In today’s digital age, businesses are always on the lookout for ways to boost their online presence and draw in more customers.
Pay-Per-Click (PPC) and Search Engine Marketing (SEM) are popular advertising strategies frequently used interchangeably. Although they may appear similar at first glance, there are a few differences between them that can have a significant impact on your marketing efforts.
To end your confusion, we’ve decided to gather all of the nuances and distinctions of both strategies. Continue reading our PPC vs. SEM comparison to learn which is better suited to your business objectives and some tactics on how to use them effectively.
Pay-Per-Click (PPC) Marketing – Briefly Explained
When you Google something, the first websites that come up are labeled as ads. Well, those are regarded as PPC advertisements. It comes as no surprise that PPC marketing helps businesses elevate brand awareness by 80%!
Pay-Per-Click marketing, or PPC for short, is a form of paid online advertising. It’s what causes the Search Engine Result Page (SERP) to prioritize your product/content when a relevant keyword is entered. In exchange, you’ll be charged a fee each time someone clicks on your ad.
PPC ads aren’t limited to search engines like Google or Bing; they can also be used on social media platforms and websites. Plus, they come in a variety of formats, such as videos, images, text, or a combination of any of these.
The trick here is to know how to target the right audience and tailor ads that appeal to them without exceeding your budget. Get your free strategy call now to have one of our specialized digital marketers put you on the right track.
Search Engine Marketing (SEM) – Briefly Explained
Moving on to Search Engine Marketing (SEM), which is a broader strategy for increasing SERP visibility. To be more specific, SEM encompasses both paid and non-paid digital marketing strategies that help businesses increase traffic to their websites.
For example, Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a non-paid SEM strategy. It primarily depends on organically driving visitors through tactics such as proper content formatting and using relevant keywords. On the other hand, PPC is one of the paid SEM approaches.
PPC vs. SEM: Distinctions Revealed
By now, you have a general idea of what distinguishes SEM from PPC. That is, PPC advertising is a key player in SEM’s paid strategies. Now, let’s go over the three major differences between them in detail:
Scope and Cost
Since PPC is a subset of SEM, its scope of use is relatively limited. It has the specific purpose of creating paid advertising campaigns. The tactics used to ensure a successful campaign aren’t as diverse as those found in SEM, but that doesn’t make them any less effective.
When you choose PPC, you must set a budget for the fee charged for the number of clicks on your ad. As a result, some companies use it as a short-term marketing strategy to cut costs.
That said, well-rounded PPC campaigns can have a high Return on Investment (ROI), making them worthwhile.
Moving on to the SEM side, you’ll find countless strategies to improve your ranking and visibility. Some require payment, while others are completely free. Consequently, SEM offers both temporary and long-term advertising solutions for businesses.
Ad Placement
You’ll have more control over where your ad appears with PPC marketing. This form of paid advertising even allows ads for websites with low domain ratings to rank.
The criteria for your ad positioning will vary depending on the advertising platform. Sometimes ad placements are done automatically, and other times filters are available to select the desired placement.
But generally, when using PPC, marketers typically place bids to compete on specific spots on platforms.
For example, if you want your ad to appear first in SERPs, you must pay the highest fee available. If you want to spend less money, other options allow you to place your ad before organic results or on the first page.
Using organic SEM strategies gives you less control over the visibility of your ad. It’s determined by search engine algorithms and users’ search behavior. Yet, by optimizing your content and website, you can boost your chances of ranking in the SERPs without spending a dime.
Results Display Time
Going with the PPC approach translates to faster results. After taking your time crafting the campaigns, you’ll be able to launch them in no time. This means you can expect brand awareness and website traffic to rise relatively quickly.
In contrast, ranking on Google’s first page can take anywhere from three to six months if you use SEO, a non-paid SEM strategy. That’s assuming your website is well-optimized and contains high-quality content; otherwise, it could take much longer.
3 Tips to Unlock the Power of PPC Marketing
Many businesses are utilizing PPC advertising because of its favorable outcomes. While there are several tactics for ensuring a successful campaign, there are three you should always keep in mind:
1. Set Goals and Monitor Progress
Setting objectives and tracking results are the groundwork for any fruitful PPC campaign. If you skip this step, you’ll almost certainly waste a lot of time, money, and effort.
When you begin designing your ads, you must decide what you want to achieve from them. Each response will direct you to a different type of PPC ad.
Assume you want people who show interest in your website to return, whether for increased site traffic or lead generation. In this case, you should use remarketing ads; they place cookies on visitors’ browsers using a special tracking code, allowing you to show them ads in the future.
As is often said, what gets measured gets managed, which is certainly true for PPC strategy. Always keep track of how your ads are performing according to your goals. That way, you’ll know what’s a hit and what’s a miss, so you can adjust your bids to save money on unsuccessful ads. Google Analytics is a widely used free tool that can help you with this.
2. Relate to Your Niche
When creating your ad sets, make sure to include different groups of keywords relevant to your niche. You should ensure your target audience has already searched for these keywords for your ad to appear to potential leads.
Most importantly, you must understand the intent behind searching for these keywords. This will allow you to personalize your ads and thus increase click-throughs.
As a side note, in digital marketing, the intent is classified into four types: navigational, informational, commercial, and transactional.
Let’s say you discovered that light strings are one of the most frequently searched keywords. Creating an ad for users who want to know how to hang them (informational) isn’t the same as making one for users who want to buy them (commercial or transactional).
3. Optimize the Landing Page
Landing pages, believe it or not, are a make-or-break factor in PPC ads. They’re the pages visitors are directed to when they click on your ad.
Usually, people who see a simple web design, relevant content to what they were promised, and other enticing elements are more likely to convert into lead customers. On the flip side, if they see a poorly designed page crammed with visuals and irrelevant content, they’ll most probably leave.
3 SEM Techniques to Boost Your Online Presence
In the realm of SEM, there are three simple yet powerful strategies for increasing your online visibility:
1. Find Low-Competition Keywords
After digging out keywords your target audience searches for, identify those with little competition; you can do this manually or with AI tools. If you use them to create high-quality advertisements or content, you’ll have a great chance of ranking on SERPs.
2. Develop Quality Backlinks
Backlinks are one of the top three elements influencing a website’s ranking on Google’s first page. They’re the embedded links on websites that, when clicked, take you to another website. The more websites link to your content, the more credible it appears to search engines.
Therefore, you should focus on creating content that’s useful and worthy of being linked to. You should also monitor your competitors’ backlinks for any gaps you can fill. Semrush is an excellent tool for conducting this analysis.
3. Post Content Frequently
Even if you’re selling a product or service, having a blog section will help your SEM significantly.
Constantly supply your website with new, valuable content, as that’ll help boost your rankings. Besides, providing a comprehensive guide that answers your audience’s questions will improve your website’s authority.
Think of HubSpot, which offers several software tools while also providing its audience with informative blog posts, newsletters, podcasts, and so on.
Wrapping Up
You’re now up to date on all the fundamentals as well as the differences between PPC and SEM strategies!
PPC advertising is a go-to for any business wanting to see positive results quickly. If time isn’t an issue and spending money on ads is, you can turn to SEM non-paid strategies. Contact us now, and we’ll help you make the most of both directions.
