketing (SEM) are some of the best ways to ensure that your brand’s website appears in relevant searches. But it’s important to understand the main difference between the two methods. What is paid search engine marketing, and how does it differ from search engine optimisation? Well, in a nutshell, SEO uses organic techniques to improve website ranking, while SEM focuses on paid advertising to boost website performance. But we can do you one better than that. In fact, why not four better than that? Here are the key advantages of why you might want to consider search engine marketing.
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“75% of people do not scroll past the first page on Search Engines.”
Hubspot, 2014
Instant and consistent traffic.
Google processes almost 100,000 searches PER SECOND, with the number of YouTube videos viewed per second following close behind (around 92,000). Combine this with the fact that 75% of people do not scroll past the first page on Google, YouTube, and Amazon. Your webpage or video post needs to be on the first page of search results to attract more traffic. Quickest way to get there? Yep, you guessed it. Search engine marketing. Paid search ensures your webpage or video appears smack-bang in those first five results. Traffic from SEO campaigns takes time. You often won’t expect real results from your SEO campaign for 6, 12, or sometimes even 24 months after execution. On the other hand, paid search guarantees that your brand’s page will always rank first on search results. When people consistently see your video posts, products, or webpages on top, they start to identify your site as a source of authority information.
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Create a better balance with SEO.
One of the biggest advantages of using SEM is how you can use it as a testing platform to create a more effective SEO strategy. Say for example you’ve found a potential gap in the market for your industry. You want to focus your SEO strategy to target this. But as we said before, it could be months, even years before you see tangible results. And even then, it may be a bust. Well, you can save ‘future you’ a potential headache by using SEM to test your theory. Targeting similar keywords, you can receive immediate traffic and evaluate whether it’s as fruitful as you anticipated. Once you’ve confirmed the demand, you can start to roll this out in your SEO strategy for free. You know what that means? Future you = happier you. Then it’s just a matter of rinse and repeat for the next opportunity. Pretty cool, right? Now that we’ve touched on some of the best advantages of paid search, let’s have a look at some of its features that you’ll want to be nailing to see those conversions roll in.
Talk to strategistAd extensions.
Ad extensions are features of search engine marketing that increase the ‘real estate’ that your ad occupies on a page. You can add more links, phone numbers, and locations to your ad with increased ad space. The more touchpoints, the better. Some clever marketers also include things such as site link extensions, customer testimonials, and call-to-action buttons. These additional features make your ad more conspicuous and precise. As a result, more people are likely to click and purchase your products. Nice. It is crucial to remember that search engines use an algorithm to choose and schedule the ad extensions to be displayed. Therefore, a good rule of thumb is to implement at least four ad extensions.
Copy.
This one goes without saying really. With more and more advertisers entering the paid search game every day, it’s super important your message cuts through. Don’t skimp out on this element. Be clear, concise and captivate your audience. Easier said than done, we know. But that’s why there are professionals that do this.
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Landing page.
It’s all about conversion rate optimisation. Or CRO. (What can we say, we love an acronym.) You’ve done all the hard yards setting up your campaign and have hooked people in with your copy. Don’t let them down with a subpar landing page. Use early data from your campaign to make consistent tweaks with your learnings. And A/B test, A/B test, A/B test. The more you test, the smarter your marketing dollars are being spent.
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True has helped many brands in Australia to execute SEM strategies. We’ve even received some awards along the way as well, including the Best Digital Campaign of the Year. Hit up one of our digital strategists to understand more advantages and disadvantages of search engine marketing and how to get started.
