Search Engine Advertising or SEA is a part of search engine marketing. As a key element of online marketing, search engine advertising, also known as SEO advertising, helps your brand get great visibility and conversions through paid ads that are mostly displayed on the search engine results pages. With mobile searches getting ahead of desktop searches, mobile search ads are getting all the attention these days. Effective mobile advertising campaigns are central to any business’s survival.
Let’s Explore SEA
Just organic SEO alone can’t guarantee better visibility and reach for your site. Paid-for ads that are displayed on search results pages when users search for certain keywords need to be part for your marketing strategy. Paid ads fall under search engine advertising. Businesses need to register with an advertising network such as Google AdWords to run their search ads. The pricing, design and visibility of the search ads vary with the networks.
The search advertising mechanism
The search ads are displayed or “triggered” whenever the search engine finds a match between user data and the collected target-group data. By placing the search ads above and below organic search results, search engines like Google ensures that potential customers actually see your ads. Labelled as advertisements, search ads have a similar look and feel as that of organic search results, and the likelihood of users clicking on search ads is very high.
Visibility and Position
Multiple factors decide the exact placement and frequency of the search ads. Google AdWords, and a majority of other networks, auctions off advertising space for each keyword. The point to note here is that search ads that link to sites with relevant and useful original content related to keywords have a better chance of featuring on search results pages, provided they also offered higher bids.
Google Quality Score
Participating websites are assigned a quality score by Google. The score is determined based on the site’s relevance, use of relevant keywords and the past behaviour and response of users of the website. Frequently searched keywords will be charged higher. Google multiplies each bid by a “quality factor” to choose the winner. The winning advert will be displayed in the best position with a higher frequency.
Ad display factors
Multiple factors such as the search language, location, desired days and time of ads, remarketing lists and more affect how ads are displayed. Businesses need to strategically consider such targeting factors while designing their search ads including ads on AdWords.