Contents

1. What is SEM?
2. The Importance of SEM
3. Search Engine Marketing — How Does It Work?
4. Search Engines
5. Non-Paid SEM — SEO
6. Paid SEM — PPC
7. What is Pay-Per-Click Advertising?
8. Search Advertising
9. Social Advertising
10. Display Advertising
11. Remarketing
12. Affiliate Advertising
13.
What is SEM?
SEM stands for Search Engine Marketing, and as the name suggests
this is one of the many forms of digital marketing that is used
nowadays.
Essentially, SEM involves the online promotion of a business through
its website, by increasing its visibility on the search engines. Usually,
this is done through paid advertising.

Although it is often confused with other marketing terms that are

frequently used in this industry, SEM is not the same as PPC (Pay-per-
click) marketing, nor is the same thing as SEO (Search Engine
Optimization).

The confusion begins because it implements search engines the same

way SEO does, and paid marketing which is something specific for
PPC marketing.
In reality, SEM is the bigger picture, while PPC and SEO are categories
that fall under this type of marketing.
The Importance of SEM

Every marketing strategy has its own pros and cons, and so does SEM.
However, this type of marketing is beyond valuable and knowing the
right ways of using it, could be extremely beneficial.
Namely, with the immense growth of consumers that use the
internet as their primary source for information, business owners
recognized the need and the opportunity to turn to another market
and source of income.
Search engines made this easy by providing companies that are
present online with a fitting strategy of increasing their reach.
When you open Google, as the leading search engine on the market
currently, you simply ‘google’ a word, or in other words perform a
query — and expect for the best results to appear first. Millions of
people do this every day, so imagine if the first result was your
webpage. With most of the click going to the first few results on the
first google page, that would mean that your business will receive a
much higher reach than your competitors in the industry, which could
result in many positive things, including something that is most
valuable to business owners — profit.
And yes, this all sounds too good to be true, but remember that SEM
involves a certain investment to make it work. When you utilize
search engine marketing, as an advertiser, you usually pay a specific
fee for the impressions you get on your website. It’s a smart
investment, but only if you know how to do it by minimizing the
losses that could result in this.
On a more positive note, each click you get increases your ranking in
organic search results (appearing on the first pages without paying).
Besides, unlike other marketing techniques, SEM is not at all intrusive
and will not leave a bad impression for your business in the eyes of
the targeted customers.
All in all, there are many reasons why you should consider using SEM
in your marketing campaign, but being one of the fastest ways to
drive traffic to your website is by far the most valuable one. Let’s see
some helpful statistics first.
On average, the results that appear on the first page of Google,
consist of approximately 1,890 words.
More than 80 percent of consumers perform a search online before
they decide on making a larger purchase.
A large number of consumers, or approximately 70 to 80 percent,
prefer organic search results, making SEO the better option of the
two. However, this is purely individual and some marketers get much
better results through PPC than SEO. Leads generated from search
engines have a much higher close rate than outbound leads
generated from direct mail or cold calling. Search engines are in the
lead with 14.6 percent close rate over 1.7 percent in outbound
leads.
Search Engine Marketing — How Does It
Work?

Search Engine Marketing can be both paid (PPC) and unpaid (SEO),
and depending on this factor it can be explained in two different
ways.
Marketers and business owners utilize both of these types of
advertising in order to promote and optimize their online business, as
well as their brand presence and conversions.
What is mutual for both paid and unpaid advertising in this context, is
the fact that they are both done by employing search engines, such
as Google, Yahoo, Bing, etc.
Every one of these search engines runs on complex algorithms to
present the most relevant content for every search a person makes
on the internet. Usually, the most fitting results appear first on the
websites. This also depends on the location and several other factors
that come into play.
Let’s say, for example, you type in the search bar “best rated movies
on Netflix”, and you get a list of results, hundreds, thousands or even
millions depending on your search. You will notice that each page
gives you up to 10 results to choose from.
Users usually stick to the first page only. As a matter of fact, 3/4 of all
searches stay at the first result page. That means most people will
not even look through the other given option, indicating that the first
few results on the search engine results get the most traffic and
engagement.
But what if you are not on the first page? Or even the second or the
third?
It means that your chances of getting traffic on your website through
search engines are very low, even if your content is much more
relevant than what people can find in the top results.
So what can you do?
That is exactly where SEM comes into play. And, as mentioned
before, you have two ways of utilizing this type of advertising to your
benefit.
Search Engines
To grasp the whole concept behind search engine marketing, first and
foremost, you should understand how search engines work.

