Search Marketing
Search engine marketing, or SEM, is a form of Internet marketing that seeks to promote websites by increasing their visibility in search engine result pages. You can put your business in front of potential customers at the precise moment they're searching for what you sell. One of the key components of SEM is Pay Per Click (PPC) advertising.
What is PPC?
First, we research and find the best keywords to associate your ad with. The goal is to drive targeted traffic to your website in a cost effective manner. Pay Per Click means you only pay when someone actually clicks on your ad to go to your website. In theory, your ad could be displayed 1 million times and it won't cost you anything. But seriously, if no one clicks on it after 1 million views you need a better ad!
Local and regional targeting
SEM marketing allows us to target a local geographical market. We can set your ads to appear only to people searching in a particular state, city, or region. Now it's easy to target online customers within, say, 25 miles of your front door.
Local business ads
Get noticed on mapping services such as Google Maps, Yahoo Maps, MapQuest, etc. People searching for information related to your business will see your location, contact information and an image of your choosing highlighted on a map of your area.
What does it cost?
That's the great thing about PPC advertising - you determine what it costs. You set a limit on the maximum you are willing to pay per click and the total amount you are willing to spend per day. Then, based on keyword searches and the amount you are willing to pay, the search engines will display your ad next to the search results.
Highly competitive keywords require higher pay per click bids to be listed. In some industries, to be listed you have to pay $4 to $5 per click. With other, less competitive keywords you may pay $0.05 per click. Even if you are willing to pay $1 per click, the search engines do a good job of displaying your ad for the least amount possible. Most of your clicks will cost you less than your maximum bid amount. They also keep track of your total amount for the day to make sure you not exceed your daily budget. Yes, that is nice of them.
What's so great about PPC?
There are many great things about the PPC model. One of the best is you can measure your ROI (return on investment) - even to the point of keeping track of the people who clicked on your website and go into your store to make a purchase.
We've included a handy-dandy ROI calculator to the right. This calculator measures the ROI of a PPC advertising buy, such as with Google's or Yahoo!'s search listings.
Here are the definitions of the key fields you'll need to know use the calculator. At this point, most of the number you enter will be guesses, but it will help you understand how the model works. As we get into your campaigns, we manage them and communicate with you to find the sweet spot to maximize your ROI and stay within your budget.
Total monthly clicks from publisher
An estimate of how many people per month will click on your ad.
Estimated average CPC
CPC (cost per click) is the amount you pay a publisher for each click users make on your search listings.
Conversion rate
Your conversion rate is the percentage of visitors who come to your site from the publisher and convert into customers. Conversion rates vary by company, product and price point, but an average rate you can use as a test would be 2-3%. Enter a percent number, not a decimal. For instance, for 7% enter 7, not 0.07.
Average profit per conversion
Profit refers to the amount of money you earn from a sale. For example, if you sell a software package for $100 and it only cost you $10, your profit is $90. You must supply this number from your own records by estimating the average amount of profit you make from each conversion.