One of the key search engine marketing benefits is how effectively it can increase the online visibility of a website. Search engine marketing (SEM) can include paid and organic efforts or both. It remains to be considered one of the most effective ways to grow a business in what is becoming an increasingly competitive marketplace online.
As we drew attention to in another of our blogs, having a strong digital presence is critical to staying competitive. With millions of businesses now accessible online, your business is no longer competing with only local establishments, but from all around the world. Therefore, advertising your products and services online has never been more important for business owners.
In this blog, we cover the most significant search engine marketing benefits that allow your business to scale online and keep you competitive.
Search engines, such as Google and Bing, use complex algorithms to ensure that the most relevant results come first each time we search. Hence the main search engine marketing benefit of sponsored ads is that they are positioned at the very top or on the side of every search result. When users are looking for products or services that your company offers, the information about your business and website will likely appear to them first.
Simply speaking, advertisers can bid on keywords that individuals might use while looking for products or services on search engines. These ads are designed in a variety of formats – whether a small text-based ad or one with more of a visual focus, such as a listing ad (also known as a PLA or Shopping ad). The intended audience and objective of the ad will determine which format advertisers will choose. Another one of the most crucial search engine marketing benefits is that it presents a great opportunity for placing an ad right in front of the audience who are already motivated to make a purchase. This is due to the ability for advertisers to select certain criteria that enables their ads to filter, target and reach users based on their online behaviours observed by search engine platforms.
Despite the fact that both kinds of marketing work on the principle of using keywords, they are still significantly different from each other. Generally speaking, search engine marketing refers to paid marketing – a system where companies need to pay Google to display their ads in search results. Whereas, in the case of search engine optimisation (SEO), businesses don’t need to directly payGoogle for traffic and clicks. Instead, they earn their spot in searches by having the most relevant content for a given keyword. Of course, this is only as long as they follow SEO principles.
Both SEO and SEM should be a fundamental part of any digital marketing strategy as they are powerful tools that drive traffic and the right audience to your website, especially when they are used together. One of the most important search engine marketing benefits is that it is an extremely cost-effective way to drive conversions at the bottom of the sales funnel.
One of the most popular misconceptions of SEM is how businesses can ‘win’ the ad auction to be positioned higher than the competitors. It is believed that whoever has the highest advertising budget wins. Despite this, a high budget is always advantageous. Although, the process required to be successful with search engine marketing is much more complex than simply having a large budget.
The ad action takes place each time when someone uses a certain keyword in their search. To participate in the ad auction, advertisers identify keywords they wish to bid on and specify how much they are willing to pay (per click) to have their ads appear alongside search results. Then Google will enter your ads into the ad auction if the keywords you’ve bid on appear within the user’s search query. The key criterion that must be met is the formula that Google Ads uses to determine the relevance of your ad, or how useful it will be for the users. This will ultimately determine whether your ad will be displayed or not.
Search engine marketing benefits include helping your business to be more discoverable to your audience and, in turn, keeping you competitive within your industry. With the business world relies more and more on online activities and promotion focusing on SEM and SEO will enable your sales and marketing tactics to be resilient. Contact our experts to increase the impact search engine marketing benefits have on your business growth.