The term search engine, when mentioned, is often immediately

related to Google. This comes as no surprise considering that Google
is dominant in this market.

According to the numbers above, Google is by far the most used

search engine in the world. The second one, Bing, does not even
close to Google’s market share but is still being used globally. Yahoo,
which is the oldest one on the list falls to the third place.

Search engines date back to 1990 when the first version of what we
know of today as a search engine ‘Archie’ appeared on the internet.
But Archie only made the listings of websites available, not the
content.
Later on, after a series of important events related to the
development of the internet, search engines got a new approach in
which they showed the website’s title and header in the results. It
was certainly an improvement, but at the time the arrangement of
the website results depended solely on the way the search engine
discovers them.

Fast forward a few years, and we get to the creation of Yahoo!

Search. It’s the closes search engines got to today’s modern approach
they have. Yahoo included a collection of websites on the internet,
with man-made descriptions for the URLs. At the time, website
owners were able to add informational sites for free, but those that
wanted websites for commercial needs had to pay a fee.

Google was officially launched in 1998, but shortly before this,

Google’s ancestor BackRub introduced backlinks, which is something
crucial in the way web pages are ranked on search engines nowadays.
These backlinks revealed whether the website is linked by other
websites on the internet, showing how much authority it has and
decides its ranking.

Over the years, Google released many algorithms in order to improve

its work and give more valuable and relatable results to internet
consumers. To this day, Google constantly changes its ways of
website ranking, making it quite difficult to do it.

But the thing is, once you get a hold of the way these search engines
work (especially Google), as well as what is important and what
should be avoided, by all means, you will make a huge step forward
in growing your website traffic.
Non-Paid SEM — SEO

There was a period when SEO was everything marketers were really
aiming for in their campaigns. This type of search engine marketing
really hit off thanks to its benefits. 
SEO or Search Engine Optimization is a process of getting organic
traffic to your website.
In other words, it means getting unpaid clicks from people that found
your website through the search engine. The best way to achieve a
high amount of organic (also called natural or earned) traffic is if your
website holds a good position in the search results. The higher the
better.
That is where SEO can help. There are many techniques that you can
use from SEO and the best of all is that it’s completely free. On the
downside, it’s also quite difficult to perfect.
Paid SEM — PPC

Paid search engine marketing, on the other hand, is often related to

Google Ads.
The confusion emerges from the fact that Google is by far the most
used search engine nowadays, making it also the best option for paid
ads.
But paid SEM is a wider term, one that people know as PPC or Pay-
Per-Click.
You might find that this term has slight variations, but in the end, it all
comes down to the same. You as a business owner or marketer, pay
the search engine to place your website on the first pages as an ad.
Keep in mind that there are other types of PPC as well, such as Social
PPC where the main channel for advertising is social media platforms.
The way you do it mostly relies on the way you choose your
keywords, making them one of the most important things in your
SEM campaign.
What is Pay-Per-Click Advertising?
Per-per-click advertising (PPC) could also be found under the term
cost-per-click advertising (CPC). This sometimes creates confusion in
fresh marketers that are just starting with digital advertising.
There is a difference between the two terms, and in order to grasp
this form of digital marketing better, it’s important to recognize what
CPC and what PPC is.
PPC is a model of digital advertisement.
Through PPC, with each click on an online ad, the advertiser gets a
certain amount of money. For example, if you, as a business owner,
run a security company, you could pay someone to advertise your
company. It’s usually a fixed price counted per click on the ad that the
advertiser gets. The more visitors click on your advertisement and
end up on your page, the more the promoter gets paid by you.
In other words, PPC drives traffic to your business website, with the
intention to turn your visitors into your new customers.
CPC is a metric that measures your costs.
The name is self-explanatory, but the confusion can occur when
people use CPC as to refer to PPC advertising, although this is more of
a deciding segment of pay-per-click advertising.
To calculate it, you need to divide the advertising cost with the
number of clicks you get on the advertisement.
Cost-per-click = Advertising cost / Ads clicked
The CPC is based on a few factors, and the desired goal is optimizing
the clicks, and minimizing the price per click, or in other words
running an efficient yet cheap campaign.
CPM or cost-per-mile is also a metric that measures the cost, but
instead of views, it works with impressions.
It’s another term you might come across. Essentially, the cost is
determined by every mile or more precisely one mile = 1,000
impressions.
Search Advertising

This type of pay-per-click advertising is probably the most adopted

one. It’s because it incorporates one of the most used and efficient
PPC techniques — Google Ads.

Usually, when people refer to pay-per-click

marketing, they are thinking of Google Ads, as the
most common model.

