Search Engine Marketing (SEM) : PPC / CPC Services

SEM (Search Engine Marketing) used to be a broad concept that explained all the cultivated methods used to enhance the visibility of a website on search engine results pages (SERPs). It used to be a blanket term encompassing all forms of internet marketing methods that work to enhance the popularity of a website’s search engine. It was defined as a method that included everything from SEO to paid ad placement. Over time SEM has become the standard term associated only with paid advert listings.

Nowadays, the most commonly accepted definition of SEM is, “the process of increasing traffic to your website by purchasing ads on search engines.” though by extension it is a PPC (Pay Per Click) model which allows advertisement listings to be placed on the search engines as well as individual websites through designated ad banners.

What is Pay Per Click (PPC)?

The marketing environment of search engines is evolving rapidly, and so are its best practices. Whether you are an industry expert trying to explore new horizons of marketing or a small business owner looking to make use of the digital medium to raise customers, PPC (Pay Per Click) service is the most basic yet significant marketing strategy utilized to boost your results and improve upon your ROI.

In a nutshell, pay-per-click (PPC) is an advertisement model of online marketing. This form of advertising is prevalent for most businesses today and frequently associated with search engines like Google. Though you can see PPC ads on social media platforms, and individual websites as well.

Through PPC model, the advertiser has to pay a fee to the host of the serving platform, every time someone clicks an ad on that platform that takes that person to their website, hence the name pay-per-click.

The paid search engine advertisement are those highlighted websites links that you typically see on the top of a search result page (SERPs). The search engine platform binds these websites to chosen keywords and naturally gives them the priority slot on their result pages.

Though mainstream search engines like Google, Yahoo, Bing, etc are the most common hosts that served PPC, the social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and Twitter have also chimed in the paid advertisement arena and now offer the facility of PPC advertisements.

Most platforms that offer pay per click advertising, work only through real-time bids. To purchase a PPC ad placement, you must comply with the auction process of the platform of your choosing. For example, if you're purchasing an ad spot through Google Ads, its the Ad Rank algorithm that is used to calculate your ad relevance, the ad position and your bid amount. The ad-spot purchase is determined by the keyword auction process, you must bid for the keywords that are relevant and you want to associate with your website.

Relevancy

Relevancy is crucial when it comes to PPC advertising. The potential customers who you’re hoping will click on your ads are only ever searching for specific information, products, or services when they need them. The beauty of PPC is that advertisers can bid for ad placement, typically through sponsored links via any search engine, to display a targeted ad at the precise instant that someone searches a term or a keyword. For example, if someone searches “Blue shirt” the advertiser can bid to have their clothing website ad placed at the top of the list, relevant to blue shirts.

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Here are a few key PPC terms that you should know :

  • Cost Per Click (CPC): It is the amount that you offer the platform, per click on your advertisement. The CPC pricing varies depending on the industry competition. It can range anywhere from a few cents to up to $60 or more.
  • Cost Per Conversion: Conversion is convincing the customer who is watching the ad to make the purchase as well. The Cost Per Conversion is the total cost paid for an advertisement according to the success in achieving the goal of that advertisement.
  • Cost Per Mille/Thousand Views (CPM): CPM is effectively a bidding strategy where your main concern is not clicks but instead how many views, or impressions your ad have received. This works best when your main objective is brand recognition.
  • Cost Per Acquisition (CPA): CPA is a financial metric that shows the impact of a PPC campaign on your total revenue, calculated by dividing the total amount of money spent on PPC ads, by the number of conversions.

Rapid exposure through PPC

It is possible to get your brand out there and improve your website’s visibility more quickly. Ad approval is a relatively quick process and platforms usually do it the same day. Essentially what that means for your site is maximum exposure almost immediately. Your ad could be a paid listing via Google search, a picture ad through Instagram, or even a video featured on streaming platforms such as YouTube. Moreover, using multiple platforms in different formats can increase your brand’s visibility.

Reach your target audience

You can quickly and effectively reach out to your target audience by using a service such as Google Ads. PPC service allows you to target any specific demographic that you’re interested in reaching. You can even target individuals based on their particular behaviors and interests, want to target men in their late twenties, living around Gurgaon, interested in gym equipments?- PPC can do that for you.

Experimentation

With pay-per-click, you have the option to eliminate any aspects of your campaign that aren’t working in your favor. For example, if you can’t decide between two different CTA’s, you can actually test both of them with other ads, to assess which performs best according to your preference over a set period. This is the same concept, whether it’s your CTA tagline, meta description, or your landing page.

We give you the best SEM services

Internet searches are now evolving to include voice & image searches and also searches within app environments. As search engine advertising continues to take up more space, you can very likely expect organic search to continue to be pushed further down the page. Investing in a good search engine marketing strategy and being able to implement it effectively is important. We at Halfcircles help optimize the search campaigns for our clients to improve their online presence. We will help you execute an ideal SEM strategy according to the needs of your industry that delivers the best results for your business.