Search Engine Advertising

What is Search Engine Advertising?

Search Engine Advertising (in short: SEA), is a part of search engine marketing and thus an integral part of online marketing. Search engine advertising is a range of paid-for ads that are mostly displayed on the results pages of search engines like Google.

What is SEA? 

Website owners don’t just rely on a search engine’s organic results to reach users and potential customers. It’s also possible to run paid-for ads that can be displayed on search results pages to match the search criteria and user characteristics. While organic search results may be affected by techniques that are influenced by keyword search engine optimization, paid-for advertisements are classified as search engine advertising. In order to place interactive advertising in search engines, website operators must register with an advertising network. These networks control the activation of such advertisements and also regulate the pricing, design and visibility of the displays. One of the most popular networks is Google AdWords. Website owners use these advertisements to secure a more extensive reach for their website, and thus a better response to the desired keywords. The ads are activated whenever user data matches the target-group data collected by Google. To ensure a website owner’s advertising is likely to reach matching users and potential customers, Google places the ads above (and under) the organic search results so that they are clearly visible. Although these snippets are labelled as advertisements, they look very similar to the organic search results. The searcher therefore accepts search engine advertising – and is more likely to click on it – even though it is of more limited value.

Factors Affecting Visibility and Position

Where and how often an ad is displayed in the search engine results is dependent on various factors. Google AdWords – like most networks – auctions off advertising space for each keyword. However, the winner is not necessarily the one who offers the highest price, but must be the one who in addition can also provide the most appropriate site for the desired keyword. Google automatically calculates a “quality score” for participating sites. The network checks a site’s relevance and how it displays the desired keywords as well as how users of this website have reacted in the past. Have they chosen to quit the domain without further action (= high bounce rate)? How long have users remained on the site (= high dwell time)? Or has the website persuaded users to complete a conversion? Google ranks the site according to these factors with a value between 1 (irrelevant for the keyword) and 10 (highly relevant for the keyword). In addition, the network bases its pricing on the previous bidding history of each keyword. Those keywords frequently clicked in the past will be more sought after, and normally more expensive, than less-popular keywords. The advertisers make their bids in line with these pricing assessments. Google then multiplies each bid by its “quality factor” and so determines the winner of the auction. The winner’s advert will be displayed most frequently and/or displayed in the best position.

Example of an auction: The keyword “shoes” has an average of 165,000 monthly searches. It is highly competitive, and Google is proposing a bid price of 80 cents (per click on the ad). Website (A), with a quality factor of 5, would achieve an AdRank of 4 against this bid price (5 x 0.8). However, website (B), with a quality factor of 10, would actually achieve an AdRank of 8 (10 x 0.8). Thus, in order to secure a winning bid for the best advertising space, Website A would have to offer at least $1.61 to receive the award (5 x 1.61 = 8.05).

Targeting Factors

Advertisements displayed in the SERPs are matched to keyword searches. So a user searching for the keyword “shoes” will be presented with advertisements selling shoes. In addition to the keywords, there are other factors Google may consider when displaying advertising, and these may also increase or decrease an advertiser’s bid. The most important targeting factors include:

• Language: Google takes the searcher’s language into account and thus only displays ads in the local language.
• Location: Ads will cost more or less depending on the country, state or city. A marketer can, for example, offer more for their ad campaigns if they want the ads to appear more frequently and more visibly in searches in Berlin.
• Daily and weekly hours: Google can display ads more or less often, on certain days, or at certain times of day. This again will influence an advertiser’s bidding behavior.
• Remarketing lists: With remarketing, adverts are displayed to users depending on how they have behaved in the past. For example, a user who has previously visited a site will have a different display experience as compared with a user who doesn’t know the site.

SEA Expenses

The billing of online advertisements can vary. For Google AdWords, the bidding represents (approximately) the maximum price the advertiser is willing to pay per click. This means the only cost incurred is the incremental charge each time a user clicks on the ad. Bidding options at a glance:

• Cost-per-click (CPC: The advertiser is charged a fixed amount each time a user clicks on the ad.
• Cost-per-acquisition (CPA: The advertiser is charged a fixed amount each time a user triggers a specific conversion.
• Cost-per- thousand (CPT: The advertiser pays for every 1000 insertions (impressions) on the Google Display Network.
• Cost-per-view (CPV: The advertiser is charged every time there is a user interaction with a video (for example, a click on a video’s call-to-action).

