Because most people rely on the internet, and especially mobile phones to find information, having some sort of presence in search engine results is critical to attracting attention. SEO is a powerful tool to organically get a foothold in some keyword combinations, but SEM needs for time-critical marketing.
What Does SEM Consist Of?
Your small business SEM effort may include: paid ads on Google, PPC ad placements via Adsense, targeted ads on online platforms or blog, or paid content placement. The idea is to pay to have your business or content featured rather than having it discovered naturally. This can come at a significant cost from the get-go but is entirely worth it for a business with little to no SEO presence.
There is still a great deal of planning and effort that goes into search engine marketing, which is why hiring a specialist like Sir Linksalot Search Engine Marketing is highly practical for a new campaign. Going into SEM without much experience could be an even more expensive mistake than hiring a third-party consultant.
The secret to utilizing SEM campaigns is more than just an appealing ad, but also the landing page where customers are taken. According to Search Engine Land, having more than a 40-60% bounce rate shows that something is abnormal. It could be a combination of poor targeting and an unclear message, but the poor quality of your web page is a significant factor.
Squeezing Words Into Your Ad Copy
When buying small advertisements on search engine result pages, you have a very limited opportunity to grab the user’s attention. Writing ad copy with such limited space is an art form that companies are always improving.
Since ad copy is getting stale for most keywords, companies are using more attention-grabbing content with a bizarre factor. This may mean throwing in some internet memes or twisted humor into the fray, making it stand out from the rest. The idea is to make an ad memorable so that a user may just click on your link, or come back to your website in the future.
Another angle is to give the user a sense of urgency as if they will be left out of something big. An example of this is to offer a product (related to the keyword) at a discount within the next few hours. This incentives the user to take action now rather than bookmark your page and “think about it” over the next few days.
Landing Pages
Even if you tweak the keywords just right, that doesn’t excuse you from creating good quality content. The “content is king” mantra persists in the world of SEM just like in SEO or social media marketing. The goal is to provide landing pages, articles and even the ad text itself that’s exciting and relevant to your target user.
Also, your call to action or conversion links should be clear and easy for users to follow. This means you should have your contact information readily available, a quote or purchase button, and naturally integrated call to actions within the content.
Conclusion
With the right strategy, SEM is a cost-effective way of drumming up new customers for a small business. The dependence of search engines and social media is so prolific, it’s hard not to take advantage of the platforms available. Of course, you may consider hiring an SEM pro to handle your campaigns so that you don’t lose money due to newbie mistakes.