Everyone has had an experience with search advertising, although

you might not have been aware of it.
When you google something on your browser, sometimes the results
showed at the top of the page contain a small square with “ad”
written inside. The result shows up first because someone paid for it.
All Google ads are organized through Google Ads interface. You can
research keywords and set up campaigns in a way that they will
maximize your reach.

Although Google and Google Ads are the most popular form of PPC
Search advertising, there are other forms as well. For example, Bing
Networks also allows you to show your ads to the users who search
for certain keyboards on the search engine.

There is so much to PPC Search Advertising, and only managing

Google Ads requires certain skills and knowledge. The good thing is
everything can be learned, and we are now going to see how to
establish a Google Ads Campaign for your business.
Google Ads
You will most likely find the term Google AdWords, instead of Google
Ads. That is because Google Ads was previously known as AdWords.

It’s definitely the most used PPC advertising model currently.

Google makes using Google Ads very easy. They let you run a
campaign by yourself, but also offer their customers support.
The first thing you need to do is visit their website.
By scrolling through the front page, you will see the basic information
about Google Ads, and they immediately disclose that signing up to
the platform is for free.
In the upper corner, you will notice that they have a how-to article,
which I personally think is quite detailed and nicely explained. I won’t
go into all aspects of this, as you can see everything on their website.
However, I will go through the positive and negative marketing
aspects of Google Ads.
Google Ads Pros:
 Reaching Large Audience
More than half the population on Earth uses the internet. That’s
around four billion people that are part of the globalization. One of
the best things about digital marketing is precisely this, the large
audience it provides. But, of course, you need to know how to reach
the right audience. If you want to have results you definitely need to
focus on quality over quantity.
 Targeting Your Audience
Reaching a lot of people is important, but it goes without saying that
reaching the right people is what really matters in marketing. With
Google Ads, you can do this according to age, location, device type,
and gender.
 Relevant Ads
As long as you are using relevant keywords, your ads are also relevant
and will appear to people who are genuinely interested in something
that you might be offering.
 An Insight of Your Growth (Analytics)
When you are running a campaign is very important to keep track of
all data. With Google ads, you will be able to do that. The information
can be used to improve your marketing campaign in the future.
You will be able to see how many clicks your ads have and who
clicked them, how many leads your advertisements will generate,
how much traffic this brought to your landing pages, and which
keywords were successful.
Google Ads Cons
 Competitive Keywords
The more competition you have on the market, the more competitive
the keywords would be. Other business will be using the same
keyword and if you want your ads to be more relevant you will have
to pay more as well. If you are not careful enough before you notice
you will be left with no money and no real progress.
 It Can Get Expensive
As a follow up to the previous problem, Google Ads can sometimes
be an expensive investment in your business. It could be because of
the competitive keywords or because of a lot of people clicking on
the ads. For the second one, a fixed budget will do, and this will save
you from the trouble of overpaying.
 People Trust Natural Results More
Unfortunately, it’s the truth. When people see the ads logo on the
first articles that appear in your Google search results, they tend to
avoid it. Take it from you. Would you rather open an advertised
website or trust your natural google search results?
Nonetheless, Google Ads is still successfully helping businesses grow
and will continue to do so in the future.
Social Advertising

Social media and marketing go hand in hand. With the rise of social
media networks, especially Facebook and Instagram, business owners
have increased their chances to stand out with a good and
inexpensive marketing campaign. And this could be one of the ways
you do it.

Did you know that Facebook has 2.2 billion

monthly users?

This makes the platform the third most visited websites, right after
Google and YouTube.
With so many users, business owners recognized the potential in
Facebook and other social media and they now want to turn these
users/potential customers into new customers.
The advertising you do on these social media platforms can mostly
increase awareness for your product, which is definitely an important
thing when building a brand.
Through these social media channels, you can target the preferred
demographic and specific interests of your audience. Besides,
considering Facebook’s (and Instagram) expanding marketing
options, as well as the ability to promote your tweets on Twitter and
so on, with a good strategy you definitely won’t make a mistake if you
try Social PPC advertising.

