Search engine marketing (SEM) is one of numerous tools that fall under the broad category known as digital marketing. Generally speaking, SEM allows companies to place ads that will appear prominently when internet users perform an internet search using certain keywords. It’s a versatile and effective way to reach new customers, and here we look at some of the most important benefits of using SEM.
What Are the Benefits of Search Engine Marketing?
Great Value for Money
Some forms of digital marketing can be expensive, and even worse, they sometimes deliver questionable results that can be hard to measure. This is not the case with search engine marketing, which is arguably the most affordable type of digital marketing. With SEM, you have the freedom to place as many ads as your budget allows, even if that means buying just one $5 search engine ad.
The best news is that, unlike other inexpensive forms of marketing, SEM actually delivers results. Your ad is effectively displayed for free, and you will only be charged if a visitor clicks on your ad and takes action. SEM thus presents great value as you know exactly what results you’ll be getting as you plan your marketing budget each month. Once you begin to see better traffic and sales conversions, you’ll be able to increase your budget.
Increased Brand Awareness
This is one of the biggest benefits of deploying SEM campaigns, as your brand receives much greater visibility whether a customer clicks on your ad and takes action or not. Brand familiarity and recognition are major drivers in a customer’s decision-making process, meaning there is value in creating multiple touchpoints and impressions. The brand becomes reinforced in their minds, making them more likely to prefer it over brands that are unfamiliar.
Beyond impressions, SEM also provides the chance to tell your brand’s story. Using the right phrases, you can empathize with your customer’s problems and explain how your product or service is exactly what they’ve been looking for. You can also communicate your company’s ideology and values, attracting customers who share those beliefs. Try to keep your message simple, so potential customers can easily understand the value you are offering them.
Faster Results
While articles and other types of content designed for search engine optimization do a great job of building organic traffic, SEM is better at generating faster results. Once your ad is approved by a search engine, it is posted and will immediately start attracting views and generating leads. As with all types of marketing, intelligent planning and preparation will give you the best results in the shortest amount of time possible.
To plan your SEM strategy, consider which platform best suits your needs in addition to what format you want to use – examples include video, text, and graphics. You’ll also want to have your target audience well defined, and be sure to research the most important keywords for your campaign. Once you’ve set your budget, it helps to set goals for what you want the campaign to achieve, so you can measure and make adjustments throughout the process.
It’s Mobile-Friendly
It’s important that your marketing efforts align with customer behavior, taking into account when and where you have the best chance to reach them. These days, people are spending more time using the internet and doing digital transactions using mobile devices and cellular phones. To get the most out of your SEM investment, it’s therefore critical that your ads are visible and function well on mobile platforms.
Since your SEM ads will be mobile-friendly, make sure that your website and landing page are mobile-friendly as well. Unfortunately, many businesses overlook this important step and lose potential customers as a result. Users are now accustomed to a robust mobile experience and won’t respond well to things like poor formatting and slow page loading.
Better Understanding of Your Target Demographic
In planning your search engine marketing campaign, you’ll have to research demographic and psychographic details about your target customers. You’ll learn things like their gender, age, and where they live, in addition to what keywords they tend to use during internet searches. This process delivers a tremendous side benefit by giving you a much deeper understanding of who your customers are and how they make decisions.
First, you’ll obviously want to include the keywords they use in your ads, so your ad will appear near the top of their search results. Just as importantly, you’ll get a better sense of what sorts of problems they might have and what they value most in day-to-day life. This will help you write more engaging ad copy that really hits home with your target audience, increasing brand affinity in an organic, sustainable way.
More Website Traffic and Sales Leads
Simply put, more ad impressions means a stronger online presence for your brand, and a stronger online presence tends to generate more website traffic and ultimately better quality sales leads. Assuming your ads are engaging and include the right keywords, they will drive consistent traffic to your website to help offset the ups and downs of other digital marketing efforts, such as articles and entertainment-style content created for search engine optimization.
With more internet users clicking on your SEM ads, the increased traffic to your website comes from people who are already interested in what you have to offer. These are thus high-quality sales leads that have an increased probability of being converted to paying customers, provided you deliver what they’re looking for once they arrive at your website. Remember that SEM is great at generating leads, but leads are only as good as your follow-up sales efforts.
These are some of the key benefits your company will enjoy from a successful SEM campaign. SEM is a highly impactful tool that delivers fast results at a much lower price compared to other digital marketing efforts and is versatile enough to be used by businesses of all types and sizes. Contact Anthem Software to discover the best way to use SEM for your business and start seeing results immediately.
