Search Engine Marketing is a term previously used to describe two things:
- Search Engine Optimization (SEO).
- Paid Search Engine Marketing.
Today, it only refers to the second one; Paid Search Engine Marketing.
It is one of the most effective marketing methods in promoting products and developing business in a digital market where competition reaches its peak with the presence of millions of competing companies.
Search engine marketing uses paid ads that appear at the top or bottom of search engine results pages (SERPs), and include an ad that lets users know that this is a paid position.
Fees are charged to trademarks only if the user clicks on the ad.
The strength and greatness of this type of marketing are that it provides advertisers (companies, for example) the opportunity to pay for placing their ads in the search engine (Google) in front of customers who are eager to buy the moment they are ready to complete the process.
Advertisers bid on keywords that search engine users are expected to enter when searching for specific products or services, giving the advertiser the opportunity to have his ads appear alongside the results of these search queries.
These ads (often known as “pay-per-click ads”) come in a variety of forms.
- Some of them are small text ads.
- Others appear as Product List Ads (PLA), also known as Shopping Ads, which are visual product-based ads that allow consumers to see important information at a glance, such as a price, for example.
- Some paid search ads may also appear as products displayed on a premium display platform.
How is search engine marketing done?
Keywords are the foundation of search engine marketing.
But before you can choose the keywords to use in your search engine marketing campaign you will need to do wide research, as part of your keyword management strategy.
You should define keywords related to your business that customers are likely to use when searching for your products and services.
Just enter a keyword related to your business or service, and see related keyword suggestions
that can form the basis of various search engine marketing campaigns.
After finding the keywords, you must bid on them, as ads through search engines are based on the auction system.
To enter the ad auction, advertisers specify the keywords they want to bid on and state how much they want to spend per click so their ads appear alongside the results for those keywords.
If Google determines that the keywords you bid on are in a user’s search query, your ads will be entered into the ad auction.
And you should know, not every ad has to appear on every search, the ad auctioneer takes a variety of factors into account when determining the ads’ placement on the SERP.
Also, not every keyword has strong enough commercial intent to justify showing ads near the results.
However, the two main factors that Google evaluates as part of the ad auction process are:
- Maximum bid: This is the maximum amount that you are willing to pay for each click.
- Ad Quality Score: It is the most important metric that search engine marketers can focus on, and it depends on the overall quality of your ad, and helps you achieve a better ad position at a lower cost.
Google calculates these metrics during the ad auction to determine ad position.
The result of this calculation is known as Ad Rank.
Note 1:
One of the most common misconceptions about search engine marketing is that the one with the largest advertising budget will win.
Although a larger advertising budget can certainly be beneficial, especially when targeting powerful and highly competitive keywords, it is far from being a requirement for success in SEO.
This is because all ads go through the “ad auction” process before appearing next to search results.
Note 2:
Some keywords have high commercial intent, or a strong indication that the researcher wants to buy something, such as: (buy, discount, discounts, deals, coupon, shipping, free, and others).
Comprehensive keyword research can help you identify negative keywords as well (The search terms you should exclude from your campaigns).
Most Popular Search Engine Marketing Tools
Here is a table to compare the best 5 tools:
Conclusion
Search engine marketing is one of the most effective marketing methods for product promotion and business growth and development.
Its different tools help make your digital marketing campaigns more effective.
Supermetrics and Optymyzr have advanced features for improving digital marketing
making them suitable for digital advertising agencies and professionals.
WordStreams and SEMrush are great platforms that provide essential digital advertising features
making them suitable for small businesses on tight budgets.
Anyone can use the Google Ads tool to promote an e-commerce website or publish a personal blog online.
