Have you noticed the little yellow boxes that say “ad” next to the top links in a search query? That’s search engine marketing!
Because most users select the first options that are shown in search results, businesses pay to get their website linked at the top hoping that people will click their link. This is done through AdWords for Google search results.
Other search engines (Bing, Yahoo, etc.) have similar tools.
SEM is a nebulous term that can apply to either
1. Any digital marketing that involves the use of a search engine, or
2. Only paid digital marketing that involves a search engine, ie: PPC (pay-per-click). There is not an industry standard as to which definition is correct, however the latter is most commonly used.
Also SEM is the use of paid advertising listings on search engines in order to drive user traffic to your website.
Commonly known as Google Ads (formerly known as Google AdWords) and Bing Ads, you can usually see these paid listings at the very top of the search results with a little “Ad” symbol next to them. They appear because advertisers are bidding on certain search queries, like in an auction, stating how much they are willing to spend to have someone click on their ad.
When a user enters a search query, the search engine determines whether keywords match the query and enters the ad into the auction. The ad is then only shown when the bid amount is sufficient and when the ad has a high “Quality Score” (a metric that determines whether your ad is relevant to the search query).
Search Engine Marketing is also the act of promoting or selling products or services via search engines. This would include search engine optimization and any digital advertising through search engines, such as Google search ads and Microsoft advertising. This does not include other digital marketing types such as social media management or social media advertising.
It is a marketing term that describes a marketing approach where you gain traffic and visibility through a search engine. You can pay for a higher spot on a search engine, or you can try to be one of the first results organically through Search Engine Optimization.