SEM: Keywords Anatomy in Paid Search Marketing

Search marketing, also known as search engine marketing (SEM), is a form of online marketing strategy that promotes websites by increasing their rankings and visibility on search engines such as— Google, Yahoo, or Bing.

Search marketing employs both paid and unpaid (organic) tactics to help Internet users find the right website among millions.

In case of paid search marketing, the most common and prevalent type is the Pay-Per-Click (PPC) or Pay-Per-Action (PPA).

Paid search marketing includes PPC (pay-per-click) listings, contextual advertisements, and paid inclusions. Pay-per-click advertising is based on keywords.

PPC results show up in advertisement boxes on Google. Companies pay to be represented by specific keywords, and are bound to pay the advertiser every time a user clicks on their sponsored ads.

For example, Google's Adword will display your ad at the top or right side of the search results page (placement depends on a number of factors including keywords and quality of ad).

There are other types of PPC marketing, such as Facebook Ads. Paid search differs in that your goal is to have your website or offer displayed higher in search results.

The first step in paid search marketing is keyword research. In paid search, bidding on the wrong keywords can be disastrously costly. You could use specialized keyword tools to eradicate the chances of failure.

Here are a few things to keep in mind when building your paid search keyword list—

1) Emphasize on using negative keywords

Negative keywords enable you to filter out search terms that aren’t relevant to your products and services, so your ads won’t show up for those irrelevant searches. In the long run, this can save you a lot of money for you.

2) Don’t go too broad

Pay special attention to the long tail of search—that is, the longer, less frequent keyword phrases that actually add up to a greater volume of visits than the few most common keywords.

Long-tail keywords tend to show a high degree of intent, so they can be excellent prospect for your paid search campaigns.

For example, it's a good bet that someone who searches on "organic tomato seeds free shipping" is later in the buying cycle than someone who searches on "tomato seeds" alone.

3) Always remain relevant

Another useful tip is to make sure your keywords match the text of the landing pages you’re linking to.

Google keeps a close eye on that sort of accuracy and keeps the least accurate/relevant or dishonest marketers from earning links to their services under the head of the ads reading “increase returns on stock investment” or popular feeds or celebrity gossips.

4) Include variations and synonyms

Search engines can make connections between related terms such as, realizing that "sport shoes" and "running shoes" are the same product, but not always, so it's best to include them. Include short forms, abbreviations and even plurals.

5) Expand and refine your keywords list with tools

Having a decent list of terms to bid on, the next step is to use the keyword research tools at your disposal to determine which keywords to keep, and which to drop.

Keyword tools help you reach to the terms that people are actually typing into search engines. Most popular of these tools are Google AdWords and WordStream.

Conclusion

Therefore, keyword strategies are essential to develop successful search engine marketing campaigns. Your keyword strategy should involve selecting high-performing keywords that drive relevant traffic to your business.

Choosing the right keywords for advertising can determine how well your advertisements will rank on Google and other search engine platforms.

Once you know the keywords you want to bid on, the next step in your keyword strategy involves crafting text ads that incorporate your keywords.

When visitors click on your ads in the Search Engine Results Page (SERP), you pay the amount that you've bid on the keyword.

This process is what exactly known as pay-per-click (PPC) advertising. The amount you’ll spend with your keyword bidding strategy when you advertise on Google is determined by how competitive your keywords are.

The secret to successful keyword bidding strategies is discovering your favorable spot of less competitive and therefore less expensive but highly relevant keywords through keyword research.