Search Engine Marketing (SEM)
Commonly referred to as Pay-Per-Click (PPC) marketing, these are the small ads that appear on the search engine results pages. There is no cost for these ads when they are displayed, but when a person clicks on an ad, they are taken to your website and you are charged for that click.
For brand new websites, SEM is the fastest method for being seen in the search engines and driving targeted traffic to your website. The recommended process includes:
Campaign set up
This entails a thorough analysis and selection of keyword phrases most likely to be used by your target audience. Using a purchased keyword report and the search engine marketer's own selection process, hundreds of keyword phrases will be identified and placed into different ad groups. Ad copy will then be written for each of these ad groups. Accounts on the major search engines will be opened, the campaigns will be installed and launched.
Monthly ad budget
An initial monthly ad spend of $1,000 is recommended to start. This equates to approximately $33 per day. To prevent your ad spend from going over budget, a daily limit will be imposed and once reached, your ads will stop appearing for that day.
On-going campaign management
The performance of the PPC campaign is monitored and adjusted. Poorly performing keyword phrases are removed, ad copy is tweaked and money is reallocated to finance the better performing ads. Return on Investment (ROI) reports will be provided to you showing which ads are driving the most traffic to your website and which ads are best at converting visitors into buyers.
PPC campaign costs
In addition to the monthly ad spend there will be a one-time campaign set up fee and a monthly management fee charged as either a fixed dollar amount or a percentage of the monthly ad spend.