Whether you run a small business or a big one, a good marketing strategy is never cheap. You have to put money into putting your brand out there, making its name known, and convincing people to buy what you’re selling. The real-world problem is not a lot of people can afford it.

This problem becomes more complicated knowing that spending big money on marketing doesn’t always equate to good results. Some entrepreneurs with a bigger marketing budget would think that having multiple channels to advertise their business would mean higher chances of winning. 

However, using your budget wisely for marketing is what any logical entrepreneur would do. This means only choosing the channels and strategies that best fit your business model and marketing needs. 

What about SEO and SEM?

Digital marketing is a good marketing strategy because it can meet expectations in terms of effectiveness and cost flexibility. And when it comes to digital marketing, SEM and SEO are arguably the best options you have.

Search Engine Marketing (SEM) and Search Engine Optimization (SEO) are both very popular among modern marketers. This is mainly because the search engine giant, Google, remains to be the most used and visited website today. According to Oberlo, Google gets over 89.3 billion visits worldwide in just one month. 

This overwhelming number just shows how popular Google is for people around the world. Consequently, it has become a powerful platform for businesses and marketers to reach a broader audience.

While both operate in search engines, SEM and SEO have stark differences. And if you’re wondering which one you should use for your business, here’s what you need to know:

Keywords

Keywords are the common ground for both SEO and SEM. Since both strategies work in search engines, they cater to what people are searching online to be visible. 

Keywords: SEM

For SEM, the keywords that are usually used in campaigns are based on two things: search volume and bidding cost. When using keywords for platforms like Google Ads, it’s important to use those that have a high demand in terms of search queries and those whose cost is within your budget. 

Keywords with a higher cost are more competitive in keyword usage and bidding. Since you will be paying per click in SEM campaigns, bidding for the right keywords is important to get your desired conversions.

Keywords in SEM are also categorized per ad group. Ad groups are used to represent the specific product that you’re selling. So, if you’re selling multiple products, it’s best to have multiple ad groups for each one and then select the keywords that best represent your product for each category for variation.

Keywords: SEO

For SEO, searchability is one of the most important factors to consider in starting a solid SEO strategy. You wanna make sure that enough people are searching for your chosen keywords to give you the visibility you need for your website. 

Another element you should look into in choosing keywords is the search intent. This just means that you have to put yourself in your target market’s shoes and think of what queries they might be using on Google’s search box. 

If you’re running an e-commerce website, you should be gunning for ranking for transactional keywords. You can read more about search intent here so you can understand which types of keywords would best suit to represent your website, your business, and the content you want your visitors to see. 

Optimizations

Optimizations: SEM

For SEM, optimizations are commonly made based on factors like budget and how you want to present your ads. SEM is all about making your ads relevant and eye-catching for users to engage with. So, your goals are to make your ads show up on top of the search results AND get people to click them.

To optimize your SEM ads, you need to have engaging headlines, trust-worthy descriptions, and informative extensions – these include images, pricing,  call extensions, and other product details a buyer should know about. 

Here’s an example of our optimized ad on Google search results page (SERP):

The headlines I’m using for SEO Hacker’s ads, just like what’s shown above, are direct and simple. The description shows why we are good because we are, in fact, ranking number 1 among all the SEO agencies in the Philippines for the keyword seo philippines. Lastly, from our ads, the visitor is just a click away from our offerings, free website audit tool, and client testimonials. This gives them the most amount of information with just a few clicks.

Optimizations: SEO

SEO requires similar optimizations to SEM, but it would require much more effort and strategic thinking to make it effective. How your webpage shows in the SERPs is also important because it contributes to its clickability. 

The thing with SEO is aside from considering how users see your page in the search results, you should also take note of how Google crawls and understands your website.

Google continuously refines its ranking factor through algorithm changes, but some factors are fundamental standards for optimization. These include a bunch of technical factors including your meta tags such as the slug, title tag, and meta description.

On top of the technical health of your website, Google also looks at the quality of your content and your off-page status to rank well. This means that you have to have content that utilizes your keyword in a way that you’re giving the information the users need.

Here’s an example of how we do it for the same keyword – seo philippines:

Aside from the content, your website should also have to be visible and linked to other websites to establish authority.

Therefore, the approach in SEO is more holistic and definitely requires more work. Authority, insightfulness, and user-friendliness are the major factors that help you rank in SERPs, so be prepared to go the extra mile if you’re starting with an SEO campaign.

Results

Results: SEM

Any business that wants an instant result from their marketing efforts would choose to do SEM rather than SEO. SEM ranks your website on the first page of search engines as soon as you start running your campaign. If your ads are optimized well, you can also get a good number of conversions from your website. 

What’s important to note for SEM is that your rankings will be gone as soon as your campaign is over or you run out of budget because you are basically paying for your slot at the top of the search results. 

Results: SEO

SEO does the opposite. SEO is a marathon and not a sprint. It takes months or even years for new businesses to see results from it and make their website rank high in search engines like Google. This is because you’re doing it organically.

If you’re thinking long-term, SEO is gonna give you a better outcome. If you constantly build content and keep your SEO factors in check, you will see your website dominating the search results for a lot of keywords relevant to your industry. 

