Google Advertising Tools, 2nd Edition

Introducing SEM

Search Engine Marketing, often referred to by the acronym SEM, means paying for ads displayed by a search engine on a page of search query results. Google is essentially the inventor of this kind of advertising on a wide scale (although not the first to deploy it) and by far the largest player in the field.

In the Internet era, SEM is the key mechanism for driving marketing. Many SEM campaigns are primarily designed to drive traffic to take a specific action (such as purchasing a product). This means that these SEM campaigns are primarily related to the “Place” component of the 5Ps of marketing. However, as SEM has matured, many businesses are also realizing that SEM can be used in a broader fashion to drive perception and, as such, fall under the “Position” component of marketing.

Obviously, there are many kinds of paid advertising that go beyond getting your ads to appear in response to a user entering specific search terms (see Chapter 14 for some examples of advertising that don’t depend on search). However, by far the easiest and most productive advertising on the Web is accomplished using SEM.

The predominant type of SEM ads is text only. The short block of text includes one or more hyperlinks. The ads are paid for using a scheme called CPC, or cost per click. With CPC, the advertiser agrees to pay for the ad only when the hyperlinks it contains are actually clicked.

Getting the most from your marketing and advertising budget with SEM and CPC ads is a complex and ...