Search Engine Optimization, SEO, Search Engine Marketing, SEM… these are the terms to describe what we do at Increase Visibility.

Search Engine Marketing or Search Engine Optimization?

SEO Is: The process of getting your website indexed and ranked for specific terms in the “organic” search results. By organic search we mean the “unpaid” results on the search engines. The search engine optimization process involves having the right content on your pages – content that has your targeted search terms in the headings, body copy and meta tags. SEO makes up the majority of what we do. The investment in getting in the organic listings pays for itself quickly, and can be sustained long term.

SEM, or search engine marketing is when you pay to play on the search engines.

It’s called pay-per-click, or sponsored listings. The benefit of SEM is that you can get to page 1 fast, the downside is that it only lasts as long as you are paying for the placement. The way to create a winning combination is by having a destination page that converts well (the page people click through to from the ad, or the landing page) .

Search engine marketing consists of setting up effective pay per click (PPC) campaigns with the search terms people interested in your product use most, then the creation of ads that have a high click-through rate, and a landing page with offers that convert clicks to sales or opt-ins (leads for sales prospecting).

The first thing we ask when someone is interested in Search Engine Marketing is what is a lead/sale worth to you. This is called the “allowable“.

Let’s say a prospect, or lead, is worth $50 to your company.

A PPC ad that gets clicked costs approx. $1 per click. This cost-per-click can be as low as pennies and as high as 24-$30 for some search terms. For our example let’s go with $1.

Assume your landing page gets a 10% conversion.

This means that you’d need 10 clicks for 1 conversion. So your cost-per-lead would be $10.

If your budget is $50, you’ve got a winner.

The one thing we see when it comes to SEM is, the higher the allowable, or cost target for a lead/sale, the more competitive the search terms usually are.

If the click cost was $8 (a very competitive term), and you had a conversion of 5%, you’d then need 20 clicks per conversion. Your cost now is $160 per lead. You can see how important it is to manage the click cost and the conversion cost. It is possible to get to a targeted lead cost over the course of a month’s time, by testing all the elements of the SEM campaign.

If you are looking to start a search engine marketing campaign, talk to us before you jump into it. Setting up SEM to win is a discipline, and we have some of the best PPC people in the business.

Jim Lisi
Increase Visibility