Types of Search Engine Marketing

• PPC. Google AdWords or Pay-Per-Click is Google’s form of online advertising. Advertisers bid on “trigger” words and phrases which prompt their ads to display in sponsored search results. Advertisers pay a fee every time someone clicks on one of their ads.
• Local. Local SEO is a type of search engine optimization (SEO) that focuses on getting your business listing to show up in Google map results. There is no charge for clicks.
• Organic. Organic SEO is a search engine optimization process that results in your website content gaining increased visibility in unpaid, non-local results. There is no charge for clicks through to your site.

Ways to Optimize Search Engine Advertising Campaigns

1. Never run just one ad
“Why not?! Wouldn’t it be smarter to run only one ad when I am just getting started?” When you run an ad, you need something to compare it to. See, we always recommend checking your bids while running two ads even if it’s your first campaign. Quick note: A bid is the amount of money that you pay per click for each ad. These are set by the search engine and can fluctuate as the market changes and depending on the quality score of your ads. Just because an ad garners several clicks or has a high click-through rate (CTR) doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s performing well. You need to determine if it’s actually converting into customers or leads. Also, when you run two ads side by side, you can compare their performance and see which one is bringing you more leads. After all, your goal is to minimize your spending on low-performing ads and increase your bidding amount for high-performing ads.

2. Determine the best match types
Keywords are a significant part of both search engine optimization and search engine advertising campaigns. You can read more about keywords in this post if you are new to SEO. Similar concepts apply to search advertising. The only difference is you are optimizing for keywords with SEO, but paying/bidding for keywords in PPC. The method of your keyword research should be about the same. Once you have done your research and identified the best keywords for each ad. You need to determine which match type is going to attract the most targeted traffic. Search engines like Google use these match types to decide which type of search queries should display your ads.

3. Determine keywords you want to avoid
Yes, there is such a thing as negative keywords. Using negative keywords is one of the best ways to control who search engines show your ads to. Also, if you are using phrase match or broad match types, there’s a chance that your ads will appear for irrelevant searches. And, you’ll want to combat this. For example, if you are selling high-end “women’s shoes”, you wouldn’t want to attract traffic that’s searching for “cheap women’s shoes”. So you might want to list “cheap” and “affordable” as negative keywords. Brainstorm the search terms or phrases that you’d want to avoid. Negative keywords will allow you to exclude these search terms from your ad campaigns so you can concentrate on targeting the right traffic. As you run ads and see the actual search queries that users are searching for. You will learn more about which negative keywords should be included for each ad.

4. Keep an eye out for new keywords
A lot of people make the mistake of thinking that just because a keyword is performing really well one month. It will continue doing so for an indefinite amount of time. You need to be well aware of the most popular search phrases with the highest search volumes and the best performing keywords that your target customers are using – at all times. Keep a track of all your keywords and check them regularly to see how they are performing. This will help you identify which keywords are profitable and which ones need to be eliminated from your campaigns. You can identify trends and adjust your bids according to your findings. There are a lot of tools you can use to come up with new keywords. We suggest using Google Keyword Planner.

5. Pay extra attention if selling seasonal products
Do you sell products or services that will be more in-demand during certain times of the year due to weather, major events, or holidays? If yes, then you should really think about increasing your budget on search engine advertising for the months leading to these periods of higher demand so as to profit from the extra traffic. And you can also add countdown customizers in your ads. For instance, during the Christmas season, people usually buy products and have it delivered before Christmas Eve. So if you have an e-commerce business, you probably have a recommended last day in shipping packages to be received on time. You can then add “Buy within 3 days to get your gift before Christmas” in your ads. Doing so has proven to be very effective.

6. Fine-tune your ad copy
What’s the one thing – other than the right keywords – that ultimately helps a user decide whether or not to click on an ad? It’s the ad copy. The content. The meat of a website page. You get the idea. Now, you don’t have to be a pro at writing when it comes to your ad copy. In our experience, simple works best. Keep it straightforward and concise. With so much content online, users have become less prone to fluff pieces and over-the-top promises. You should also have a few variations of all your ad copies so that you can try out all of them and see which one performs best. This is your chance to experiment with different phrases and language to craft your message. Take a look at your competitors’ ad copies to see what they are doing right or which points they might be missing out on. In addition, you should also optimize your ad copy with your target keywords. In fact, your ad title, URL, and description should include the keywords as well. If you want a pro to write or optimize your copy, then we have just the right people for you! Contact us to set up your search engine advertising campaigns.