Four crucial steps you cannot miss when building your SEM strategy
If you are trying to develop an SEM, or search engine marketing, strategy for your business, it can be difficult to know where to start. An effective SEM strategy can be a key part of your digital marketing efforts, but it needs to be aligned with your other channels and your overall business goals.
SEM is often referred to as paid search, which is contrasted with the organic search results that come from search engine optimization, or SEO, efforts. The paid SEM listings seen at the top of the search engine results page are typically pay-per-click ads purchased by businesses through platforms such as Google Ads. Because a search results page has both paid and organic results, any SEM strategy should be designed to complement your SEO strategy. By not being aware of how your SEO and SEM efforts work together, you run the risk of spending money in areas where you’re already performing in organic results.
To help you build an effective and efficient SEM strategy, we’re sharing the following crucial steps every business should take.
These four steps are fundamental to your SEM strategy
Before you spend the first dollar of your digital advertising budget, do these three things:
- Find out where SEM fits in your marketing plan — SEM is not just interrelated to SEO, it can also have an effect on other channels. This includes everything from social media to traditional formats such as radio and print advertising. Perform a full audit to know what gaps SEM can best fill.
- Look at your competition — In addition to knowing where SEM strategy fits in your own search strategy, you need to know what any competitors are doing. Analyze where competitors rank both in paid and organic search to find out where SEM can be best employed from a competitive standpoint.
- Identify the most effective searches for SEM — Once you know where your opportunities are, you can begin to develop a keyword strategy that dovetails with your organic SEO efforts as well as your overall sales and lead generation goals.
- Research the best SEM tactics — Once you have your analysis completed and your goals developed, it’s time to create an action plan to achieve them. This where you should start to dig into the tools that can help you stay on top of search trends and win the PPC auctions for your targeted searches.
Trust the professionals at Burg & Co. Marketing for your SEM strategy
A truly successful SEM strategy requires professional expertise and years of digital marketing experience. Burg & Co. Marketing offers our clients a high-performing, seasoned team who will partner with you to build a fully integrated digital marketing plan that encompasses SEO, SEM, social media marketing and content marketing. To learn more about how we can help you reach your goals, contact us today.
