Why is paid search necessary

Before discussing why is it necessary, it is important that we get clarity on some of the industry terminology used in digital marketing.

Search Engine Marketing (aka SEM):

SEM refers methods of getting site visitors by placing your products or services advertisements on certain content or search sites. For example, you put up a ‘brochure Ad’ on Facebook or a ‘display ad’ on Google etc., Also, your products on e-commerce sites can appear as sponsored links above the organic search results. This requires you to pay based on number of clicks on your ad or conversion etc.

Search Engine optimization (aka SEO):

SEO refers to strategies / activities that one can undertake to improve organic search visibility on search engines. As opposed to SEM, in case of SEO, your cost is limited to all the activities that you do and you don’t end up paying anything to search engines or social media companies. Besides, with your SEO activities, your placement of Search Engine Ranking pages (SERPs) will come with no marking as “Ad” or “Sponsored”.

Pay Per Click (ask PPC) – Google calls it CPC or cost per click:

This is just like SEM because, in this case too, the advertisements are displayed based on your payment. However, payment is based on clicks. In this kind of activity, advertisers may use digital format or textual of Ads. PPC uses channels and networks to display the advertisements. Therefore, it can be said that PPC is one type of SEM activity.

Coming to the question of why companies think of paying per click or seek displaying of their Ads on content sites when the benefit of SEO is more cost-effective and long-lasting. This must be seen more objectively than subjectively.

The following reasons could be good enough to consider the route of paid search.

1. Position of Display:

In case of search ads, the Ads appear right on top of the search results, creating an opportunity to get the attention of your desired target audience. This strategy is especially important, as it gets quick results compared to SEO.

2. Product Launch:

If you are launching a new product or solutions, it takes a while before search engines pickup your pages and index them. It also takes substantial length of time for displaying on the First SERP. Another interesting fact is, the google search ad looks exactly like the real search to give cool impression to your target group in a short span.

3. Product Sales:

When your products go on sale, it is important that your display should appear in the sale period, triggering latent needs of your target audience and lead them to your site for more information. You can make use of the ad extension to get quick attention of your target group. A Wonderful way to target exact demographics that your product/Service is designed for.

4. Small Businesses:

Small businesses that have smaller geographic market segments have no point in spending their marketing dollars for SEO strategies. It is important and sufficient if their services are marketed in their serviceable area at an exceptionally low total cost of marketing. Besides, small businesses get particularly good exposure to their target audience on newer channels using the PPC/SEM approach.

5. Tracking and Manageability:

One of the kay success metrics of marketing is the process of track-> identify-> qualify-> engage-> convert workflow. Any business with a decent initial level of marketing tools will be able to manage their marketing processes. With PPC/SEM approach of digital marketing, businesses get seriously good and quicker ROI.

Conclusion:

It can be safely concluded that Search Engine Marketing (SEM) or Pay Per Click (PPC) are as effective as Search Engine Optimization (SEO). Google Ads, Bing Ads, Yahoo search and social media platforms can be explored to get going in this direction.