Search engine marketing refers to activities related to advertising on search engines. These are run on pay per click PPC advertising platforms like google or bing. Google generally captures around 90% of search. So it is generally the first search platform businesses advertise on. However other search engines may be less competitive, more affordable or a better fit depending on the specifics of your business.
92% - google
3%- bing
1.5% - Yahoo!
1.4% - Baidu
1% - YANDEX
.6% - DuckDuckGo
Here is a link to real time data from Global Stats.
Most search engine ads are in the form of search ads on a search engine results page (SERP). But other formats and placements include display and dynamic product ads.
Search ads appear in the top of search results section. They are styled to look like organic search results but have a small icon indicating that they are being delivered by a paid ad.
Display ads appear outside of the search results and appear as an ad image on one of the sites in the display network.
Dynamic product ads appear above the search engine results and appear as a card with a product from your eCommerce catalog.
Search engine marketing is very powerful because it allows us to target audiences of prospective consumers based off of their intent, driving high quality and high converting traffic in the process (because they were already searching for something specific related to your business). It can be considered a form of inbound marketing because consumers are searching for something relevant to your business.
However when it comes to building intent, other platforms like social media can become competitive or outperform search engine advertising. If you have a new product or idea you want to educate new consumers on, or if you are running a broad awareness campaign, you may want to expand your channel mix to include channels like social, video, audio or even live events and experiences.
How does SEM work?
SEM works by utilizing techniques such as search engine optimization (SEO), pay-per-click (PPC) advertising, and content marketing to increase website visibility in SERPs. SEO focuses on optimizing a website’s content and structure to make it more visible to search engines, while PPC allows businesses to bid on keywords related to their products or services so they appear higher in SERPs when users search for those terms. Content marketing is used to create high-quality content that attracts visitors and helps build trust with potential customers.
What are the benefits of using SEM?
The main benefit of using SEM is increased visibility in SERPs, which can lead to more website traffic, higher conversions, and ultimately more sales. Additionally, it can help businesses gain insights into what their target audience is searching for online so they can better tailor their marketing efforts accordingly.
Fun Fact:
"Search engine marketing (SEM) is a form of digital marketing that involves the promotion of websites by increasing their visibility in search engine result pages (SERPs) through optimization and advertising." (Hemminger, 2019).