Thursday, July 28, 2016

Why Search Engine Marketing (SEM) gives faster results

Search Engine Marketing (SEM) is yet be exploited in Sri Lanka. There are a lot of companies who talk about Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) but the truth is no one can fool Google. You can optimise as per Google webmaster tools but if you want a successful lead generation method the best is to focus on SEM ( For Google use-Google Adwords).

It may sound simple but it is a process that needs to be well thought through and hence it is important to spend some time in understanding the concepts and the tools available. Ex: via Google Adwords account.

Following are some steps to be followed in order to have a successful SEM Strategy:
  1. Identify your Digital Marketing Objectives
You need to identify what you want to achieve from your SEM campaign. Also, the objectives you identify needs to be measurable. Hence, develop SMART objectives.
  1. Prioritise on what you want
You may have many things you want to achieve but identify the most important of them and focus on them.
  1. Identify your target audience
Your target audience plays a major role as they will be the receivers of your products/services. Hence, you need to identify them by Gender, Location, Age, Interests, etc... This will help in getting better results from the campaign.
  1. Identify the keywords relevant to your product/service/brand
It is critical to know what your Target Audience would type on Search Engines to find your product/service/brand. These are commonly known as Keywords as they are the words that your target audience will make a mental relation with your product/service/brand. There is a key word tool Google Adwords provide which will help in identifying the best keywords to bet on. 
  1. Identify the placement sites
Google allows you to select websites, You tube videos, etc.. in order for you to target the Ad. These are known as Placements and Google calls the network of such sites as Google Display Networks (GDN). It is always good to know where you will have to place the Ad as it will help in running an effective campaign. You may use Google Trends and sites such as Alexa to see the rankings of webpages. 


Alexa top 10 websites in Sri Lanka : http://www.alexa.com/topsites/countries/LK

  1. Create unique/catchy, text/image/video which you would use as the Ad content
No matter what strategy you create it is important to have attractive Ad content. In order to get your clicks your Target Audience needs to get attracted or generate interest on your content.

  1. Create Call-for Action.
Call for action can be to download product details, register on a form, request for     information/call, etc..

            8.      Launch
If you have followed the above steps then you are ready to launch your campaign.
            9.      Monitor
There is no point of any campaign if it is not monitored and measured. You need to make sure whether the intended results were achieved. Measure the clicks achieved, the enquiries made, the visits to the target location, etc... If you do notice a gap, go back to the above steps and change certain parameters. The best way to learn is by tweaking and meddling around.

All the best with your campaigns and please leave any comments and I will try my best to respond!

Following are some good links which will give you more insights on the topic:

Starting with Google Adwords: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tx2L6EGa9DY



2 comments:

Uditha Sumathipala said...

Good explanation Yasas, could you explain what actually SL marketing firms do when they infer they are leaders in SEO? are they following the sequence mentioned by you or are they doing something more superficial? Thanks for the article..

Yasas Gunaratne said...

To my knowledge some companies try to involve third party paid scripts. Search Engine Optimizing (SEO) is a separate area and this blog is more on SEM (Which is a paid form). However, by trying to fool search engines one may jeopardize the website as it can be black listed by the search engine. So it is always better to start with paid SEM and optimize with SEO this together will improve your organic page ranking.

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