Digital Marketing Class

SEM (Search Engine Marketing), is a form of advertising that gives businesses the opportunity to increase their visibility on SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages). While SEO (Search Engine Optimization) focuses on free organic search results, SEM heavily depends on auctions for ad placements. But marketers using SEM shouldn’t just throw money to create a competitive bid for their CPC (Cost-per-Click), they also need to create an advertisement that is relevant.

Wondering what you should do to create a more “relevant” advertisement? Think about how websites climb the rankings with SEO. Here are a few ways to increase the relevance and quality score of your advertisements:

• Know your target audience, and use keywords that they’re most likely adding to their search
  • Obtain keyword data from keyword research tools like Google Ads (including Google Keyword Planner), Google Trends, Answer the Public, Ahrefs Keyword Explorer, and Google Search Console.

• Target specific searches
  • “People are the most likely to click on paid search ads that directly answer their search queries.” (Clutch)

• Update your headlines and descriptions
  • Take advantage of upcoming holidays and events (ex. Adding “Mother’s Day Sale” to your flower shop’s headline).
  • While updating your ads
• Decrease your landing page load time
  • “Landing page load time has become an important consideration in calculating quality score” (ClickZ)
  • Check your URL speed using Google PageSpeed Insights
• Have a responsive landing page
  • How does your website perform on different devices (mobile, desktop, tablets)?

Your quality score can give you a higher ad rank, even if you bid less money than your competition.