How to Create a Highly Converting SEM Marketing Campaign Step by Step that Drives More Search Traffic
How to Create a Highly Converting SEM Marketing Campaign Step by Step that Drives More Search Traffic
The 2023 Complete Beginner's Guide for Businesses and Content Creators
Table of Contents
Search engine marketing is a method to receive traffic to a website through paid search. Strategic SEM campaigns give businesses opportunities to gain more online visibility and open up unique markets to new prospects or ideal customers.
Create a Winning Search Engine Marketing Campaign in 5 Steps
The following step-by-step guide will show you how to create a high-converting search engine marketing campaign.
Step #1: Plan for Specific SEM Long Tail Keywords
SEM Keyword research is vital to the success of a search marketing campaign. For example, if you advertise to someone searching for a “car,” you are going against 11 billion other webpages in both paid and organic search results.
Why Specific Long Tail Keywords are Beneficial for SEM Marketing Campaign
The problem with broad term keywords is that we don’t really know the specific intent behind the search term. Therefore, if the marketing campaign targets a generic or a single broad term, you may need to spend an obscene amount of advertising budget going after highly competitive keywords.
Leverage Intent-Based Long Tail Keywords in SEM Marketing Campaign
To ensure the marketing dollars are put to good use, start by narrowing down a list of long-tail keywords, which are extended phrases that typically yield lower search volume but provide a more precise intent behind the searched terms.
Try different variations and combinations of the keyword phrases that best represent your products or services. The right keywords can uncover new market shares.
Example of Long Tail Keywords in SEM Marketing Campaign
Going back to the “car” example, let’s say your target audience is someone searching for a “current year blue four-door sedan on sale”. This long-tail keyword tells you that the visitor is specific about the car’s age, color, model, and is looking for a discount. You can significantly narrow down what a potential customer is looking for by applying more specific descriptions to a keyword.
Focus on High Intent-Based SEM Keywords
Capitalize on the SEM keyword strategy specific to the high intent-based search queries. It can translate into increased opportunities for converting a lead or sale. The key is identifying and narrowing down a list of quality long-tail keywords unique to your business. With these keywords, you can discover and capitalize on expanded niche markets.
Learn more about SEM keyword research strategies.
Step #2 Utilize SEM Tools for Effective SEM Keyword Research
Next step, how do you find the most profitable and relevant keywords for your website? One of the best routes is to research long-tail keywords that do not have a large search volume but shows great user intent. For instance, it can be intent to make a purchase or to learn about a topic. Competition for those keywords will be comparatively less.
There are many quality SEM tools out there that can take the guesswork out of the equation.
Top 2 Free SEM Keyword Research Tools
Free SEM Keyword Tool #1. Google Ads Keyword Planner
Google Ads Keyword Planner is one of the best keyword research tools, and it is free when you have a Google Ads account. The account itself is free to sign up, and you only pay when you start to run Ad campaigns.
Advantages of Google Ads Keyword Planner
Google Ads Keyword Planner does exactly what you need it to do – comprehensive keyword research. You can use it to brainstorm or research the best terms for SEM ad campaigns.
Google Ads Keyword Planner provides keyword suggestions and estimates the amount of traffic you could receive for each keyword within Google. Additional data are provided to help you determine the most suitable keywords to advertise. For instance, it uncovers keyword competition level and the suggested bid price of each keyword.
A Google Ads Tip
Remember to select the target geographical area, such as defining the following parameters.
Defining Geographical Parameters in Google Ads
- The country where you do business.
- The primary language of the region you do business in.
- Leave the date range as the default setting, as the last 12 months is sufficient data.
Free SEM Keyword Tool #2. Bing Ads Keyword Research and Opportunities
Like Google Ads, Bing Ads provides a platform for search engine marketing campaigns. It is free to sign up, and you can easily import most of the Google Ads campaigns directly into Bing Ads.
Advantages of Bing Ads Keyword Research and Opportunities
The Bing Keyword Planner allows you to input keywords and returns search volume data aggregated from Bing, Yahoo, and AOL search networks. All these data represent SEO organic searches. The stats on the search volume are based on the previous six months of historical records.
The Bing Ads Keyword Research tool generates keyword suggestions in different languages specific to the respective countries, which helps target content to specific demographics. Although search volume will be smaller than the Google Ads Keyword Planner data, it is still a reliable research platform for getting additional keyword search volume.
