Have you ever gone to the zoo, stood in front of the glass enclosure, and didn’t see anything except for the picture of the animal that was supposed to be inside? The animal can see you from under its rock or bush, but you can’t see him. That’s how merchants feel when they try to market their products through organic search.
They publish a piece of content and it goes into obscurity. They know it is valuable and that people will benefit from their product but no one is knocking on the door. If that is you, you aren’t alone.
This is very common for businesses when they try to understand search engines. They feel like the missing zoo animal. The search engine displays the most relevant results, except they are too far down the page to be visible to most prospects. Like the animal under a rock, the merchant can see the public (impressions), but they don’t see him.
A Search Engine Marketing (SEM) company changes the game. They are the zookeeper that holds the animal up in front of the glass for everyone to see. SEM helps generate leads, increase sales, and much more. To learn more marketing strategies to generate leads, click here to learn about effective search marketing strategies.
Why is an SEM Expert Important?
SEM refers to both paid advertising and SEO. Paid search campaigns consist of two primary methods, PPC (Pay-Per-Click) and display advertising.
Pay-Per-Click - These ads are what they sound like. Someone searches a term and they might happen to see your website as a top result. This wasn’t organic and next to your name it is shown that you paid for the spot. The searcher reads your offer or name and if she feels like it’s relevant to her, she clicks it. You jump ahead of dozens of other brands and win the visit. That click will cost you a few cents or whatever the market rate is for your industry and search term.
Display Advertising - This form of advertising can take a couple of forms but it has been around since early on for the internet. Someone visits a site and they see your banner somewhere advertising the product. You could do this through Google’s tools, directly with the website owner, affiliate marketing platforms, and other methods. It may cost per click, per sale, or through various metrics depending on how you do it.
Paid ads can quickly drain your advertising budget by bidding on low-value or irrelevant keywords. Imagine paying for something that doesn’t get you many sales. That’s not fun and could hurt your business. On the other hand, a successful campaign can skyrocket your company's growth.
Hiring an SEM company that has the experience can help create triple-digit ROIs. They have the tools and know-how to launch campaigns that target the best keywords.
5 Ways an SEM Agency Can Grow Your Business
In no particular order, here are five benefits of hiring a search marketing firm.
1. Effective A/B Testing
Optimizing any campaign, paid or not, is critical to your success. Your company should continuously A/B test campaigns when everything matters, including punctuation.
For example, in one PPC ad, just by changing a period "." to an exclamation point "!" at the end of a sentence improved the conversion from 88.9% to 100%, but it also increased the cost of each click from $1.61 to $2.24. That small change created a significant difference in ROI.
Keeping an eye on all the details and optimization is a crucial part of the services they provide while running campaigns.
A/B testing allows for easy comparison, and over time, you develop a highly efficient and profitable campaign record based on proven data from your unique audience.
2. Generates Immediate Results
Organic search optimization tactics can take up to 6 months before they start to pay off. An SEM company can get your ads up and running in as little as one business day. Depending on the ad and offer, you can see clicks sometimes within minutes of launching the campaign.
That’s why SEM is a great strategy to get short-term sales and growth. You get immediate results. Then, you can transition it to a powerful long-term strategy based on the data, optimization, and fine-tuning you do with your campaigns. SEM is a powerful marketing tool to implement and scale your business right away.
SEM is one of the fastest concept-to-launch traffic strategies and the quickest way to be first in search engine results. Having a paid search ad with the right keyword and bid gives you an excellent opportunity of being on top of the SERPs.
3. Expert Keyword Research
Competitive analysis tools are one of the best reasons to hire an SEM company. Using a combination of tools and expert analysis they help you track, organize, and understand keywords. Keyword analysis offers marketers valuable insights into customer behavior that will improve marketing campaigns.
If the internet has revolutionized marketing forever, this is it. For the first time, any business, no matter the size and budget, has access to insurmountable data. This information is based on behaviors and actions that would cost millions to get if a company was on its own. Thankfully, Google offers information for free, and other paid tools provide for deeper analyses. Using keywords, you can identify what customers are looking for and what they need. Your paid ads can address those things for an effective campaign. To learn more, check out this resource on eCommerce ranking on Google.
The company can also deliver insights about your competitors by comparing their ads and targeted keywords to yours. It’s possible to rank higher than your competitors for the identical search term.
4. In-House Training Is Not Necessary
Search marketing using paid advertising is a moving target. Keeping up with the latest technology is almost a full-time job.
Do you have the time and financial resources to hire and train someone in-house? Paid ad campaigns demand much attention to be profitable. They cost money every time you turn them on. It’s not something a person can get a license for and throw it in the back of the shelf, long forgotten. The rules change every day. It requires an expert and dedicated team to not only perform the job well but know where changes are happening and how to adapt from day one.
That’s why hiring an experienced Search Engine Marketing team is usually more cost-effective in the long run. They know what they are doing and with the experience they have, they can give you the best strategy and results.
5. Working with All Ad Types
Paid online advertising has become a diverse marketing channel. Here are the types of ads that a search marketing agency can use to generate more traffic, leads, or income for your company:
- Text-Based Ads- There are several paid advertising platforms, including:
- Google Ads
- Bing - Microsoft’s PPC
- Amazon
- Yahoo
- Display Ads - These are the ads and banners at the top, sides, or footer of a website or SERPs
- Retargeting Ads - Your ads that display on other sites based on a user’s previous searches
- Call Tracking - Targeted or re-targeted ads to people who called a specific number
- Google Shopping Ads – Google determines when these ads display based on feed optimization and bidding.
As you can see, search marketing experts can help place ads on the platforms that are most relevant and cost-efficient for you.
Worth the Investment
A reputable search engine marketing company will save you time and money in numerous ways, from reducing wasted ad spend to avoiding having to hire employees in-house. They do everything they can to make every campaign produce the best results possible.
Paid advertising can deliver highly targeted traffic, but it takes technical knowledge and experience to do it properly. Even marketing veterans can strike out, especially when they enter into a new market, or marketing a new product. You need an expert search marketing analyst to review every area of your account, including the keywords, the copy, and the landing page.
Let us create and launch your next search marketing campaign. Contact our search marketing firm today for a free consultation.
