Social network marketing is important for companies of any size, but what it really is and how we can use it in the best possible way.

This week we will discuss the importance of search engine marketing, especially paid campaigns (PPC) and website optimization for these search engines (SEO).

But first, let’s understand what search engine marketing (SEM) is.

Search engine marketing consists of a set of techniques and strategies that a company can use to receive more visits to its website through search engine results. The goal of SEM is to promote the visibility of a website using paid advertising, contextual advertising and organic results on result pages. In short, SEM is a broad concept that includes both SEO and PPC.

SEO usually only involves organic optimisation strategies that are designed to improve the performance of a website based on criteria presented by Google or Bing.

The Benefits of Digital Marketing

There are many benefits to using SEM for your business. For example, by increasing your online presence, you also increase the knowledge and visibility of your brand. In turn, it will lead to online leads and sales. Similarly, you can provide informative content to your visitors, which you may not be able to find anywhere else.

Managers of many companies often ask what is the best form of marketing to invest in: SEO or PPC. However, SEM is not really a question of what is the best investment, but rather which is best suited to your circumstances and budget at the time. You are likely to find that it is worth investing in both organic and paid marketing, as its simultaneous use helps your business to grow more than if it relied on one approach and ignored your other options.

Organic SEO is great for long-term growth, and PPC is ideal for businesses that want fast results.

Many website and business managers choose to start with SEO, as it is often more cost-effective than other marketing solutions. The numbers show that the biggest ROI comes from SEO.

By betting on quality SEO, you can create credibility and trust by marking your business as a respectable place for visitors to find the products and services it provides. By proving to Google and other search engines that your site should be ranked by relevant keywords that accurately describe your products, you will naturally achieve a higher ranking in search results. Organic optimisation is not an immediate effort, but something that is built in over time. As you build up a positive reputation and keyword growth, traffic should naturally increase in turn and is more likely to be consistent.

Why SEM is important with Ads

Traditionally, PPC will only provide sustainable traffic to your website as long as you continue to pay for it. It is also worth mentioning that in most cases users tend to click on highly placed organic listings on their ads. In addition, there are many new search queries every day. It seems to become expensive to invest in PPC for all the relevant keywords for which you want your website to be classified.

So why PPC? Because it gets lost if you don’t.

PPC also has a lot of benefits. Paid search results dominate over rated content, with typically four ads on the desktop and three on the mobile phone, users will always see paid ads before the organic search results. (A good campaign puts your brand on both).

One of the advantages of search engine marketing with PPC is that it can deliver almost immediate results, with a fast ROI for companies that want to increase their traffic quickly and capitalise on the short term.

Together with better visibility, PPC ads give you greater control over how to present your messages and marketing products. While search engines often decide how to display organic search results, you have more control over calls to action, prices, bullet points, and other aspects of your PPC ads. Google also allows you the option of Product Listing Ads (PLAs), a visual purchase ad that allows users to see an image of what they will click on. This greatly improves the click through rate.

PPC ads help bring an average of 2 euros per 1 euro spent. In fact, SMEs using advanced SEM tools and ad strategies experience revenue growth in the previous year that is up to 4X higher than less digitally advanced companies. One of the main benefits of search engine marketing for businesses is that paid advertisements offer better CTRs and higher conversions than more passive forms of marketing.

Because PPC is more easily customised, it allows you to target specific keywords to your target audience. You can also personalise your ads to appear based on time of day, day of week, geography, language, device, and audience based on previous visits. This ability to personalise your ads allows you to really fine-tune specific products and services for your ideal audience. Similarly, you can actually push certain products to appear during certain periods of the year when they are highly relevant, further increasing the rate of clicks and conversions or sales.

While the ROI for PPC varies by market, campaign, and budget, the average return on investment can be as high as 23%, placing it above traditional display ads. When it comes to online business, PPC delivers great results when compared to other types of digital advertising.

Ideally, a business should use SEO and PPC together. Both have pros and cons but work best when used together. With the exception of the better known businesses, a company is unlikely to make much progress relying solely on its own SEO efforts. Similarly, most small businesses will find it difficult to get the PPP budget to compete with larger competitors. Their simultaneous use allows them to make more of their strengths and gives their website a greater variety of visibility through the results pages.

Recently, Google Shopping opened lists of free organic products in an attempt to better compete with Amazon in product searches. In the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic, many companies living off their physical spaces have had to invest more in e-commerce, so this update has been very beneficial. This change has allowed free exposure for retailers and allows advertisers to increase their paid advertising campaigns with free listings to complement them. With this update, paid advertisements will appear at the top and bottom of the page on the Google Shopping tab.

By using PPC and SEO together, you increase your overall click-through rate, targeting more keywords and reaching a larger audience. High cost and high volume keywords can be moved from PPC to organic search. While it may take longer for your site to be ranked for highly competitive keywords, your budget will not suffer when trying to bid for them.

Also, because you can do A/B tests for copying PPC ads, this information can be entered into your organic lists and landing pages. You will have a better idea of what types of ads, ad copy, and keywords get the highest click through rate, information that can be translated into SEO.