The Beginner`s Guide to Search Engine Marketing (SEM) - 2024

Welcome to the Digital Marketing Buzzword Series Two. Hello busy founder, corporate intrapreneur, or leader. SEM (Search Engine Marketing) is one of the popular marketing buzzwords and is or will be a part of your marketing mix. This post will help you explore the why, benefits, and how of SEM, so you can speak the digital buzzword language and feel empowered to use it to increase your sales or brand awareness.

1. Why Is SEM Important?
2. What is SEM, in Simple Words?
3. Search Engine Marketing (SEM) vs SEO (Search Engine Optimization)
4. Search Engine Marketing Strategy and Components
5. Search Engine Marketing Tips and SEM Free Training Platforms

Let`s start going into the details and exploring each of these topics.

1. Why is Search Engine Marketing (SEM) Important?

Search engines like Google, Youtube, and Bing are the main resources people look for services and products. Almost half of the products searched begin on Google, the biggest search engine in the world.  SEM allows your business to show your business or product to potential customers when they are searching for it. If you`ve just launched a website, brand, or online business or already have one, here is how it will help:

-       Awareness target: Increase awareness about your brand, product, or business. 

-       Intent target: Helping you be even more targeted and show your ads to your potential customers who are already searching the internet for products similar to yours.

-       Focusing: Helping you be specific when targeting locations, languages, and audience.

-       Conversion: Increasing traffic to your website and helping the "meaningful" conversions (leads).

Why Read this Post? Who is This For?

Dear busy leader, founder, or corporate intrapreneur who is aiming to increase leads and conversion and seeking to explore different tactics for their omnichannel mix. Search Engine Marketing is or will be a part of your marketing mix and is only one of the tactics you would use based on your strategy. 

Remember, the first step is always developing a strategy and then going into the details of the tactics, such as Search Engine Marketing.

This SEM (Search Engine Marketing) introduction post aims to be your starting point to explore the why first and then discover the answers to the Frequently Asked Questions about Search Engine Marketing for Beginners. If you are considering or starting your first SEM campaign, you might find these insights helpful, whether you`ll do the operations yourself or work with an agency.

In my previous corporate or digital advertising life, I`ve led 100+ successful search engine marketing campaigns as a part of the marketing strategy mix with agency partners in diverse fields such as the below and you`ll also see my tips in the end.

• Search Engine Marketing for Global Brands (e.g., Telecom, Mobile, and more)
• Search Engine Marketing for Recruiting in HR
• Search Engine Marketing for Employer Branding 

2. What is SEM, in Simple Words?

Imagine you just bought a new house and will have a housewarming party. You built a website which is called “Our Housewarming Party.” Using Search Engine Marketing (SEM) is like putting images, videos, and texts about your new house on your website and inviting people who search the internet to your housewarming party. You do this by showing your housewarming party website on search engines, paying for these ads, and inviting those who search to your party. 

Search Engine Marketing, also called SEM, pay-per-click (PPC), and Google Adwords in some contexts, is a marketing tactic and part of a marketing strategy mix. Search engine marketing can be done in many ways, and the most common is paid search. 

It is about attracting visitors to your website through paid advertisements on search engines like Google, YouTube, and Bing. As mentioned above in the Housewarming Party example these paid advertisements can be in different forms, such as text, videos, images, and more. 

 3. Search Engine Marketing (SEM) vs SEO (Search Engine Optimization)

Search Engine Marketing (SEM) is often mixed with SEO (Search Engine Optimization). The main difference between the two is that for the first one (SEM), you are paying for the advertisements, and for the second one (SEO), you optimize your website consistently so that it shows up organically in organic searches (without your paying for ads). For SEM, you will be paying for running the advertisements; for SEO, you will not if you do the optimization in-house. SEO takes longer and needs a longer-term investment, while for SEM, you can plan and implement a campaign within days or weeks if you are in a matrix work environment.

Remember the housewarming party? When you do SEO (Search Engine Optimization) for your website, you would look at different dynamics and focus on using keywords, creating content based on what people are searching online about a housewarming party vs. a graduation party. This is a complex topic. Interested in a simplified version of SEO for beginners in 2023? Here is a simplified overview of SEO Tips for Beginners 2023.

 4. Search Engine Marketing Strategy Questions

Here is a list of guiding questions to answer or use in your strategy planning and implementation if you will be building or running an SEM campaign.

1.  Purpose: What do you want to happen due to this campaign? (Build engagement, gain followers, sell products, encourage people to complete a form?)

2. Target group:

• Who is your target group?
• What are their interests, problems, needs, and wants?

