I was recently reading an article by Christopher M. Knight, the Publisher and CEO of EzineArticles.com and founder of a number of other businesses, when I came across something he wrote that was painfully obvious for businesses today: "You must have mindshare before you can have market share." The hardest thing about marketing these days is not finding valuable market research or creating great-looking artwork for your advertising. The hardest thing is getting consumers to pay attention.
Nowadays there are so many distractions in so many forms. As much as 90% of everything people see and hear is instantly forgotten. And today's technology makes it easy for people to tune out advertising altogether. Satellite radio and iPods are advertising-free, and DVR (digital video recording) devices allow consumers to fast forward every commercial. The continual assault of spam e-mails, online banner ads, junk snail mail and meaningless marketing messages have desensitized an entire population of consumers. So how do you reach the people who want information on products like yours? With Search Engine Marketing (SEM).
In the first six months of 2007 alone, Google reported $1.9 billion in revenue on its Securities and Exchange 10-Q filing. And 90% of the revenue originated from advertising sales.
There must be a reason why so many businesses are advertising online with search engines such as Google and Yahoo. It's because SEM works, and the beauty of it lies in the balance between cost and effectiveness.
Let's say a homebuyer logs on to Google.com and searches for "New homes in Rancho Cucamonga CA." The top results are for businesses with Pay-Per-Click (PPC) accounts, which establish advertisers as sponsored links.
When consumers see these links and business names, it benefits the brand. But it hasn't yet cost the advertiser a thing.
You don't pay until consumers click on your link. Once they do, you have complete control over what they see. Take them to the homepage of your website or to a page that is more directly related to their search query. If the information you provide is compelling enough, consumers will likely seek additional information.
The best part of all is the powerful tracking capabilities. With Web analytics software, you'll know how many people visited your site as a result of your PPC ad and how many of those people signed up for your interest list. If you know your average revenue per lead, you can also calculate your return on investment.
Traditional types of advertising still work, but not as well as they used to. Today the cheapest, most effective and most trackable way to advertise is online. With PPC, you only pay for visitors that make it to your site. If you place an ad in the newspaper, do you only pay for people who call or visit your sales office? Google and Yahoo do, because you pay for results. That is why they make so much money, and that is why it works. Today's savvy business leaders take advantage of PPC advertising. Shouldn't you?
The Language of Search Engine Marketing
•Click Through: When a user clicks on a hypertext link and lands at the destination of that link.
•Impression: When a search engine displays a paid ad that matches a user's query.
•Organic Search Results: Unpaid listings in search engine results.
•Position: Placement of paid ads on a SERP relative to other paid and organic listings.
•SEO: Search Engine Optimization, editing content and code to improve visibility within one or more search engines.
•SERP: Search Engine Results Page, display of search query results. Both paid and organic listings.
•Viral Marketing: Increasing brand awareness through pre-existing social networks.
