Paid Search Marketing
4 SEM Myths Keeping Your Search Marketing Campaign from Taking Off
A search engine marketing campaign is a great way to give your business more visibility online and cultivate viable leads. But the search marketing world is full of misconceptions and myths that muddle the way to search marketing nirvana. If any of these reasons are keeping you from launching search marketing campaign, or you’re worried that their the culprits behind lackluster results, it’s time for a reality check. We’ve outlined four common SEM myths and why you shouldn’t let them keep you from getting the most out of your marketing efforts.
“Search marketing campaigns will improve my SEO rankings.”
Unfortunately, PPC campaigns won’t magically boost your organic search ranking – for that you’ll need to increase traffic, improve content and otherwise optimize your site. PPC campaigns can help you increase your visibility, and give you insight into how you can improve your SEO rankings. By using the keyword research that you glean from your SEM campaigns, you can determine the most effective keywords to improve your organic SEO rankings. Search marketing software often comes packed with analytics features that help you determine your most effective keywords, and can even suggest better ones to help you hone and expand your campaign.
“PPC leads are lower quality than organic search leads.”
Searchers might prefer organic search results, but studies have shown that paid search clicks have high conversion rate – Google reported an average daily conversion rate of 5.63% in late 2012. The quality of your clicks is ultimately tied to your keywords – if you use clear, accurate keywords, your ads will be shown to people who are truly interested in your product, and your campaign will drive viable leads to your site. Your conversions are further influenced by the content your visitors see when they hit your site – do you have a great landing page, or are they dumped onto an unappealing page?
Worried about click fraud? It’s shouldn’t keep you from running a SEM campaign. While click fraud does exist, advertising platforms like AdWords have developed procedures and tools to filter out invalid traffic and click fraud, minimizing the negative effects of click fraud on your campaign, ensuring that the traffic you get are higher quality leads with great potential.
“Search marketing is too expensive unless you’re a big company!”
Whether you’re launching a large, complex campaign or just testing the waters with a few choice keywords, the amount you invest in your search marketing campaign is extremely flexible. AdWords and Bing Ads let you set your maximum bid and monthly (or even daily) budget, so you can make sure that your search marketing campaign never exceeds the amount you’re willing to spend on it.
Search marketing software solutions can be costly, but the automation, management, and analytics functionality that they provide can significantly increase the returns you see on your campaigns, and can be a great investment if you’re ready to get serious about your search marketing efforts and want to scale efficiently.
“All I have to do is create a campaign and wait for the leads to roll in.”
Many novice advertisers believe that search marketing campaigns are easy to set up and leave alone to serve ads and bring in clicks, but chances are the first keywords and parameters you set aren’t going to be optimal. The most effective search marketing campaigns are the ones that are carefully honed to find the perfect keywords, serving time and target demographic. Automated search marketing solutions can make a 
huge difference when it comes to limiting to amount of time you spend managing your campaign, but search marketing gurus make sure that they check their campaigns at least once a week to make sure that they’re in top form. This is another place where a search marketing management software can be helpful, by keeping tabs on your results for you and notifying you when you need to make changes.
Inspired to launch into a search marketing campaign, or convinced that it’s time to scale up your existing campaign and reap the benefits of a stronger online advertising presence? Download our Top 10 Paid Search Marketing Solutions Report to compare the industry’s best solutions now!
- Top Expert
Ashley Dotterweich
Expert in Enterprise Software Selection