 3. Your Message or Offer

• Which problem does your website/service/product solve for them?
• What is your message? 
• What do you offer (e.g., a job, product, service), and how is your website/product/business different?

 4. Competitor Analysis

 5. Logistics:

• What is your budget?
• How long and where (location targeting) will you run the campaign?
• Which languages will your ads be shown in?
• What are your top ten focused keywords (starting point)
• What is the full list of your keywords (an improved version of the starting point above) based on data on search?
• Which page on your website will users land? Did you optimize your website content? (If you are inviting them to your Housewarming Party, are they seeing a page with details of your party? Is it clear what you are expecting them to do? Do you want them to fill in an RSVP or send you presents😊?)
• What are your advertisement texts which will show up when people search?
• What are the images or videos you will use (if you choose this content type route)?
• Did you do A/B testing? (Don`t worry if you don`t know what this is; your agency will help you and show you alternatives. If your team is small and does this in-house, you can set it up easily. If you`ll do it yourself, here is more on A/B testing. Here is more from Google Training on this topic.

 6. Measuring and Optimizing Your Efforts (Metrics, KPIs)

• What is your call to action? (CTA) (e.g., Explore More, Apply Now, Buy Now, Book a Call Now etc.) Which ones worked better and you`ll use in the next campaign?
• How will you measure success? Identify the metrics and KPIs. Ideally, This is part of every strategy you have in your marketing mix and I cannot highlight this enough if you are just beginning your journey. Here is more on How to Build a Full-Funnel Marketing Strategy (w/ Example) (ahrefs.com)
• Insights and actions: What are top five insights you learned from the data of your campaign results and what will you do with them?

 5. Search Engine Marketing Tips & Free Training Platforms 

Here are my Six Tips:

• Tip 1: Increasing the number of visits, visitors, time on a page, etc., can be relevant if you are working on increasing awareness about your brand, and for conversion leads, I`d recommend focusing on actions such as filled-in forms, the number of people who completed an action (e.g., bought something, booked a call with you, applied for sth., downloaded something you wanted them to, etc.)
• Tip 2: Let`s say you`ll run a campaign for 3 months. If you work with an agency, instead of waiting for a report when the campaign has finished, I recommend planning with them a reporting schedule so that you observe results together regularly (e.g., every two weeks) and can optimize. Data can show you, for example, that one specific ad works better, and you might want to invest more in that and stop the ones that bring no results.
• Tip 3: Remember that it will take time for your ads to show on your Google search; don’t expect your ad to show up  on your screen the very hour you start your campaign.
• Tip 4: If you are in a global company, you are located in country A, and your campaign runs in country B, C, and D it is normal that the product manager in country A don`t see the ad😊
• Tip 5: Remember to limit the daily advertisement spend. It is called putting a cap on daily ad spending. Because you`ll be paying per click. If you don`t do this, your whole campaign budget can end in one day if it is a competitive industry.
• Tip 6: When choosing the duration of the campaign, before committing to a long-term campaign (such as 8 -12months), I`d recommend focussing on a shorter term (such as a 2 - 3 month) campaign first and then after seeing the results letting data (campaign report) impact your decision. (Not your gut feeling.)

Here are Five Tools That Will Help with Search Engine Marketing (SEM)

1. SEMrush
2. Google Trends
3. Keywordtool.Io
4. Google Ads Keyword Planner
5. Answerthepublic

Here are Five Free Training Platforms to Learn More on Search Engine Marketing (SEM)

1. Skillshop by Google
2. Search Engine Marketing (SEM): Online Courses, Training, and Tutorials on LinkedIn LearningGoogle Learning - Digital Learning Tools & Solutions
3. Free Online Marketing & Career Courses - Google Digital Garage - Google Digital Garage (learndigital.withgoogle.com)
4. Free Digital Marketing Online Course Catalog | Semrush Academy
5. Best Search Engine Marketing Courses & Certifications [2023] | Coursera

PS: As I am writing this post on 17.07.2023, I have no affiliation with any course providers or websites listed here. These reflect my personal opinion.

We`ve covered the following to simplify the SEM topic:

• Why Is SEM Important?
• What is SEM, in Simple Words?
• Search Engine Marketing (SEM) vs SEO (Search Engine Optimization)
• Search Engine Marketing Strategy and Components
• Search Engine Marketing Tips and SEM - Free Training Platforms 

Thank you, busy leader, for chosing to read this post. I hope it helps you start your SEM (Search Engine Marketing) journey or optimize it if you have already begun. 

✅Was this post valuable?

✔️Explore more posts like this on the Free Resources Hub.

✔️Need Help and Consulting? Book a Free Discovery Call.