The purpose of Search Engine Marketing (SEM) is to help you quickly increase the visibility of your website on search engines. It includes both SEA (advertising) and SEO (organic).
Setting up a good SEM campaign is to ensure a great place in search results and better digital visibility.
Most SEM campaigns are paid, but well planned, they guarantee you results that will pay off immediately. Pretty cool no? Yes, but then, how to put them in place? How to define your goals? Your targets? Your budget ?
Don't worry, with a little organization, it's not that complicated. You simply have to respect these few essential points:
1. Identify your goals
This is the "why" you are doing this campaign and what you want it to bring you! They are related to you and your business. Maybe you want:
- More registrations?
- More sales?
- More visits?
- Better recognition of your brand image?
Results: Anticipate also your results according to your current needs and throughout the duration of the campaign: how many listings, sales or visits you want more. This will allow you to plan and define the budget.
2. Take an inventory of your assets
Before you start, take a quick tour of what you already have!
- Analyze your site, make sure that it's optimal, that all the links work, that the pages are legible, clear, understandable ...
- Do you have a presence on social networks ? what is the current engagement rate ?
- Do you have any important sites linking to you now?
- What People are looking for to find you?
- Look at your sales figures and also visit and interaction statistics to make sure you make the best decision in your goals.
- Make sure that the landing pages for the previously defined goals are optimized and well-built and that they make your visitors want to achieve the desired conversion.
3. Determine WHO is your target audience
Well, you will not communicate to the world. But who then? Who do you want to reach with this campaign? Be as specific as possible on your target according to the objectives of the campaign:
- Age
- Sex / Gender
- Geographic location
- Interest and Habits
- Language
- Electronic device
- ...
This will allow you to be specific about your ads, where you will broadcast them and control your budget.
4. Think about your budget
Ah, the budget ... Even if part of the campaign may be free, it's often necessary to go through the expense box. But that doesn't mean without counting! Detail all the conversions and the budget you want to allocate to each.
You can plan multiple different budgets:
- A global budget for the duration of the campaign
- A daily budget to anticipate how much can you cost / report a day
- A monthly budget that takes into account all the benefits but especially an anticipation of the risks that you could face.
Tip: Don't lower all your cards right away! You will always be able to adapt your campaign to optimize your budget and save a bit
5. Think about your keywords
It's important to choose the right keywords for each ad to make your campaign effective and achieve its goals. It takes place in 3 steps:
- Select the keywords of each ad (by mixing exact phrases to ensure quality results but also less specific keywords that will allow you to reach a wider audience)
- Group your keywords by theme for more efficiency, and allow targeted ads based on your audience's search.
- Work on your negative keywords! This will guarantee the effectiveness of your ads. That way, you prevent your ads from competing with double keywords and you guarantee a relevant search result to your target audience.
6. Write your different ads
Yes, writing your ads will also have a big role to play in the success of your campaign. It is therefore important to think carefully.
Here are a few things to think about:
- A relevant, complete and rich description
- A strong and visible call-to-action
- Visible numbers that catch the eye of your audience
- Promotional offers and their date of validity
- Your keywords that make up your company's signature here
- Elements that differentiate you from the competition
Feel free to multiply ads to refine your campaign as and when the results. But think to make them unique!
Let's go, start your campaign!
Once everything is integrated, it is now that everything is played! After a few days to let the algorithms fit for your campaigns, it will be time to scrutinize what works and what works less, and make the necessary adjustments. Stay alert of your ads, review the results with the magnifying glass to allow you to optimize your campaign which will remain evolutive during all the time of its setting on line (that will guarantee you of the result)
Consider taking into account the audience that has been most effective in accomplishing your goals to make a small retargeting campaign.
We hope this guide helps you in developing your campaign.
Remember, a SEM campaign also demands for organic SEO to ensure its success! What's great is that we have an article to help you perfect your SEO ;-) Follow us, we'll take you there!
Need help? 8P is here to help you :) Come and tell us about your campaign project, we will be happy to help you set it up!