Search Engine Marketing (SEM)

What is Search Engine Marketing? 

Search Engine Marketing, also known as SEM, is a marketing technique brands use to reach highly targeted audiences. Using paid advertisement, brands position their messages on search engine result page (or SERPs) such as Google or Bing.

Advertisers, depending on their niche and target audience, bid on the keywords that users search for. This gives brands the opportunity to appear alongside the results for the search queries of the users.

Often known by the term pay-per-click, these ads come in a variety of forms. Some are text-based ads, product listing ads (known as Shopping ads), product-based advertisements which allow consumers to see important information at-a-glance.

The greatest strength of the search engine marketing is that it offers brands to advertise to motivated customers who are ready to buy at the precise moment. No other advertising medium today can do it this precisely.

SEM vs SEO?

Both SEO and SEM should be fundamental parts of your digital marketing strategy, as both of those represent steps into creating and designing campaigns more precisely to your target audience.

The main difference between search engine marketing (SEM) and search engine optimization (SEO) is the payment. While SEM gives brands and advertisers the opportunity to pay for the placement, SEO is a way to earn the free spot in the search result by providing the most relevant content for a given keyword search.