To take a business from its current level to the next, companies need to spend on marketing and branding. It’s common to see ads of a product or service you have just searched on Google or checked out on an online store. These ads keep following you wherever you go on the internet — Facebook, YouTube, and other sites. This happens as part of what is called “remarketing”. It is an important branch of digital marketing and it begins when you search for a product or service on the search engine. However, it is neither PPC nor SEO. It’s a part of what we call search engine marketing or SEM.
SEM and PPC are not interchangeable
As the importance of digital marketing continues to grow at a scorching pace, the difference between PPC and SEM seems to be fudged and diluted. To a lot of people in the digital marketing arena, one is interchangeable for the other. But this is not right and such attempts undermine the edge that each of these two terms brings to digital marketing. A clear understanding of these two terms would help marketers choose the right tools to achieve their goals. Between PPC and SEM, PPC seems to be a popular idea. There is no problem with the popularity that PPC enjoys but this popularity shouldn’t dilute the concept of SEM.
SEM is a broader concept
SEM refers to paid campaigns on the internet. Many of these campaigns such as PPC (Pay Per Click) use keywords with high search volumes and by definition, this area of digital marketing belongs to SEO (Search Engine Optimization). So, SEM would tend to include both PPC and SEO. But SEM is a much broader concept that encapsulates, besides PPC and SEO, several other paid-for strategies such as remarketing and social media marketing. For example, a PPC ad on a search engine may get a boost from paid-for advertisements on third-party platforms like YouTube, Amazon, or an industry news portal.
Remarketing and display ads are not part of PPC. But they also come under SEM. Social media has become as popular as search engines. Given this, they have come up as a very powerful medium of advertising. Both PPC and Social Media Advertising use SEO to increase their ROI. In this light, SEM includes PPC, SEO, and other strategies that aid and support PPC and SEO to increase their effectiveness. As some elements of SEO are non-paid and organic, a comprehensive definition of SEM would include both paid-for and non-paid efforts to make digital marketing initiatives through search engines more effective.
PPC and its advantages
PPC stands for pay per click and it refers to online advertising on the Search Engine Results Page (SERP). When an internet user clicks the ad, the advertiser pays the publisher. The benefit of this advertising model is that the advertiser has to pay only when someone clicks the ad. It means an assured value in return for every dollar spent on advertising. This advertising model drives traffic to the client’s website which brings engagement. From search engines, the PPC model of advertising has moved to social media platforms. It means advertisers have more options now when they plan for PPC ad campaigns. Compared to other models and techniques of internet advertising such as banner ads for a specific period of time, PPC is more cost-effective.
Why PPC would need SEM?
The only drawback with the PPC model is that your ad will pop up on the SERP only when the keyword searched on the search engine matches with the keywords in your PPC ad. For example, if your ad is about fancy shoes and has related keywords in its copy, a keyword such as “teenager” may not bring up your ad on the SERP if it’s not part of your PPC ad copy. Another problem with PPC ads is securing the keywords with high search volume through competitive bidding for your PPC ad.
However, SEM can help improve the effectiveness of your PPC ad by making it known to internet users through paid-for and organic methods.
Differences between SEM and PPC
● SEM comes with many optimization tools with which you can modify the architecture of a website where PPC is only an advertising model
● PPC is cost-effective and easy to use while SEM can encompass a broad spectrum of digital marketing efforts which can sometimes look complex and difficult
● SEM is a long-term strategy while PPC can bring traffic to the website from the moment it’s live on the internet
● With SEM, visibility is much higher while PPC ads are limited to the search engine and the keywords it uses
In conclusion
SEM is a holistic and long-term approach to digital marketing. It leverages paid-for methods but is not shy of using SEO to aid and support the campaign. PPC lends the advertisers greater control over the campaign and budget. Also, it brings instant results in terms of growth in traffic. However, when you factor in the reality that more people click on organic results, you can’t escape from the inevitability of SEM practices in promoting a PPC campaign.
Setting up a business is easier than making it grow. In this context, choosing the perfect advertising tool can be a game changer for your business. To meet the need for visibility and traffic, both SEM and PPC have their roles cut out. You should not miss out on any!