Some digital agencies treat SEM as paid advertisements that appear on search engines. If you're looking for a way to boost traffic to your website, search engine marketing is the perfect solution. This method involves increasing your website's visibility on search engine results pages.

The key is to increase your ranking and exposure. Paid advertising is the primary means of search engine marketing. It will make sure that your website is available to customers who are looking for products and services that your business offers.

In the broader term, SEM also has the same procedure as SEO. Many people misunderstand the concept of SEM, which is considered as "pay-to-play" where the top bidders will always win at the auction and get the top slots. Rather, Google has a complex quality to determine which ads will appear in the top spot. 

Google will assess the quality of the ad based on the relevance of the ad, the ad's historical CTR, and landing pages that match the keywords installed. The higher the quality of the ad, the price of Google ad will be cheaper. That's why using a digital agency service will increase your efficiency in advertising and get the ROI of an SEM campaign.

WHY DO SEM?

Fast and effective

Getting your website up on the first page with organic search results is challenging and takes a long time. The systematic SEO plan will take at least a few months to implement.

Search engine marketing can provide you with instant visibility and a high CTR. Compared to SEO, SEM can get your website onto the first page in a matter of minutes. It also delivers instant visibility. 

When a searcher clicks on a search ad, it's because they want the answer to their question as soon as possible. In addition, people click on search ads indiscriminately. 50% of participants didn't know that they were clicking on paid advertisements.

Greater brand awareness

SEM is an effective way to increase your presence in search engines. It can help potential customers find you and increase your ROI. However, if you don't have a robust website, SEM can help you get there.

While SEO takes time, SEM can get you into the first page quickly. The first position is where people click when they type in a search query. While search ads aren't purely advertisements, they serve a functional purpose in a search engine. Hence, they're often not recognized as advertisements. The results from SEM campaigns can be helpful for your business.

Stay in the competition

SEM is a great way to reach your potential buyers if you have a local business. The local market is full of local businesses, and it is crucial to compete with them to reach that audience. With SEM, you won't lose out to the competition, since it is much easier to use. You won't have to wait for the results of your ads. They will show up on the top results faster than you can with other forms of advertising.

If you already have a ranking of #1 in organic search, you can still be eliminated by people who install ads. Not everyone who accesses the first page will click on your link because the position is lower than the one who posted the ad.

In addition to being a supporter of SEO, SEM is also useful for keeping your business in the top competition.

SEM gives you control over your selling message

Organic search results are met by answering user questions as detailed and relevant as possible. While this is good for the inquiring public, it is not so great for companies to maintain their selling proposition.

For that matter, search engine marketing gives you complete control over your message. It enables you to be visible to people looking for your products or services. With search engine marketing, you can have a better chance of getting your products in front of potential customers. Designate the proper keywords to transmit the message you desire.

Paid search marketing is an excellent way to increase your sales. You can create ads that look like organic search results. Whether it's an ad or a link, you have complete control over your message. It's important to know what types of ads work best for you. When choosing a website, make sure that you take keywords that relate to your business.

SEM paves the way for SEO

You can gain insights from SEM campaigns. It will explain the weaknesses and strengths of your website. This will help you to prepare SEO for the future after you decide to stop posting ads for a while. 

For each keyword in your SEM campaign, you will get statistics on the number of times your ad served, volume, and conversions. This data is essential to determine whether the ad that you have installed is right on target according to the keywords you want or not.

For example, if clicks on your ad are high but conversions are low and the traffic is good, but the steps for potential buyers to be interested in your product or service are still not set. It is the best way to start other SEO methods to support your SEM campaign.

Google Analytics reports will also give you to discover new long-tail keywords, title tags, and meta descriptions for your SEO.

SEM VERSUS SEO

The two main types of online advertising, SEO, and SEM are complementary and can be used to meet the marketing goals of your business. SEO and SEM can help drive traffic to your website, but there are some differences between them.

