Search Engine Marketing Done Right - Five Tips

Search Engine Marketing (SEM) has come a long way from since its inception in 1998. Back then SEM was growing faster than every other channel of marketing. Yep, it was a big deal then and it is an even a bigger deal today! For the entrepreneur SEM is an effective way of getting your product or service out there when budgets are limited. But how can you do it effectively? Lend me your ear, young one!

First, let’s touch on the basis. Search Engine Marketing is one of the most effective ways to grow your business in an increasingly competitive marketplace. SEM use to refer to paid and organic methods, but now days you mainly hear about paid. You pay to play and you can play at whatever level your budget allows. Below are my five tips for effective SEM.

SEM Tips

Tracking is your BFF -- I cannot stress this enough! While impressions and clicks are important metrics to monitor, measuring the success of your campaign goes way beyond your click-through rate (CTR). If you chose to use Google Adwords for your campaign you will receive a lot of insight, but it does not tell you how many of those clicks turned into phone calls, website form submissions, or new sales leads. It is important you incorporate lead tracking into your campaigns as a more strategic indicator of ROI.
Nail Your Copy -- Your ad is up against your competition and if your ad copy looks like everyone's in your space…. This is just a waste of money! Come up with compelling copy. What sets you apart from everyone? Use your two lines of copy wisely to distinguish yourself apart from your competition.
A/B Test -- Yes, set your children against one another and see who performs better. You know you love one child more than another… Create multiple versions of each ad and ad group. Experiment to see what language and which calls to action gain the most traction. Do ads with “Save 50%” receive more interaction than “$50, limited time only”? Once you have tested copy and you find a clear winner, you'll be able to convert more traffic. Just remember, you should refresh your copy at least once a month.
Ahoy, Landing Page -- Instinct may tell you to link all SEM ads right to your homepage, particularly if you are creating brand awareness ads but do not do this! Send them to a page that has content they are seeking out. The content and URL of your landing page should be highly relevant to the keywords you are targeting. This increases the opportunity for conversion.
The Key is Your Words! -- SEM ads are designed to show up for specific keywords that you choose—terms users are likely to type into search engines when seeking your product or service. Negative keywords are sometimes equally as important as your keywords. Negative keywords are the terms for which you can prevent your ad from showing up, to ensure that the Google is serving up only the most qualified, relevant impressions. You can learn what your keywords are from your GA account.

SEM is an impactful tool, when you are smart about it. Venturing into the world of search engine marketing can be intimidating at first, but once you get the hang of it, you might be amazed by how much you can accomplish even on a small budget. Starting with a few campaigns can be crucial to your success and I highly advise this strategy. Test different campaigns to see which perform.Done properly, SEM will get your ads in front of your target audience with content that is highly relevant to them, all for free until they click on your ad.