The SEM represents the initials of Search Engine Marketing, or it can also be called search engine marketing.
SEM is normally used to designate paid search engine ad campaigns, although the truth is that its definition could encompass all those marketing actions that take place within a search engine, whether or not they are paid.
Here are the basics you need to navigate the world of search engine advertising. Since we use Google for the vast majority of searches, we’re going to rely on the terms used in Google Ads.
- Keywords: keywords are the basis of all search engine marketing. Keywords are the words, groups of words, or phrases that will make your ad appear to users.
- Text ad: the standard ad type that is shown in search engines. They usually have a title, two lines of text, and a customizable link.
- Ad group: Ad groups are ad sets and keywords. These are grouped into campaigns, in which you can define the daily budget and the countries or territories where the ads will appear.
- Search network: the part of the search engine where your ads can appear. The simplest thing is to work with text ads on the top and right of the results page but you can also show ads on other sites such as Google Shopping or Google Maps.
- Hits: the total number of requests for files opened. ex- if you have 4 images on your web page, that will count as 5 hits. 1 for opening the page and 4 for the images to upload. This is not a good indicator to use for site traffic.
- Impressions:the number of times an ad is shown
- Organic Listing: natural listing of your search results.
- Clicks: the number of times an ad has been clicked on
- CTR: the percentage of impressions that generate a click.
- CPC: the average cost per click. You can define a maximum CPC to guarantee that you do not go over budget.
- Quality level: Score (determined by Google) of a keyword and an ad to determine your CPC. In theory, the higher the quality of an ad, the less you pay for each click.
Today SEM is a necessity. However, it is much more powerful when used in combination with other tools such as SEO. So, it should be noted that the study of keywords is the cornerstone of our search engine strategy.