Creating an Effective Search Engine Marketing Strategy

Published on 21.05.2026 by Chizoba T

In an increasingly competitive digital world, search engine marketing (SEM) is an effective strategy to help your business achieve the visibility you desire. When done well, it can help you increase your visibility on Google, drive targeted traffic, and convert leads into customers.

The marketing strategy combines PPC and SEO to maximize exposure on SERPs. In this article, we will walk you through the key steps of a strong SEM strategy and show you how marketers optimize each step to maximize ROI.

What is SEM?

Search engine marketing is a paid marketing method that aims to increase your website’s visibility on search engine result pages (SERPs). It involves researching the keywords people in your niche use and bidding to advertise your brand for those keywords, so your website appears alongside organic search results and helps it rank. This can, therefore, be an effective strategy for increasing your website’s visibility and attracting new customers, especially when combined with social selling to build trust.

The advertising method, also referred to as PPC advertising, features different ad formats such as:

  • Small text boxed ads.
  • Shopping ads or product listing ads.

That means you can run text ads or create interactive, interesting graphics, such as shopping and video ads, depending on which format best suits your website and your target audience. The advantage of product listing ads is that they can provide consumers with brief details, such as product reviews and prices.

The greatest advantage of search engine marketing is that it shows your brand to people who are already searching for information in your niche. These are customers who may be ready to convert and offer a powerful way to grow your business.

Difference Between SEM and SEO

While both SEM and SEO are related, they are also different. Let us look at some key differences:

Paid Versus Free

As noted earlier, SEM is usually paid, meaning that businesses pay Google to appear on the SERPs. On the other hand, SEO involves optimizing your website to appear in the SERPs organically, without paying for placement. They use their own strategies, such as creating relevant content for a particular keyword to outrank competitors and rank in the top results. 

In the past, SEM referred to all search engine marketing methods, whether organic or paid. However, industry shifts now mean SEM refers exclusively to paid advertising, such as PPC, while any organic strategy is known as SEO. Both SEO and SEM are important digital marketing methods for driving traffic to your site and managing your brand narrative online.

Impact on the Stages of the Sales Journey

A good digital marketing strategy should combine both SEM and SEO. While SEO will help you generate evergreen traffic at the top of the funnel, search engine advertising can be a cost-effective strategy for driving results at the bottom of the sales funnel.

Instant vs. Long-Term Effect

You can use SEM to deliver instant results by ranking for a specific keyword at the right time. Once your bid for a particular keyword is accepted, you will appear at the top of the search results instantly for that keyword. 

You can even have your website appear for the search terms. On the other hand, SEO involves a long-term strategy that aims to achieve organic visibility for your webpage through relevant content and positioning you as an authority in your niche.

Budget

If you are on a budget, SEO can be particularly effective because it’s free. However, as noted earlier, you need to give it time as you will not get instant results. You will have to audit your site, optimize it, and then make the necessary changes.

Key Elements of an Effective SEM Strategy

When creating an effective SEM strategy, consider these key elements that provide insights into how SEM works.

Keyword Research

Keyword research is usually the foundation of search engine marketing. Whether for PPC or SEO, the choice of a keyword will determine who sees your content or ad and how relevant they are to your target audience. 

As noted earlier, you need to begin by identifying the keywords relevant to your brand that prospective customers can use when searching for products or services in that niche. You can use keyword research tools such as Ahrefs and Semrush to do that.

With these tools, all you need to do is enter the keywords you believe are relevant for your business or service, and you will see some keyword suggestions. These suggestions will serve as the basis for your search engine marketing campaign, and these tools will provide you with important details, such as keyword search volume and the keyword’s overall competitiveness.

On top of helping you find the keywords you will bid on, these keywords can help you identify the negative keywords. These are the negative search terms you will include from the campaign. These terms are often irrelevant and will only waste your budget as they don’t convert customers.

For instance, if you sell cakes, you may need to exclude a keyword like 'cake recipes,' as people searching for that term are looking for general information rather than buying a cake. The commercial intent of some keywords is usually high, suggesting that searchers are ready to buy. These include keywords such as buy, deals, coupons, discounts, and free shipping. They are, therefore, referred to as commercial intent keywords.

Google Ads Account Optimization

You need to ensure your Google Ads account is optimized to get the most out of your budget. This should involve many things, such as ad copy, targeting, scheduling, etc. However, note that doing that efficiently depends on the structure of your account. Remember that the Google Ads account lets you control when and where your ad is shown. If your account is well structured, it will ensure that:

  • The searches that trigger the ads are already relevant to the target audience.
  • Achieves a better quality score, bringing higher results at a lower price. The Quality score indicates how well Google likes your ads. If it does, you can be assured that it will bear fruit.
  • Better organization and optimization. If you have a messy account, you can easily get lost in it, which can lead to poor results. This is why you need to optimize your profile for the best results. Therefore, consider the organization level as you structure the account.