With SEO, you have to build a strong base of authority. Building an authoritative base can take months. Second, search engines are constantly changing their algorithms, and adding new ranking factors can make your SEO strategy obsolete. So, when deciding between SEM and SEO, remember that a successful strategy requires a long-term commitment and ongoing testing. Ultimately, your goal is to increase traffic to your website.

SEM can result in instant traffic. But SEO web pages can be wiped out by SEM campaigns. In addition, SEO pages are optimized for organic search, so a combined paid and organic click-through rate is more effective. Whichever method you choose, you'll be maximizing the potential of both methods to drive targeted traffic to your website. You'll need to make a choice based on your business's needs and goals.

Both methods are effective in generating traffic. While SEM is more effective at getting instant traffic, SEO is more useful to increase your brand's visibility in the organic search results. For this reason, both methods are good to drive more traffic to your site. And choose whichever one works best for your business. 

So, which is better SEM vs. SEO? Both organic and paid methods have their advantages and disadvantages.

FAQS

How long does it take before I see the SEM results?

SEOs will take around 3 months to see their first results, while the average top ten pages are more than 1 year old. It means that it could take anywhere from six months to over a year to achieve the desired position. To be sure, though, you should try to set your own KPIs.

SEM will take it way faster than SEO. If your ad has a high relevance score, you can immediately occupy the top place of search results in an easy way. But occupy the top position by using SEM according to your budget. If your budget runs out, you can disappear from the top spot.

How do I know the campaign is working?

The performance of your SEM campaign can be measured by the number of visitors who clicked on your advertisements. Search queries can be informational, navigational, or transactional. Depending on the intent of the user, the ads should reflect that.

To make your SEM campaign work, you can use markers that represent the performance of your website, ad copy, and keyword groups. By measuring how well your ads are performing, you can make necessary changes.

The most essential measure of a successful SEM campaign is the ROI (return on investment). You can see the return on investment by dividing your revenue by the cost of your ads. For example, if you spend $400 on ads, you should get a 125% ROI.

It means you've made more money than you've spent. High ROAS will increase your ROI over time. But if you're not seeing any return on investment, it's time to rethink your strategy and your budget.

Is the SEM campaign safe for my website?

SEM is a popular and safe online advertising method. Google Ads helps marketers to reach targeted audiences through pay-per-click advertising. An SEM campaign can increase website visibility and traffic for new websites to increase brand awareness. If you don't feel safe using SEM, look for a digital agency that can help you set up from start to finish.

How to start an SEM campaign?

A key aspect of an effective SEM campaign is its ad structure. A well-designed ad will be highly relevant to the customer's search queries and should appeal to their buying intent. Before selecting keywords for your SEM campaign, you should research your target audience and determine how to best reach them. If you're targeting customers online ad copy should be as concise as possible.

After you've determined the keywords, write your ad copy. Remember, your headline has just 30 characters. The body of the ad copy should include the unique selling points of your business. It will convince users that you're the best solution for their problems.

Be sure to tailor your ad copy to the advertising platform. For example, Google Ads has a limit of 90 characters for the headline and 30 characters for the description.

Millions of people spend up to 3 hours or more per day scrolling timeline through Facebook, Engage on things that appeal to them. Just for that reason, Facebook can be the best platform for advertising your business. 

Advertising on Facebook has been used by around 6 million advertisers and has become a trusted strategy for lifting their businesses. If you start thinking about raising your business to the next level, it's time to start advertising on Facebook. But you will ask: How Much Does It Cost to Advertise on Facebook?

The most important consideration when determining how much to spend on advertising on Facebook is your budget. While the daily and lifetime budgets are not the same, you can still tailor your ads to fit your budget.

If you are advertising for a small business, you may want to allocate one-third of your total spending on conversion remarketing. You can choose the highest bid for the campaign and set the frequency accordingly.