Advanced SEM Keyword Research Tool
Basic keyword research tools are sufficient to get you started on preliminary SEM keyword research. However, consider using an advanced SEM tool when you want to strategically win and consistently stay on top of the competition.
Advantages of Advanced SEM Keyword Research Tool
An advanced SEM tool can conduct SEM audits, run competitor analysis, and complete comprehensive keyword research to identify lucrative high-intent keywords. You can even uncover the competitors’ ad copywriting and their top-ranked keywords.
Best Advanced SEM Keyword Research Tool: Semrush
We use and recommend Semrush for comprehensive SEO and SEM keyword performance tracking. It is especially handy in discovering lucrative and high-yield keywords for search engine marketing ad campaigns.
How Semrush Works to Improve SEM Marketing Campaigns
- Uncover related keywords and phrase-match keywords to top-ranked search phrases.
- Reveal additional opportunities for long-tail keyword discoveries and identify different word mixes.
- Calculate every keyword’s competition level.
- Calculate and analyze each keyword’s cost-per-click.
- Estimate monthly keyword search volume.
- Provide historic monthly trends of keyword search volume.
Semrush
Best for SEM Marketing-
Discover all the best keywords to target and bring traffic to your site through Semrush keyword research tool.
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Audit webpages and suggest ideas to improve SEM performance.
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Uncover all of the keywords and content in competitors'SEM strategies.
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Research competitors to uncover their display ads and SEM marketing campaigns.
Step #3. Optimize and Integrate Keywords with SEM Marketing Campaign Landing Pages
When potential customers search on Google and have a good idea about what they are looking for online, they are more likely to respond to call-to-actions. Make sure your landing pages are highly relevant to the keywords in the ad copywriting so you can maximize conversion.
Integrating relevant SEM keywords into landing pages reinforces the SEM ad campaign and improves the conversion rate to drive call-to-action, such as closing a sale.
Top 4 Types of Winning Keywords to Integrate into SEM Marketing Campaign Landing Pages
- High buyer’s intent keywords
- Unique and descriptive keywords
- Keywords relevant to products and services
- Call-to-action keywords
Step #4 Budget-Control SEM Marketing Campaign Cost
After identifying a list of keywords, let’s discuss how to budget an SEM ad campaign. Determining how much you should spend on search engine marketing campaigns depends on many factors. However, with relevant data and research, you can come up with a feasible budget to get started.
Top 4 Factors that Influence SEM Keyword Pricing
- Industry
- Seasonality
- Market competition
- Google Ads Quality Score
What is Google Ads Quality Score?
Quality score is essentially Google’s 1-10 ranking system for ads. The quality score measures relevancy, click-through rate, and overall user experience delivered through an SEM campaign. Google uses this rating system to determine the quality of ads and landing pages through the keywords used to run the ads.
How Google Ad Quality Affects SEM Marketing Campaign Cost
Since Google Ads assigns each ad copy with a quality score, the higher the score, the less you pay for clicks on the ad. Remember to keep your overall budget in mind and avoid ego-bidding wars with competitors.
Learn more about top SEM Marketing campaign cost control strategies.
Step #5 Write Compelling SEM Marketing Campaign Messaging
You are up against more competition than you think. Competitors are not just limited to your direct parallels.
For example, a local car dealership may compete directly with dealerships of the same brand, any other brands in the same geographic location, or even used car dealerships from another state that provides free delivery service.
Stand Out from the Competition with Unique SEM Ad Copywriting
Spend time researching which competitors are advertising for the same keywords as you. Highlight the unique qualities of your business in ad messaging to entice visitors. Work on differentiating your ad copywriting from the competition.
Include a Benefit Statement in the SEM Ad Copywriting
Create eye-catching incentives or benefit statements to improve SEM ad click-through rate. Benefit statements encourage visitors to check out your website. Focus on identifying and promoting the best features of your products or services on the ad landing page.
Example of SEM Ad Copywriting with Benefit Statement
- 50% off
- Free gift
- Buy one get one free
- Free shipping
- Best-seller of the year
- One thousand five-star reviews
Keep Testing SEM Marketing Campaign Ad Messaging
Persistence is the key to long-term search engine marketing success. There is never one good phrase you should stick to for all of your SEM ad campaigns. Visitors appeal to different communication styles, so it is important to customize different campaign messaging for various audience groups.
Test different variations of your ad messaging over a period of time. You will find the most profitable one with the highest return on investment, lowest cost per acquisition, and lowest cost-per-click.
Learn more about SEM ad copywriting strategies to increase click-through and conversion rate.
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