Facebook PPC Advertising

Through Facebook Business you will be able to generate ads of your
business that will be shown on the platform, and there is an option to
expand your reach on Instagram, Messenger, and WhatsApp as well.
The ads could be made as a video, a photo, or carousel ads.
The process is quite simple and in some ways similar to Google Ads.
Upon opening Facebook’s Business page you will notice that they
have made the process of creating an ad very simplistic, even for
beginners who never had experience with this before.
The platform allows you to created PPC ads, and manage them
through Facebook’s Ads Manager.
LinkedIn PPC Advertising
LinkedIn Marketing Solutions offers something similar to Facebook’s
ads.
First, you need to sign in into LinkedIn’s Campaign Manager, where
you will manage and optimize your ads. Then, you will have to choose
your form of an ad, be it Sponsored Content, Sponsored InMail or a
Text Ad. It can also be a combination of all three.
LinkedIn text ads are simple but effective PPC or CPM models of
advertising. You can decide whether to pat only for ads that were
clicked or based on the received impressions on LinkedIn.
Using LinkedIn Business is very simple and you can launch your
campaign in minutes.
Twitter PPC Advertising
Twitter for Business also allows companies and individuals to increase
their reach on the platform by offering a form of PPC advertising.
It’s a simple task. First, you determine your objective and audience,
and then you do the bidding.
By bidding Twitter means the money you are willing to pay for every
interaction with your ads, such as a new click or a follower.
You can spend as much as you want, as there are no limits to your
spending, nor a minimum campaign spends.
If you decide to run a Twitter ad campaign, you need to carefully
create your post, decide on the hashtags and make it more engaging
in order to grasp the attention of the audience.
Display Advertising

As the name suggests, display advertising refers to the advertising

banners or images you see on websites. It can also be in the form of a
text, but the end goal is the same — raising awareness for the brand.
PPC display advertising usually returns lower click rates but you can
pick who sees your ad which is a great advantage.
Targeting your audience is easily done. You can choose a certain
group of people, a relevant industry, or you can perhaps choose
people who have visited similar websites to yours.
The banners can be in different sizes, and they are limited depending
on what type of network you are running the campaign. For example,
you can do it on social media, or through Google Ads. You can also do
it individually with other websites.
What you need to know about banner ads is that there are three
main types:
Static Images:

GIFs:

Animated HTML5:
Display marketing does not necessarily work as pay-per-click
advertising, although it still deserves a place on this list.
Remarketing

We can all agree that this can be quite annoying. But as annoying as it
may be, remarketing really helps business owners.
Let’s see it this way. You open an eCommerce website that is selling
clothes and accessories. You are partly interested in the women’s
accessories segment and browse through it. Next thing you know, an
ad showing you accessories for that same shop appears everywhere.
It’s what marketers call remarketing or sometimes
retargeting. Basically, it’s a PPC method that targets users that have
previously shown interest in your product or service. Seeing the exact
thing they were looking for in the first place might help them make a
final decision on whether to buy that necklace or not.
Remarketing keeps the user engaged with the business and keeps
reminding them to complete their purchase by popping up on the
internet from time to time. This is done through the website’s cookies
that are stored on your browser.
Remarketing is also when you, for example, google something, and
then your browser shows ads according to your search.
This type of PPC is not stand alone advertising but is usually a part of
the search, social, and display PPC advertising campaigns.
Affiliate Advertising

Pay-per-click affiliate marketing is something you are probably

familiar with. It’s a type of advertising, sometimes quite subtle, but
very effective, in which a business rewards the “affiliate” for each
visitor/customer they bring to the company’s website.
Affiliates are the participants that agree to promote your product or
service on their social media or website and with each successful sale
they make, you pay them a certain amount of money.
To make things easier, there are websites where you can search for
different affiliate programs and find the best channels to market your
product or service. There are many types of affiliate marketing,
depending on how the advertiser is being paid.
In reality, when affiliate marketing is mentioned, it’s usually to target
people or blog owners to make passive income.
But from a marketer’s point of view, affiliate marketing is equally
important. With this form of advertising your product, you gain a
high-quality audience but only if you know how to choose your
affiliates, or in other words the people who will sell your product.
Of course, they will be paid a percentage of every sale they make of
your product, but in order to see the results, it’s important to choose
websites with high traffic and related to the product you are selling.
It’s simple. If you are selling kitchen knives, your affiliates could be
food bloggers. If your business is renting cars, a popular travel
blogger will bring the audience to you by simply mentioning you in
one paragraph.
People trust people, much more than they trust
companies.
So if someone recommends your product or service, there is a higher
chance for you to make sales than with other forms of marketing.

If you followed carefully, you probably noticed by now that almost all
types of PPC advertisement were somewhat connected with each
other.
PPC marketing is simple to grasp and it’s the same technique no
matter what your choice of a channel will be. You can use Google,
Bing, Social Media, etc. separately, all you can use them together. In
both cases, there isn’t much place for mistakes.
The channel is important, but not the most important thing when you
want to grow your business. As a matter of fact, you need to pay
attention to a lot of other things, such as for example the way you
launch your PPC campaign.
Thank You