You also need to group them logically to achieve a higher click-through rate at a lower cost. Additionally, you need to consider the structure of your ad account. An effective Google Ads Account structure should contain the following key elements:

  • Ad group
  • Ads campaign
  • Ad text
  • Keywords
  • Landing page

Let us look at the elements in detail:

Ad Groups

These are the ads and keywords grouped by theme. The goal should be to ensure that ad campaigns focus on similar products or services. For instance, if you run a hardware store, you can run an ad campaign focused on autumn products such as leaf bags, rakes, and leaf blowers. Another campaign can also focus on power tools and related products.

Within ad groups, your campaign can be further divided by relevance. Going by our earlier example, you can categorize an ad group for the different rake types or the different leaf blower models. If running a power tool marketing campaign, you can have one group of ads focus on power drills and the other on circular saws. Organizing your keywords this way may take a bit more time, but the rewards will be worth it in the long run.

Campaigns

This is the house for ad groups, helping you organize your ads in the Google Ads account. You are allowed to create one or more ad types, either Display or Search, in every campaign. However, you can have several ad groups in a campaign. In fact, it recommends having multiple campaigns for every account. 

When you have several ads, they will share their targeting budget and more. The campaign will determine the ad’s appearance, whether on Search, Display websites, or YouTube, enabling you to manage your strategies differently.

Keywords

These are the words you are targeting that best describe your products or services. When a customer searches for one of them, your ad will appear in the SERPs. They are important for connecting your business with potential customers and for controlling the ad’s location and appearance.

Ad 

This consists of the headlines, texts, and descriptions used in display and paid search ads to convince the audience to act. This illustrates the USP that convinces customers to take action. How it’s written will affect the campaign’s success and click-through rate. Good ad copy is usually brief, relevant, and includes a call to action.

Landing Page

After clicking your ad, viewers will be directed to the landing page, a standalone page they land on after clicking an ad. You want to ensure that it is designed with a single specific objective and includes a call to action. It is key to improving your campaign conversion rate, reducing cost, and improving your quality score.

Understanding the SEM Ad Auction

When running a SEM campaign, it’s also important to understand how the ad auction works. A common misconception is that the person with the biggest advertising budget is usually the winner. While a large advertising budget can be beneficial, especially when targeting a highly competitive keyword, it is not the only factor determining your campaign’s success. 

Before ads are shown in search results, they go through the ad auction. So, how does this ad auction work? Each time a person enters a search query on Google, the ad process occurs. For advertisers to enter the ad auction, they need to identify the keywords they are bidding on and specify the maximum amount they are willing to pay per click to have their ads appear in search results for those keywords. Once Google determines that the keyword you have bid on appears in the user’s search query, your bid enters the ad auction.

How to Make Your Ad Win in the Ad Auction

Before determining which ads to show in search results, the ad auction typically considers various factors, since some keywords may not have enough commercial content to justify placement in the SERP. However, when evaluating the ad score, Google considers two key factors:

Maximum Bid 

This is the maximum amount you are willing to pay for the click. The metric is measured during the ad auction to determine where the ad will be placed. The results obtained from the calculation are referred to as the ad run. However, you should note that the amount you bid isn’t necessarily what you will pay. 

There are different bidding strategies for Google Ads depending on the goal. These include:

  • Maximum cost per click. This allows you to set the maximum amount you are willing to pay per click.
  • Automated system. Strategies such as Target cost per acquisition (CPA), Maximize Clicks, and Target return on ad spend (ROAS) leverage Google’s machine learning to adjust your bids based on your goal.

Your choice of bidding strategy will affect the users your ad reaches, the traffic you get, and the efficiency of your ad spend.

Quality Score

The quality score accounts for 50% of your ad’s ranking and is a key metric you can focus on. This is, therefore, one of the most important factors in determining the effectiveness and cost of a paid search campaign. It works similarly to a credit score, determining whether you qualify for a loan and what your interest rate should be. The score affects the performance of the PPC campaign and the amount you pay per click.

The quality score is usually 1-10, indicating a keyword’s quality and relevance relative to the ad. It is part of the Ad Rank formula, where the Quality Score is multiplied by the maximum bid to determine the best ad location.

Balancing Between SEO and SEM

As noted earlier, rather than choosing between SEO vs SEM, it’s advisable to combine both for the best results and to avoid keyword cannibalization. For instance, let’s assume you are already ranking organically for some branded and non-branded keywords that your PPC teams are targeting. When you analyze the keywords you are ranking for organically, you can identify opportunities to minimize your ad spend on the keywords and to increase the spend on those that your brand didn’t rank for.

