What Is SEM?

Given that 35% of searches about a product start on Google, and that the average Google search lasts only a minute, appearing at the very top of the search engine results pages (SERP) matters a great deal for businesses. With millions of firms competing for the top positions on the SERPs, advertising online has never mattered more, and Google Ads is the most effective way of promoting your products and growing your business.

In this article we will set out the fundamentals of SEM and how it can benefit your business, in line with the technologies of 2024.

Türk SEM is a happy member of Google Partner. You can run your Google Ads advertising through our agency.

What Is SEM?

SEM stands for search engine marketing. It is a kind of digital marketing built on serving PAID ads in order to win visibility on the search engine results pages (SERPs). A paid SEM strategy also involves setting a daily budget to win positions in the ads on the search engines. It should not be confused with SEO, the other branch of search marketing. We will try to set out the similarities and differences between these two terms in detail in another article.

By advertising on search engines, Google first among them, firms place in the SERP rankings for the “search terms” they have chosen for the products or services in their sector. When users search for those keywords, they see the ads above, inside or below the SERPs. In 2023 ads also began appearing among the organic results on Google, and that practice carries on in 2024. Every time a user clicks one of those ads, the firm is charged. That is why this strategy is generally called paid search or pay per click (PPC) marketing. Google Ads (formerly Google Adwords) is the most widely used search provider for this strategy.

A Note on the Term (SEM, SEA, or Paid Search?)

A note on usage: the acronym SEM is not used the same way everywhere, and that is worth knowing before you read on. Some people use SEM as an umbrella covering both paid search and SEO; others, as in this article, use it for the paid side alone. In Europe, and in German speaking markets in particular, the paid side is often called SEA, search engine advertising, with SEM kept as the umbrella term. Inside Google's own products the phrase you will meet is simply Google Ads, and the industry shorthand is PPC or paid search. When we started working, the SEM expression was used as the abbreviation of Search Engine Marketing, and in this article we use it for the paid side. The general skeleton of this piece stays within digital marketing. Now let us carry on with our subject.

A successful SEM strategy rests on these foundations. Apply the following for a successful ad.

• Do keyword research
• Start ad campaigns through ads.google.com with a particular target audience in view
• Build ad groups made up of variations of your target keywords
• Write engaging, relevant ad copy using the keywords you have chosen
• Set a daily advertising budget
• Decide on measures such as clicks, impressions, click-through rates and average cost per click, and follow them.
• Check the Google Ads recommendations at regular intervals.

The Benefits of Search Engine Marketing (SEM)

Search engine marketing – SEM is a magnificent tool that helps you build a strong presence in Google search and so reach your business goals in full. Below we share some of the reasons why paid search ads are among the most valuable tools for any business.

You Reach Your Customers Instantly

SEM is generally used as a short term strategy to give your products or services visibility quickly. Paid search ads will give you fast results, because they let you reach your target customers almost instantly compared with SEO, which can take months.

As Türk SEM we recommend SEM to most of our SEO clients. Because to understand your site's conversion rates, how users approach your products, meaning the general success of your site, we always make use of Google Ads.

It Raises Your Brand Awareness

Search engine marketing lets brands show their names in the headline of the ad, in the description, in the display URL and in a good many other places such as extension links. So these paid search ads cause high brand awareness among your customers, thanks in particular to how often they appear in the top positions in Google search results.

Ad Visibility Raises Your Site Traffic

Search network ads generally hold high visibility because they appear above the organic results, at the top of the first search engine results page (SERP). With the right budget, optimized bids and engaging ad extensions and copy they deliver high ad visibility, and so you draw visitors to your website.

User Friendly

Thanks to the Google Ads interface, paid search ads can be built quickly and updates can be made. Google Ads and the other search network advertising platforms let you set a strategy for each of your campaigns, and you can start and stop your ads whenever you want. It is also easy to build a particular daily budget and decide how much your campaigns will spend per day at their performance pace. It can help you optimize your ads and draw more traffic to your business in a short time on a minimum budget.

You Decide on Your Target Audience Yourself

SEM is an effective way of getting your firm in front of a particular target audience, according to what brands are searching for. You can optimize your ads so that they reach only the consumers using keywords closely related to your products or services. Choosing the right keywords will make sure your ads reach the right target audience.

Keyword Match Types Give You More Room

Google's keyword planner tool will help you decide on the most popular keywords used to search for your business. Google ads offer you more than one keyword match type (broad match, phrase match, exact match) according to where your ads will rank. By using these specific keywords in your campaigns you can make sure your ads reach the right audience. 

Broad match : Miami hotels
Phrase match : +Miami +hotels
Exact match : [Miami hotels]

Location Based Search Network Ad Targeting

Google Ads ads offer you the option of targeting your audience by location. Advertisers can build ads in different languages and target those users by geographical location; you can specify a country, a city, or even a particular region anywhere in the world.

You Pay Only per Action

Your Google Search ads are built free of charge and you pay only when somebody clicks your ad. Paying when they click also means you can win free visibility and brand awareness on the search engines, and be charged only when somebody clicks your ad and visits your website. 

You Can Place Your Ads on Your Competitors' Keywords 

Every search marketer adds their competitors' searches to their keywords; building search network ads triggered to appear on your competitors' relevant keywords can bring your business benefits. It secures your visibility on those keywords and in the end creates the chance of converting customers from your competitors to you.

Your Ad Performance Can Be Measured

Paid search ads give you the chance to test how your ads perform and to measure the results you gather for each campaign. Google Ads search ads let you reach detailed data such as the number of impressions, the number of clicks, the click-through rate (CTR) and the best performing keywords. Depending on your campaign goals you can assess your performance and, in the end, edit these ads to perform better in future.

Türk SEM Is a Google Ads Agency

If you want to run ads in Google search results, in Google Play Store ads, on YouTube or on the display network, Türk SEM will help you with it. You can reach our Google Ads Search certification through Skillshop.

SEM Frequently Asked Questions