Search Engine Marketing (SEM)
Search engine marketing, or SEM, is a form of Internet marketing that aims to promote websites by increasing their visibility to web users via search engines. Often confused with Search Engine Optimization (SEO), search engine marketing is actually a separate discipline involving the practice of buying paid search listings.
Effective search engine marketing campaigns increase your site’s traffic through the use of paid placement, contextual advertising and paid inclusion. Google Adwords and other pay per click (PPC) tools are among the most common SEM avenues.
Your website’s effectiveness depends on how many clients or customers actually see it. Now Media Group utilizes a variety of search engine marketing methods to give your business the competitive edge it needs to thrive in this ever-changing, highly competitive advertising space. To discuss your company’s custom internet presence, contact our experienced team of designers, writers and producers.
Search Engine Marketing (SEM):
Paid Placement
Paid ad placement, or pay per click (PPC), is an Internet advertising model used on search engines, advertising networks and content sites, in which advertisers pay for each click their ad receives.
Websites that utilize PPC ads will display an advertisement when a keyword query matches an advertiser's keyword list, or when a content site displays relevant content. Such advertisements are called sponsored links or sponsored ads, and appear adjacent to or above organic results on search engine results pages, or anywhere a web developer chooses on a content site.
Although many PPC providers exist, Google AdWords, Yahoo! Search Marketing, and Microsoft adCenter are the three largest network operators. At Now Media Group, we’re experienced with all three providers. We can help you maximize the value of these search engine marketing tools.
Contextual Advertising
Contextual advertising is a form of search engine marketing for advertisements appearing on websites or other media, such as content displayed in mobile browsers. The advertisements are selected and served by automated systems based on the content displayed to the user.
A contextual advertising system scans the text of a website for keywords and returns advertisements to the webpage based on what the user is viewing. The advertisements may be displayed on the webpage or as pop-up ads. Contextual advertising is also used by some search engines to display advertisements on their search results pages based on the keywords in the user’s query.
Major contextual advertising programs include: Google AdSense, the Yahoo! Publisher Network, Microsoft adCenter, and Ad-in-Motion.
Paid Inclusion
Paid inclusion is a Search Engine Marketing (SEM) product where a search engine charges fees related to inclusion of websites in their search index. Paid inclusion products are provided by many but not all search engine companies, the most notable exception being Google.
The fee structure is both a filter against superfluous submissions and a revenue generator. Typically, the fee covers an annual subscription for one webpage, which will automatically be catalogued on a regular basis. A per-click fee may also apply. Each search engine is different. Some sites allow only paid inclusion, although these have had little success. More frequently, many search engines, like Yahoo!, mix paid inclusion (per-page and per-click fee) with results from web crawling.
Contact Now Media Group
At Now Media Group, we deliver exceptional results as well as practical solutions that evolve with the Internet itself. If you are ready to launch your business to a new level of success, contact our team of developers, designers and producers today. There has never been a better time to make the Internet work for you.
Now Media Group is a custom website design and Internet marketing company. We deliver original, creative web solutions reflecting the personality, needs and vision of our clients. Remember, the design of your website will be the first impression many will have of your business or organization; it’s how you’re judged.
