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A compelling digital media strategy is what drives business and produces sales in today’s cyber-connected world. If you want to increase the chances of putting your brand or service in front of people who are searching for it online, and to produce revenue-generating traffic online, professional search engine marketing (SEM) will give you a leg up on the competition. Here’s a deeper dive into this effective internet marketing approach and how it will benefit your business.

What Is It?

Search engine marketing is an online marketing approach designed to improve your brand identity. Businesses work with a professional team to create compelling paid advertisements targeted to the company’s specific audience or demographic. This helps organizations improve their ranking in online search results, like Google. By putting the right message in front of the right people at the right time, businesses see an increase in website clicks, social media likes, followers and, most importantly, qualified leads.

What Are the Benefits? 

SEM is considered to be one of the most cost-effective online advertising strategies available today. Businesses have complete control over the amount they spend, and through strategies like “pay per click,” you only spend money each time someone clicks on your ad. You can also track your audience’s response and modify the ads based on those results. SEM strategies can be implemented successfully for everyone, from small, local operators to large-scale enterprises. And by A/B testing different SEM ads (creating two different ads), you can see what customers respond to the most, which can help determine future marketing campaigns, both digital and traditional. You can’t do that with a billboard!

Personalization of SEM

Personalization is a word you’re probably hearing a lot of when it comes to marketing your brand. Before starting your SEM campaign, you can create a simple, branded landing page on your website that compliments the campaign, so when those potential customers click through the advertisement, they’ll land on a page set up just for them. Taking it one step further, if you are a fan of one-on-one customer contact, setup an SEM campaign that drives customers to call your business, and have a staff member prepared to answer calls and questions based on that ad.

Search Engine Marketing vs. Search Engine Optimization

Search engine optimization (SEO) is a form of SEM businesses use to generate brand awareness organically. Digital marketing professionals optimize your website or social media pages through the strategic implementation of the keywords most commonly used to search for your particular product and that you’d like your site to rank for in use. Search engines pick up on the relevant words you use and increase your ranking in the results. SEO improves brand credibility, but it takes longer to see the payoff, and it can be difficult to discern qualified vs. unqualified leads. However, many businesses implement both approaches for a successful digital marketing strategy.