SEM and PPC adwords

When we say we run SEM campaigns, do you know what we mean?

Specifically, SEM is an acronym for Search Engine Marketing, that is to say, Search Engine Marketing. Google is, for example, a search engine. Another example would be Bing.

Mainly, the efforts of SEM advertising campaigns are focused on Google, that is to say, an advertising platform.

The Google advertising platform, Google Adwords, was launched in October 2000. It is then when the birth of the SEM was considered as an online marketing strategy.

The SEM strategy is currently considered a specific form of digital marketing, due to the wide variety available in terms of budget distribution options, advertising segmentation and the choice of the types of ads to be displayed.

That is not only in the case of Google Adwords, but also Bing Ads, Microsoft's advertising platform as equivalent to Adwords.

In this sense, in order to make an SEM strategy it is necessary to keep in mind your marketing objectives. Ask yourself the following:

• ¿Do you want to satisfy an existing online demand?
• ¿Do you want to generate a new online demand?

 These are two fundamental issues when it comes to online advertising, and especially SEM and Adwords strategies.

If your goal is to focus on providing useful answers to Google users when they use the search engine by typing words in it - called keywords - then focus on the Google Search Network.

However, if you want to reach new audiences regardless of whether they are asking questions to the search engine, you must invest in the Google Display Network, in which case your ads will appear on websites and online spaces that participate in the Google Adsense program to monetize said websites with advertisements.

It will depend on the depth of your database segmentation that you perform your capillarity in relational marketing strategies.

To advertise in Google you have to invest in your main advertising platform, which as we said is Google Adwords.

Fundamentally, it has two content networks that allow advertisers to display their advertising. On the one hand, the Search Network and on the other hand, the Display Network.

The Google Search Network is the main reason why the SEM is often called Search Marketing or Search Engine Marketing. Precisely because the ads appear after the user has made a search in the Google search engine.

In the case of the Google Display Network, ads appear on websites and other media that are within the Google Adsense program, that is, they offer all or part of their inventory for Google to offer to their advertisers.

 In general terms, in order to advertise in Google Adwords, you have to participate in the auction on which Google advertising is based.

From this auction, Google determines an ads order through a ranking. What indicates  the order of appearance of the ads is an algorithm called Ad Rank, which is fundamentally based on the following factors:

1. The cost that the advertiser is willing to pay for each click received (máximum CPC)
2. The level of relevance of the ad for the user who views it
3. The relevance and quality of the page where the user is going after clicking on the ad (landing page)

Below you can see what the anatomy of the perfect landing page would look like for PPC campaigns:

How to create a perfect ad in Google Adwords

Obviously, in addition to the 3 factors mentioned above, the announcement that we believe will influence the success or otherwise of our campaign in Google Adwords.

We especially like this way of explaining it, based on an infographic created by Albeiro Ochoa:

We explain it below:

1) Important keywords in the ad title

It is essential to increase the relevance of the ad the fact of using keywords in the title. In addition, they will be shown in bold, which will help to increase the CTR (the relationship between impressions and clicks).

2) Capital letters, especially in the title

The fact of putting the first letter of the words in uppercase will make the reading easier. DO NOT do it with the articles ("de", "el", "la", etc.), but in the others. If you do not want to do it with all the text of the ad, we recommend that you do it with the title.

3) The second part of the title, for your value proposal

In marketing the fact of adequately communicating the value proposition or USP (Unique Selling Proposition) is fundamental.

For this we recommend that you make use of the second part of the title, after the script.

4) Route 1 and Route 2 of the ad, for keywords

As you see in the previous image, Google Adwords allows you to put up to 2 "Routes" link. It is the url that the addressee will see in the ad. Take the opportunity to enter keywords there. This will improve the quality of the ad and the keywords appear in bold.

5) The description, to complement the value proposal

Then comes the description of the ad. Here you should communicate what we call a complement to the main value proposition. This can be an offer. An example: in ecommerce, it could be free shipping, free return, etc. In other sectors, for example saying that it is endorsed by experts.

Whatever you say here, either as an offer or as an increase in the main value proposal, you must also specify it on the landing page or landing page of the ad to comply with the Adwords advertising policy.

6) Call extension, an interesting resource

The call extension is a very interesting resource of Adwords. Allows you to enter a phone number as CTA (or Call-To-Action), which is seen directly as a call button.

When you click on it, the possibility of calling opens directly. It is especially useful when the person sees the advertisement from his mobile.

7) Tell them what you want to do (Call-To-Action)

In the description of the advertisement, in addition to communicating the main value proposal, it is necessary to tell the person who sees it the action you want it to do. For example, do not wait because it's a limited offer, or download interesting content now, or act quickly. Creativity to power! :)

8) Legend extension, more useful information

This Adwords ad extension allows you to give more information about the product or service you are advertising. It is very useful if you consider that with the usual space of the advertisement it is NOT possible to transmit all the value of your offer in all the senses.

9) Location extension, ideal for local businesses

Adwords also allows you to enter the so-called location extension, which links (yes, it's a link) to your Google My Business company page. This is considered especially interesting for local type businesses.

10) Sitelinks to derive to specific sections

If you look at the image about the anatomy of the ad, at the bottom of it there is the possibility of entering links.

These links are the so-called sitelinks and offer the possibility that the user - the person who sees the ad - can go directly to the section of the web that you put as a site link. It is useful to take, for example, price pages, product demonstrations, the FAQ section, etc.

11) Other possible extensions in Adwords Ads

Text message ad extensions, structured snippets, or seller qualification extensions are other types of extensions that you could include in your Google Adwords ad.

In recent years, social networks have developed advertising platforms. For example, Facebook has been offering ads for some time (Facebook Ads), Twitter also has its own (Twitter Ads), as well as Linkedin (Linkedin Ads) and other social networks.

Discover more about Social Ads in a concrete way.

Nowadays, it is recommended to distribute the investment in online advertising both in SEM and social ads, precisely because Social Ads are an interesting way to generate online demand.