What is Search Engine Marketing, and How Does it Relate to Performance Marketing?

Search Engine Marketing is a variety of techniques and strategies that a company can employ to increase visitor traffic to a website from search engine results pages (SERPS). SEM’s goal is to increase a website’s visibility through paid search, contextual advertising, and organic search rankings.

Performance marketing, on the other hand, aims to improve the company’s overall performance. Rather than only paying the marketing agency when a specific product is sold, the retailer pays only when the affiliate achieves the desired result, which is the campaign’s goal.

Table of Contents

• What is Search Engine Marketing?
• Key Concepts of search engine marketing
• Benefits of search engine marketing
• How Does Search Engine Marketing Relate to Performance Marketing?
• Frequently Asked Question
• Wrapping Up

What Is Search Engine Marketing?

Search engine marketing is marketing a business using paid advertisements that appear on search engine results pages (SERPs). 

Some advertisers bid on keywords. They are users of services such as Google and Bing. This is an opportunity for advertisers to get a chance to appear in the results of queries searched by people. These ads are known by the term, pay-per-click ads. 

There are a variety of ad formats: text-based ads, product listing ads, and visual ads. There is an advantage in visual ads, which allows the consumers to see important information at a glance, such as price and reviews.

There are two main ways to show your website in top results.

Naturally occurring results are typically displayed in the search results page’s center, and chosen by Google’s algorithm. This algorithm evaluates the website’s relevance and authority.

Paid results appear at the top of the search results page but in a column to the right. Unlike organic results, advertisers must pay a fee for each click on these ads. Platforms such as Google Ads must be used to purchase advertising space on search engines.

Related Reads

• What Is Referral Marketing? What Are the Benefits of Referral Marketing?
• What are Remarketing Ads? Why Use Them?

Key Concepts of Search Engine Marketing:

Keywords associated with your page are what trigger users to find your site when they perform a search for a specific item or information.

Concordance: When creating a marketing strategy in Google Ads, you must define the degree of connection between the keywords you’ve chosen and the terms people use when typing a search term into a search engine. This is referred to as “concordance.” For example:  If you choose a broad match, the ad will appear when the user searches for synonyms or terms similar to that broad match keyword.   

Text ad: This is the most common type of ad displayed in search engines, though other options are now available, such as shopping ads. Text ads typically include a title, a visible URL that can be customized, and a brief description.

Ad group: In Google Ads, an ad group is a collection of ads that use the same keywords. This allows you to determine which ones are the most effective.

Campaign: A campaign in Google Ads is similar to a “framework” in which various ad groups with similar goals are organized. For example, if you purchase notebooks online, each campaign might include the ad group for textbooks, another for backpacks, and a third for drawing supplies.

Landing page: This is the web page to which a user is directed after clicking on an advertisement. This page must be optimized for conversions and prompting users to take particular actions in order to achieve good results with search engine marketing. To ensure a good user experience, the keywords, the displayed ad, and the landing page should all be in sync.

Search Network: Is where your ads will appear. The most common placement is at the top and right of the results page, but they can also be displayed on other websites such as YouTube.

Impressions: The number of times an advertisement was shown.

Clicks: The number of times an ad has been clicked.

CTR: The percentage of Clicks on Total Impressions.

CPC: Cost Per Click.

Quality Score: This is the rating that Google assigns to advertisements and keywords, which influences your cost per click (CPC). The relevance of the ad, the percentage of clicks obtained, and the experience of the landing page all contribute to this score. The goal of this system is for higher-quality ads to rank higher and have a lower cost per click.

Suggested Reads

• Is Paid Search Considered Inbound Marketing?
• Complete Guide to eCommerce Performance Marketing

Benefits of Search Engine Marketing:

1. Promotes Brand Awareness

Paid ads used in search engine marketing can help your brand stand out from the crowd. These ads, whether the headline or the URL link, can leave a lasting impression on customers’ perceptions of your brand.

When blended with other forms of brand awareness, it can gradually or quickly put you on the radar of your target audiences. If you’re looking for other ways to raise brand awareness for your company, check out our guide here.

 2. High Visibility

It takes time and effort to increase visibility through organic SEO. Search engine marketing, on the other hand, yields almost immediate results. When a potential customer searches for you, your ad appears in front of them. As a result, it is an excellent short-term strategy for rapidly increasing visibility for your products, services, or organization, even if they don’t click on it.

3. Targeted Based on Location

Another significant advantage of SEM is that you can limit your ads to people close to your business. This allows you to eliminate searchers who are too far away from your location.

It also assists in connecting you with people in your area. Local audiences are eager to learn about local businesses.

4. Easy Administration

Another appealing feature of search engine marketing is its simplicity. Platforms such as Google Ads make it simple to create and manage any ads that you use with the service.

6. Increase Website Visitors

When users search for relevant interests, the ads for your website are frequently the first thing they see. If your ad copy is effective, it has the potential to drive traffic to your website.

This is especially useful if you’ve struggled to generate organic traffic through SEO. Paid advertisements, when used correctly, can help supplement traffic until you can generate it more naturally on your own. 

7. SEM to Assess Performance

Measuring the effectiveness of advertising campaigns in real life is frequently a difficult and expensive experience. Surveys, focus groups, and other similar metrics are required. Fortunately, SEM platforms such as Google Ads provide instant access to information such as top-performing keywords, impressions, and click-through rates.

This is one of the most significant advantages of SEM over traditional advertising. These tools allow you to track the effectiveness of your advertisements. If you notice that one ad performs better than another, you can quickly adjust your strategy and run more effective search engine advertisements.

How Does Search Engine Marketing Relate to Performance Marketing?

Search engine marketing is an essential element of performance marketing that is well worth the time and effort. 

Performance marketing aims to improve the company’s overall performance. Rather than only paying the marketing agency when a specific product is sold, the retailer pays only when the affiliate achieves the desired result, which is the campaign’s goal.

Frequently Asked Questions

Also Reads

• 8 Best Instagram Marketing Trends of 2022
• Tips for Launching Your First Paid Instagram Marketing Campaign

Wrapping Up

In today’s marketing world, Search engine marketing and performance marketing are increasingly evolving day by day. We hope that this article resolved the feeling of thirst by gaining more knowledge in both marketing aspects. 

Please feel free to offer comments on your experience of using the key concepts of search engine marketing and the benefits harvested.