Why you should advertise on Facebook

More than 130 million businesses are using Facebook for advertising. It is because 2.6 billion people use Facebook monthly, and everyone who owns businesses wants to promote their business on Facebook as the best place to advertise services and products.

The best part about advertising on Facebook is the wide audience it can reach. You can target a large audience with your ad and use it to target people who are most likely to buy it. The platform's demographic targeting is one of the greatest benefits of using Facebook.

For example, you can use ad templates and create your ad from scratch. This way, you can customize your ad to fit your audience's demographics.

Facebook offers its users a lot of benefits. The most prominent among them is its massive audience. Its users are highly engaged with pages, so your business can interact with them and grow through this channel. It allows you to reach people with your products and services and improve your business.

Here are 5 Instagram Marketing Tips For Beginners

When you advertise on Facebook, you can expect your brand to grow. You can also expect your ad to be seen by hundreds of millions of people on the platform.

What is the cost of Facebook Ads?

The Facebook ads cost varies from $0.5 - $3.5. On average, you can start at $0.97 per click and immediately pick up $7.19 for 1,000 impressions.

Prices can vary depending on your desire to promote your business. If you want to get likes (cost-per-like), you will pay around $1.07, and if you want your audience to download something (cost-per-download), you will pay $5.47.

Facebook ads use the auctions system. Facebook will assess ads in terms of relevance, quality, and bids to determine which ad wins and appears on the platform.

The cost of Facebook ads varies greatly depending on your industry and target audience. The cost can vary by the country, target audience, and even by city. If you're targeting a specific demographic, you can use the cost of ads to target them. Once you've determined how much your advertising budget is, you can choose the best strategy for your business.

What Determines Facebook Advertising Costs?

Facebook advertising depends on the marketing objective. Most businesses choose to use a single objective, but multiple objectives can be effective. With several things that can affect the price, you must know some of these factors. Let's take a look at the different factors below.

1. Audience

The cost of a Facebook ads will depend on the audience's age, location, interest, and demographic of your targeted audience. You can determine your budget for an ad by turning off automatic placements in your Facebook ads.

By turning off automatic placements, you can determine whether you are spending more or less money than you should. You can set advertising costs according to the budget you want to spend.

The more specific you choose to put ads in your target audience, the more different the price. For example, the cost-per-click may go up by $0.55 if you are targeting women. Age also determines how big your ad is. The age 25-34 years old range is cheaper than 55-65 years old. The lower ad price could be because many users use that age range to place their ad.

The best way to determine the cost of your ad is to compare the average cost of similar advertisements. In this way, you can determine the optimal budget for your ad.

2. Ad budget

The advertising budget will impact how much Facebook ads costs for your business. If you set $100 for your budget, it will affect your ad performance, ad bids, and overall results of your advertising campaign.

Facebook allows advertisers to set a daily budget. Social media strategists suggest at least $5 per day for Facebook ads daily budget. If you want to reach a large number of people in a short period, a daily budget of $25 will suffice.

3. Ad bid

Facebook's bidding system is an excellent model to get more sales. Besides, it will improve the experience for people viewing your ad. While the size of your ad bid is not the only factor that determines ad delivery, it is a good benchmark to consider.

To determine how much you spend on Facebook ads, you need to know the algorithm behind the Facebook ads bid. Let's take a look at some of the bidding strategies:

Lowest cost bid strategy

This bid is good for companies that are just trying out the Facebook ads. The lowest cost bid option will do the automatic bidding to help the business achieve the lowest cost opportunities per action or click.

Target cost bid strategy

This is manual bidding, for businesses who want to keep the bids at the same cost. You can bid however you want, but you can only use this strategy for product catalog sale campaigns, app install lead generation, and conversions.

You should focus on your ROI to make the most out of your campaign. A high bid will mean you reach more people and generate more leads but a low one may not.

4. Ad objective

When you create an ad, Facebook will ask you to choose one main objective and a specific goal.

