How to buy Search Engine Marketing and not lose all your money 

One report from Smartinsight found that out of all the website traffic, 28% comes from paid marketing or SEM (search engine marketing). And, the 1st page of Google gets up to 92% of total web traffic. Yes, it’s that much important to rank on the first page!

Ranking on the first page with just SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is often not the best strategy to use. Eying for high competition keywords without proper tools in hand can severely hurt your hours. That’s where you need to employ Search Engine Marketing (SEM) tactics to multiply your sales and conversion records.

People often think that investing money to bring traffic isn’t something feasible. They think it’s impossible to compete with high-budget brands. It’s true that larger brands do invest a hefty sum in SEM- but that doesn’t mean everything is ruined. It means if you have to follow some smart strategies to get the same results.

In other words, you’re falling behind if you haven’t started to invest in SEM yet. Ready to take your brand to the next level? You’re in the right place.

Today we’ll discuss ‘how to buy search engine marketing and not lose all your money?’ Let’s start with the definition.

What is Search Engine Marketing?

Search Engine Marketing is the process of using paid advertising to increase the visibility of a product or service page to viewers. 

Basics of Search Engine Marketing

Search Engine Marketing works in an extremely modified search space that boosts a certain website’s traffic for certain keyword(s). Before you start using SEM to your benefit, you need to understand the basics.

Although it has numerous divisions, we’ll only focus on the three most important ones.

Keywords

Keywords are the search terms a person uses to get results on search engines. For example, ‘Sony Bravia TV’ is a keyword. You have to target such keywords to get the most traffic and sales.

But, not every keyword is profitable. That’s when you need to understand the intent of a keyword. Keyword intention is the most important part of your SEM keyword strategy.

There are roughly three types of keywords in search intent: commercial or buyer intent, informational, and transactional. Here is a detailed article on that from Yoast. 

Buyer intent keywords or buyer keywords are the keywords you want to target. As a seller, you want people who want to buy, not gather information only.

Some examples of buyer intent keywords are best running shoes for men, laptop under 30,000, deals on sunglasses, cheap online yoga courses, etc. 

SEM Targeting

Once you’ve got a hold of the most profitable keywords in your niche, start locating your audience. 

This is the place where people make a huge mistake. Instead of targeting the audience as accurately as possible, they go for a ballpark range.

Why is this a mistake? Let’s see with another example.

If you’re selling editing software for windows and target everyone in a locality where 10,000 people use computers, the result will be devastating. Because of all those people, there are hardly 100 editors or people interested in editing. You should target only 100 people and save a lot on your ad budget. 

Types of SEM Targeting

#1 Location targeting- Location targeting means targeting people living in a specific area or region. You can apply it through Postal Codes, districts, neighborhoods, etc.

#2 Device Targeting- If you’re selling iOS products, you’ve to target people using the iOS operating system. That means cutting off all the Windows, Android, Linux devices. This is what device targeting allows you to do.

#3 Demographic Targeting- Demographic targeting is for when your product or service is meant for specific groups of people only. You can select your targeted audience by their age, race, ethnicity, marital status, children, and sometimes income. 

Ad Auction

Ad auction is the process of entering into the world of SEM. Once you have your keywords, Google (or any other search engine) will ask you to mention your budget on ad spending. 

After your budget meets the demand, Google will start to show your ad for your selected keywords.

However, keep in mind that the competition will be fierce for high-volume keywords, and the person spending the most will have their ad placed on top. 

That’s why you need to make sure that your keywords are not too competitive but profitable enough to rank and bring a good ROAS (Return on Ad Spending). This article from Wordstream has gone into much more detail.

SEM vs. SEO

SEM or Search Engine Marketing is bringing traffic and converting them into customers by paying Google. Once paid, Google does its best to showcase the specific search result at the top of the search query. 

So, you can say that SEM is not primarily about getting more traffic, it’s about getting more sales.

While SEO or Search Engine Optimization is about getting more traffic, building a rapport with the viewer, and helping them with problems. It isn’t easy to get more sales through SEO. It helps the business, or website, in particular, increase its brand value.

In short, SEM will bring you more sales, and SEO will help you create a loyal audience base.

Best Search Engine Marketing (SEM) Strategies to Avoid Failure

#1 Develop Common Sense

Consider this article as a stepping stone, do your research, and don’t blindly trust anybody or any random promises. That’s what we believe to be the key to success in SEM.

Evaluate everything on your merit. This is the first and the most important step.

#2 Evaluate Your business

Before hiring someone to do your SEM, evaluate your business. What are your goals, what’s your present situation, what are the loopholes you look forward to filling- ask yourself these questions.

Keep track of the below factors and evaluate your business better;

• Your present quarter sales record
• Size of monthly audience
• Best performing lead magnets
• Your current budget for marketing
• Budget for SEM
• Estimated ROI after applying SEM

#3 Hire an Agency

Before hiring an agency, make sure that the person responsible for bringing the previous results is still there. Research deeper on their current clients, reach out to them if possible to get an understanding.

Make sure that the best personnel are working for you. SEM and SEO change very frequently. If you can’t stay up to date and know the best practices, you’ll lose most of your investment. That’s why you have to put your trust in an experienced and expert hand. Kubla is here to help!

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#4 Stay Up to Date

It would be best to check on the agency to track your performance and pinpoint the strategies. Ask for updates on everything at least once a week, make sure that your targeted ROI/ROAS is on track.

Keeping in touch with the agency people will help you to build a good relationship and better profit.

#5 Hire a Third Person

Hiring another body to audit your performance now and then can help you profoundly. Not only a new set of eyes will give you a new perspective, but it’ll also spot the flaws (if there are any) of your current agency.

Best SEM Tools

SEM tools will help you track your KPIs, like sales, keywords, landing page performance, etc. All these indicators will decide your SEM strategy. 

Some of the best tools for SEM are:

• SEMRUSH
• Google Ads Editor
• HubSpot’s Ad Tracking Software
• Wordstream

Final Words

Search Engine Marketing is your best solution when it comes to increasing sales and conversion for your business. It’s a broad subject, so it’s not possible to understand and apply it within days. Whether you hire someone or do it yourself, it’s the best way to make your business more profitable. We at Kubla would love to see you succeed. Please feel free to reach out to us. Let’s see how we can win together. 

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