Search Engine Marketing (SEM) and Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) go hand in hand.

A successful SEM campaign will boost the amount of traffic your website receives. SEM is inherently a more focused form of internet marketing that will increase websites’ visibility within the SERP (Search Engine Results Pages).

To carry out a successful SEM campaign it is important to consider the following points:

• Advert Creation – Ensure you use good grammar and avoid excessive punctuation. Create catchy content but don’t go overboard with superlatives. It is advisable to match up relevant keywords within your advert.

• Testing Ads – To work out the recipe for click through success, write at least two different ads which point to the same page. Analyse the results after a period to work out the most effective wording.

• Landing Pages – Make sure that your landing page is relevant to your advert. Explain clearly why, what and how. Include a prominent call to action. Test using different landing pages and keep a record of performance. Test until you find a landing page that far out performs your other page options for lead conversion.

• Keyword Research – Check multiple sources to find your most effective keywords. Look at competitors’ sites, industry relevant websites and blogs. Use the Google Keyword tool to develop a decent list of about 30 keywords and phrases.

• Customer Incentive – Increase the chances that guests will leave their details by offering free downloads such as white papers. Offer reports, webinars, contests, surveys and newsletters. These can all be used as important tools to gain your customer’s details.

• Budget – Make a budget and stick to it. Determine your goals and map out how many leads or sales you plan to achieve from search marketing? Higher goals will require a larger financial outlay.

• Conversion Tracking – This is an integral part of any SEM campaign. Your goal should be producing either leads or sales so ensure you implement conversion tracking through either Google of Yahoo’s services. Without conversion tracking you’ll just end up paying for traffic with no way of measuring your return on investment.

• SEO – A well optimised site will place you in good stead for increased impressions and better conversion rates. Organic search results always outperform sponsored ads so try to make sure your website is high up the organic searches as possible. There are some great SEO Services available today.

By adhering to the following advice you will have the foundations for a successful Search Engine Marketing Campaign.