Intro:
Search Engine Marketing or SEM, is a form of Internet marketing that involves the promotion of websites by increasing their visibility through search engine results pages in paid advertising. Platforms in which you can use SEM consist of Google AdWords, Bing ads, YouTube ads, Yahoo ads, etc.
How it works: when you pay for targeted keywords that your website is focused on and your page shows up on the search engine results page.
It is important to note that SEM is strictly paid ads on search engine results pages by paying for advertisement and placement on certain search engine results pages. Anything that is not paid advertising is not considered SEM.
SEM Facts:
Interesting facts about SEM is that you can use different keyword match types, meaning that you can pay for a broad match, broad match modifier, phrase match, or exact match. The picture below describes how each keyword match varies in the reach and targeting they perform. The more broad the keyword ad search, the higher the reach you will obtain, and vise versa for exact match, the more sharp the keyword ad search is, the lower reach you will obtain.
Keyword Example: “Women’s Hats”
A broad match would be “ladies hat”, in this category you can have misspellings, grammar issues or slightly different words and the ad will still work.
A Broad Match Modifier would be “hats for women”, in this case as long as the search contains a modified term the ad will still work.
A Phrase Match would be “buy women’s hats”, in this case a variation or the keywords will still work for your ad.
An Exact Match would be “women’s hats”, in this case the search is the exact same as the keyword and will be effective for your ad.
