Search Engine Marketing (SEM), Minneapolis, St Paul, MN

How to attract potential customers to your web site in 5 minutes?

  • Sign up a Google AdWords account.
  • Decide how much you want to pay for specific keyword or keyword phrases.
  • Write a text ad which Google shows its searchers! 
  • Set a daily budget for your campaign.

In about 5 minutes, your ad will show up along with Google search results. The setup cost is $5 and you only pay Google when someone clicks on your ad. No other advertising venue gives you business an instant online presence like the search engines.

What is Search Engine Marketing or SEM? Search engine marketing is a process that integrates organic search engine optimization with search engine pay-per-click campaigns. Search engine marketing's goal is to reach the maximal number of prospects. Search engine optimization is often viewed as the long-term marketing strategy because of its high return on investment, whereas pay-per-click campaigns can generate immediate results and supplement the organic traffic. A successful search engine marketing campaign is effective in both short and long term.

Why does Pay-Per-Click bring more than just traffic?

About 20-30% of web searchers don't know the difference between the paid search listings and the organic listings. If your ads are placed at high search result positions, your site will see a significant increase in overall search traffic.

Because web searchers use keyword variations in their searches. No matter how well a web site is optimized, it can't rank at the top for every possible keyword variation. Pay-per-click gives you a chance to bring traffic for the keywords that your site doesn't rank well.

Pay-per-click's benefits go far beyond the increased search traffic. It gives you the direct control on how you want your marketing run. For examples, you can

  • use your ad to direct web visitors to the exact pages that you want them to see, so that searchers find what they look for more quickly;
  • conduct a quick market research to estimate the profitability potential by examining how many users actively search your relevant keywords;
  • test your web conversion by tracking the number of leads or sales and find out if any web design flaws impair the conversion;
  • start, pause, or stop at any time, choose the target keywords, select specific geographic locations as your markets, plus you decide how much you want to pay.

Why the Highest Bid Doesn't Get the #1 Pay-Per-Click Spot

Google AdWords ad positions are not solely based on the bid. Because Google only gets paid when your ads are clicked, how frequently searchers click on your ads plays a big role in your listing position.

Here is the simple math - you bid $1 per click and you competitor bids $2 per click for the same keyword phrase "interior designer". 500 searchers click on your ad, but only 10 click on your competitor's ad. It is obvious that Google makes more from your account ($500) than from your competitor's ($20).  If you were Google, which ad would you rather place at a higher spot? 

A well-managed Google Pay-Per-Click campaign can pay much less for each click while getting more clicks.

Why search engine marketing allows you to access customer's mind?

If you didn't know what your customers look for, now you can learn that through search engine marketing. You do so by finding out what elements on your web site are well-received by visitors. Web analytics tools provide detailed information about what content visitors like, what keywords they search often, whether they have difficulty navigating the site, which geographic locations your customers come from, and much more. The visitor behavior information tells you if:

  • your web site is well designed for high conversion;
  • you need to change your content;
  • you have the potential to be much more successful.