1. Awareness
   • Brand awareness
   • Reach
2. Considerations
   • Traffic
   • App installs
   • Engagement
   • Video views
   • Lead generation
   • Messages
   • Product catalog sales
3. Conversions
   • Store visits
   • Conversions

5. Ad placement

As a business owner, it's imperative to maximize your ad placement to maximize your results. Fortunately, Facebook allows you to customize your ad placement and optimize your campaign for maximum results.

There are 6 different places for you to put your Facebook ads:

• Facebook Desktop Newsfeed
• Facebook Right Column
• Facebook Messenger
• Instagram
• Instagram Stories
• Audience Network

Why is Instagram also included in the lists? Because Facebook owns Instagram and is one of the social media platforms with the most users, reaching 1 billion people monthly. Decide which of the placements above is cheaper.

For example, Audience Network is lower than Facebook ads CPC and Instagram and can appear on mobile apps and websites. And on average Facebook CPC is $0.30 cheaper than Instagram.

6. Ad quality

The most essential factor to consider when determining the Facebook ads cost is the relevance of the ad. A high Relevance Score will mean that your ad is relevant to your target audience. A Relevance Score of 8 means that the ad is highly relevant to the target audience.

The higher your relevance score, the more likely your ad will be shown to potential customers. Hence, a high-quality ad will reduce your ad costs. Facebook gives these scores based on positive or negative feedback.

You can access your relevance and engagement scores with these steps below:

Go to Ads Manager --> Select the ad you wish to see --> Choose the Columns dropdown menu --> Click Customize Columns --> Select Relevance Score --> Hit Apply --> View Relevance and Engagement Score.

7. Season

Season determines Facebook ads cost. The holiday season is the most expensive time for Facebook advertising. Below are the most expensive days to advertise:

• Christmas
• New Year's Eve
• New Year's Day
• Black Friday
• Cyber Monday
• Thanksgiving
• Boxing Day

You will know people will spend more or need services on holidays. Although the ad cost will be higher, it's well worth the investment.

8. Industry

Every industry has a different CPC on Facebook ads. For example, the cheapest industry to advertise is apparel. The most expensive industry is finance and insurance. You can take a look in the table below. Apparel Industry Average CPC $0.45

Do Facebook Ads Work?

Facebook advertising can be highly effective for many businesses. With a low cost and a wide reach, Facebook offers businesses an affordable way to promote their products and services to potential customers.

You should not focus only on one type of Facebook ads. Instead, focus on the objective you are trying to achieve. If your goal is to increase traffic to your website, you should try the first option and test it out for a while. Aside from that, you should also test different types of Facebook ads to see which works best for your business.

Different Types of Facebook Ads

• Photo Ads
• Video Ads
• Carousel Ads
• Slideshow Ads

How To Reduce Facebook Ad Costs?

Now that we've learned the basics of Facebook ads, we'll give you tips on reducing the cost of Facebook ads.

• Choose the right marketing objective

Choosing a marketing objective is crucial because you can't click carelessly what you think feels ok. Do you want to market your product or service to people who need it? Or do you want to do brand awareness? Every goal you choose must be valid because choosing the wrong campaign will cost more than you imagine.    

• Narrow down audience

Facebook can offer robust targeting possibilities instead of having to choose a broad audience with lower conversion rates. Specific audiences will be more targeted, and you waste less money to advertise.

• Always monitor your ad relevance

Always check Ad Relevance Diagnostics to evaluate your engagement rate, ads' quality, and conversion ranking. This information will help you to determine whether the ad that you have installed is by the target audience you want.

Conclusion

If you want your Facebook ads to perform better than your competitors without having to study in detail and through trial and error, look for a digital agency that can carefully manage Facebook ads to grow your business.

Google Ads（以前稱為Google AdWords）僅在去年就發生了巨大變化。

PPC的策略和消費者行為在21世紀迅速產生變化，Google滿足了這些需求。