This means that brand awareness, credibility, and online presence are being established slowly but surely all at the same time, not only for users but for Google as well.

Key Takeaway

SEO and SEM are two different digital marketing strategies that require different efforts to improve. While SEM is better for paid traffic and instant results, SEO is best for organic traffic and long-term recurring visitors, leads, and sales.

Both are going to get you to the same place, but one might be better suited for your marketing and business needs. 

If you’re interested in one over the other, keep in mind that both are very important. Choosing only one between the two because of budget constraints is normal. But, combining both strategies is actually possible and would give you the best outcomes in terms of traffic, engagement, and most importantly, conversion.

Here’s an article to read to help you get the most out of your SEO and SEM strategy.

So which of these have you tried? SEO or SEM? Or both? Share your experiences in the comments section below!

The post SEO vs SEM: Choosing the Right Approach for Your Business appeared first on SEO Services Agency in Manila, Philippines.

Ever lost at least $1,000 in an SEM campaign? You probably have but you may not have realized it until today. Here you will learn how much money you’re leaving at the table – unrealized – and what you can do about it.

Add Negative Keywords

One of the things that will ultimately help make sure you are not spending your hard-earned money needlessly is using negative keywords in your SEM campaign. Negative keywords are a list of keywords that you do not want your ad to appear in.

For example, let’s say that you’re doing SEM for a mobile phone brand such as Samsung. However, you find out through the Search Terms that your ads are appearing in keywords related to your competitor’s brands such as “apple mobile phone price” or “huawei mobile phone price”.

The problem with this is that those people searching for your competitor’s brands likely won’t click on your ad at all. Or if they do, it’s probably by mistake because they are not interested in you but in the other brand – because they literally searched for the specific brand!

If that’s the case, you may want to set up the following negative keywords:

• [apple mobile phone price] – as an exact match
• [huawei mobile phone price] – as an exact match
• “Apple” – as a phrase match
• “Huawei” – as a phrase match

Besides excluding the keywords found above, you can also set the brand name as a phrase that matches the negative keyword. This will help ensure that your ads will never appear in any keywords that contain these terms.

Make Your Ad Copy Engaging

One of the first things searchers will see is your ad copy. It should be able to reflect on their pain points and provide them with a solution. The more that they feel that you understand what they’re going through, the higher the chances of them clicking on your ad versus your competitors.

In order to do just that, first, you have to understand who your target market is. Who are they? What do they look like? How much is their spending power? Are they the decision makers or simply the purchasing agent? Where are they from? How old are they? And what type of tone would they best react to?

Take a look at some of the headlines I created for a supplier of walk-in tubs. I chose to highlight their ADA certification, residential services, and their installation services. Based on my research, I found that these are terms that customers would use when searching for accessibility solutions.

Then, research your keyword’s intent. What are people there to look for? Do they want discounts or maybe free installation? Make sure you showcase these benefits in your headlines and descriptions. Take a look at the features I highlighted in the descriptions below.

Optimize Your SEM Landing Pages

Next, let’s discuss how to optimize your SEM Landing Pages. Similar to what was mentioned above, it’s crucial that your landing page contains content that can help solve your customer’s pain points. Ideally, it should be a separate page that includes a “noindex” tag so that its content does not compete with organic traffic.

The landing page should also contain a Call-To-Action mentioned multiple times throughout the page. This can be in the form of brochure downloads, contact forms, or even newsletter signups. Ensure that these Call-to-Actions lead to another page such as the brochure page or a Thank You page so you can set up Google Analytics to track those conversions as goals.

Set Ads To Appear Only To Relevant Locations

Besides your content matching your customer’s needs, it’s also important that you optimize your Google Ads campaign to target the right people. One of the first ways that you can do this is through the Locations feature.

Do you service certain provinces or areas? Ensure that these are featured in your Locations so that your ads appear to the right people in the right places. If you cater nationwide, it would help to save your spending budget if you specify which cities you’d want to focus on instead of targeting the entire country at the get-go.

Revisit Your Ad Schedule

You can also set your ads to appear on certain days of the week and on certain hours. For example, if you’re a B2B company, you may only want to show your ads during the country’s business hours. Or if your customers are seniors aged 60 and above, you can set your ads to appear from the morning until their estimated sleeping hours, such as the one set below.

Get to know WHEN your target market is most active online, and adjust your ad schedule accordingly.

Exclude Irrelevant Age Groups

If you’re a business that targets specific age groups, then ensure that you make use of the exclusion tool on Google Ads. Here are age groupings you can choose from:

Exclude age groups that are not relevant to your business. This is also done per ad group, so make sure to take note of it.

Key Takeaway

These are just a few tips and tricks on how to optimize your SEM campaign. By improving these factors, you will be able to more accurately target your customers, saving you loads of money, increasing your Click-Through-Rate, and increasing your leads and sales.

Do you have any other go-to ways to optimize your SEM campaign? Let me know in the comments below.

We can check your current SEM campaign and analyze how you can improve it. Simply click here.

The post Tactical Ways To Optimize Your SEM Campaign That You Might Have Missed appeared first on SEO Services Agency in Manila, Philippines.