Goal Setting

As with many of our services, the first step in effective Search Engine Marketing [SEM] is to define your goals.  Once we know your goals, we can complete an assessment of your advertising options, your competition, a budget and other useful information.  From this initial phase, a Advertising Plan is developed, perhaps in conjunction with other SEO and SEP efforts, such that there is common understanding of the goals and milestones to achieve those goals.

  SEM-Antics™

We strongly recommend any new, or changed, SEM effort have for its first stage an assessment period we call SEM-Antics™.  During this phase, and before large expenditures, we work to test various forms of your advertising to identify the better combinations and to, potentially, develop new concepts for later use.  On review of those tested advertisements, we will then develop the remainder of the Advertising Plan and implement it.

  PPC and CPM

PPC, or Pay Per Click, and CPM, or Cost Per Mil [also known as Cost per iMpression] are different methods of calculating the basic cost unit for online advertising.  PPC is paid for each time a person licks on an ad.  CPM is piad for every 1,000 impressions of an ad [that is a count of 1,000 times the ad is generated on a page for a cnsumer to view].

There are a number of places to advertise on a CPM or PPC basis.  However, the big three are Google, Yahoo! and MSN.

Google currently has about one-half of the entire search market.  It also offers some sophisticated tools and methods for helping a company to identify better ads, better approaches and generally provides good customer support.  Google also has an extensive Content Network in addition to its Search Network.  The use of ads on these two networks should be handled differently.  Google's Content Network offers a variety of outlets, but also allows, as does its Search Network, for regional, language-based and other methods of segmented your ad audience.  Generally speaking, any serious effort undertaken must include Google's system.

Yahoo! is considered the next most popular search engine.  Estimates of its reach range from just over 12% to nearly 25% of the US search market.  Yahoo! also has a Search Network and a Content Network.  However, Yahoo!'s typical user is different from Google's and the same ad used on Google will almost assuredly get different results than that realized on Yahoo!.

MSN, while a part of the Microsoft® family, has been the third place search engine for some time.  Like the others, it does have a network and millions of users every month.  Further, it also is understood to have a completely different user profile than either Yahoo! or Google.  Again, an ad that is successful on MSN may not prove as successful on Google or Yahoo!.  MSN has released Live.com - a search engine.  It has a basic interface similar to that which Google uses and is reported to have an improved search algorithm that will allow it to more effectively compete against Google.  As this occurs, the overall importance of MSN/Live will likely change as well as their typical user's profile.

Beyond the three main search engines are other search engines, including foreign-based engines, and a wide variety of non-affiliated sites that accept various forms of advertising.  Depending on your organization's needs, you may find that these alternative sources of advertising, that may include forms of advertising such as Banners, are more targeted and more effective for you than the major Internet brands.  Using our SEM-Antics™ program may help you identify where it is best to place which ad for maximizing your advertising budget.

In addition to SEM efforts, you should also strongly consider the benefits of Local Search.  

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