Search Engine Marketing

What is Search Engine Marketing?

One of the first things most people do when opening a web browser is search.  In fact, 3.5 billion Google searches are made every day, and the volume of searches grows by roughly 10% each year. Search Engine Marketing (SEM) is an umbrella term that covers both Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Paid Search (PPC) and their respective efforts to drive traffic to your website. SEO focuses organic traffic while PPC focuses on advertising. With an increasing amount of people searching across devices, both SEO and PPC are great ways to reach customers who are actively seeking information or have high intent.

Where are people searching?

The top PPC Search Engines are Google, Yahoo, and Bing, with 74.5 % of all computer-based searches entered into Google.
Source: ppcstatistics.com

Organic Search (SEO) vs Paid Search (PPC)

Everyone wants their website to show up on the first page of search results, but you’ll need more than luck to get there. Search engines determine how webpages rank using organic search or paid search. What is the difference between the two?

Organic Search

Organic search results appear under paid ads and are ranked based on how relevant the search engine thinks your webpage is to the search query. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) plays a major role in organic search rankings, which factors in the content and relevance of the webpage. The higher quality and more engaging the page content, the higher the website ranks. You don’t have to pay to play in the organic search world, however an experienced SEO agency will certainly help you deliver results more efficiently and provide a roadmap to follow. It’s important to know that SEO is a long game. It takes time to build authority and trust.

Paid Search (PPC)

While waiting for SEO to organically build up, PPC can be used to make a webpage appear in the top search results. It’s important to find a trusted partner to create PPC campaigns, or else you could blow through your advertising budget with little ROI.

If you’re looking for a deeper drive, try our article “The difference between SEO and Paid Search”.

Keywords in PPC Campaigns

Keywords are the building blocks of PPC campaigns. Behind each PPC campaign, MPP conducts careful research to select the best keywords, ad groups, and copy for each ad. Using this keyword research, we craft efficient PPC campaigns, including search extensions like app download, location, and click-to-call, based on campaign relevancy. Having good keywords and account structure is important not just for your ad spend, but for your Quality Score. This determines where your ads are displayed and how much you pay for each ad click. The better your ads perform, the lower you should spend per click. Our PPC team focuses on increasing your impression share and top-of-page rate for your most valuable keywords.

Working With A Google Premier Partner

MPP is proud to be a Google Premier Partner. We’ve achieved this status by demonstrating Google Ads skill and expertise, meeting ad spend requirements, delivering agency and client revenue growth, and sustaining our client base. In other words, MPP’s Premier Partner badge means our PPC team is knowledgeable, experienced, and successful in optimizing search campaigns.

Is Paid Search a Good Choice For My Business?

SEM sounds like the perfect digital marketing tool. But, like any part of your digital marketing strategy, it has its place. Each part of your digital marketing stack has its role to play. A holistic view of your entire campaign is essential to success, that’s why we recommend using both SEO and PPC as part of your SEM strategy. When employing SEM remember these things:

Paid Search is all about intent.

A potential customer has to be actively searching for your product or service. Your PPC ads will not show up for users who aren’t already in the market.

Cost per click tends to be higher than display ads.

The trade-off is that because search users have intent, there is higher engagement.

Paid Search is not for standalone branding.

A potential customer has to be actively searching for your product or service. Your PPC ads will not show up for users who aren’t already in the market for the problem your product or service solves.

Paid Search requires long-term care.

While fast(er) to market, Paid Search is not “set it and forget it.” It’s critical that campaigns receive monitoring and optimization to ensure long-term performance.