Search Engine Advertising
Search engine advertising (SEA): Getting in front of search engine users by paying the likes of Google and Yahoo! for the privilege of that exposure.
aka pay-per-click, paid search, paid placement.
Almost synonymous with: Google AdWords, Yahoo! Search Marketing (formerly Overture), Microsoft AdCenter, sponsored links.
Not to be confused with: search engine optimisation, pop-ups.
The Summary
- “Search is the new direct marketing tool”, The Interactive Advertising Bureau
- A bit like any other form of advertising, but on search engines
- Different to other forms of advertising, in that people are actively looking for what you offer.
- Get yourself listed on all the major search engines from Ask Jeeves to Yahoo!
- He who pays most, gets to be number 1
The Detail
Did you know that there are people asking for exactly what you offer all the time? Wouldn’t it be great if you could just grab them – right at their point of need – and give them what they’re looking for?
Done right, that is exactly what search engine advertising achieves. It’s about paying to get your message in front of those people at the very moment they decide to tell the world about their need. In many ways, it is the ultimate form of permission marketing.
You are probably familiar with sponsored links such as the ones highlighted in the Google screen shot (and likewise the listings down the right hand side). All the major search engines (Google, Yahoo!, MSN, Ask Jeeves, AOL, to name but a few) have these listings in their results pages.
They are pretty much universally called “Sponsored Links” but they could have equally been called “adverts”. Everybody in those listings is paying for the privilege of being there. Actually, they’re bidding for the right to be there. If you outbid your competitors, you’ll be number one – within seconds. To understand why your competitors are prepared to pay, read our “Reasons to be doing search engine advertising” article).
So how do you go about this SEA?
Here are the steps:
- Work out what phrases your potential customers are likely to use when they use a search engine (such as Google or Yahoo!) to research or buy the service or product you offer.
- Write a few lines of text that convey your unique selling points
- Submit your phrases and text adverts to Google AdWords or one of its competitors.
- Pay the search engine each time someone clicks through to your website (hence pay-per-click (PPC))
And that’s it. Easy
Well on the surface anyway. Like most things that are seemingly easy to do, there is a big difference between doing it and doing it well. To get some indication of the complexities, you might want to read our thoughts on how an agency can benefit you.