Search engine marketing allows you to discover new keywords that your customers may already be searching for. The data you get from paid campaigns, such as high-converting keywords and user behavior trends, can help you improve your SEO strategy and drive growth.

Tips to Maximize ROAS in SEM

When running a SEM campaign, you want to ensure your budget delivers the highest return on ad spend (ROAS). There are several steps to improve your SEM strategy. These are:

Understanding Your Target Audience

Unless you know who your target audience is, their behaviors, and their pain points, it’s impossible to know who they are. You can, however, use audience targeting to segment your audience based on criteria such as demographics, intent, interests, purchase history, and characteristics. This data can provide important insights to help you create campaigns that resonate with the target audience, since different customers will respond to the same message in different ways. This increases conversion rates and ensures your ROAS continues to rise.

For instance, if you have some repeat customers, you can create a campaign that offers them exclusive deals or loyalty rewards. On the other hand, you can offer first-time visitors welcome offers. 

Here are a few tips to improve your audience targeting in a SEM campaign:

  • Creating look-alike audiences. You can use data from your current customers to identify people with similar preferences and behaviors.
  • Targeting based on interest. This will show ads to users who have already shown an interest in your products or services.
  • Retargeting. If a user has already interacted with your brand, you can show them the ad again. For instance, if a customer recently visited your site or added an item to their cart before abandoning it, you may want to retarget them

Leverage Data Analytics

You want to ensure you understand audience behavior beyond the initial first click. Analytics involves defining data to generate actionable insights, identifying trends, and helping you predict more effectively and enhance your campaign.

Campaign Optimization

Once you have the necessary data, you can use it to optimize your ad spend and overall campaigns to increase conversions. Even if you have the best ad, it won’t meet its goal unless it converts. The conversion is affected by factors such as the user interface, a clear value proposition, and page load speed. Keep testing both the landing page and the ad copy to improve scale and relevance.

However, if you want customers to sign up for the newsletter or buy a specific product, you need to track more than just their user behavior. You should track them during the entire buying journey.

Ad Spend Optimization

You can improve your ROAS by spending smarter rather than increasing your budget. You can do that in different ways, such as:

  • Pausing any underperforming ads. You should continuously review your campaign to see which ads are delivering results and which aren’t. You can then allocate your budget to the top-performing ones.
  • Leverage smart bidding. You can use automated AI bidding tools to adjust your bids in real time to maximize ROAS.
  • Use ad scheduling. Make sure your ad goes live when your audience is mostly active. This can increase your engagement, improve results, and keep your costs down.
  • Test and rotate different ad creatives. You should regularly test various ad messaging, formats, and visuals to determine which resonate best with your target audience. You will be surprised by the results of those small changes.

Optimize Your Landing Pages

One factor that will determine your ad’s success is the landing page. Therefore, to increase your conversion, you need to optimize your landing pages in different ways, such as:

  • Understanding the key elements. A top-performing landing page should be clear, concise, and have a strong call to action. You also need to ensure that the ad has a simple but visually appealing design, and that the page loads quickly and is more mobile-responsive.
  • Content optimization. You need to ensure you have relevant, engaging content. The landing page should speak to your target audience and should match the ad’s messaging. You can add trust signals and testimonials to increase credibility.
  • A/B test your ads. You can make some small changes, such as testing headlines and the call to action.
  • Add persuasive design features. You can add features such as directional arrows that guide the user’s gaze to the CTA. You can make the elements pop up better by using contrasting colors.

Consider the Customer Lifetime Value

Instead of focusing on the instant returns when measuring ROAS, the customer lifetime value can provide a clearer picture of long-term profitability. CLV tracks the total revenue generated by a customer over the period during which they are in contact with your brand. If you have customers who make repeat purchases or subscribe to a long-term service, their ROAS will be higher.

If a customer has a higher CLV, you can spend more upfront even if the initial ROAS is lower. This is especially for subscription companies or businesses with stronger retention strategies. Give priority to customers with high CLV in your ad targeting, as this will guarantee long-term profitability. When creating campaigns for those customers, you can focus more on retention. Therefore, create loyalty programs, retargeting ads, and other personalized offers.

In Conclusion

A Search Engine Marketing Campaign can instantly boost your online presence, drive targeted traffic, and increase conversions by placing your brand at the top of the SERPs. It can enable your business to target a specific audience and achieve a higher ROI through PPC. However, like any other digital marketing program, it requires the right strategy. Therefore, use the above steps for your SEM.