4 SEM Tactics that Produce Fast Results

“The success of a page should be measured by one criteria: Does the visitor do what you want them to do?”
– Aaron Wall, founder of SEObook.com
Google processes more than 3.5 billion searches daily. That breaks down to 40,000 searches per second or 1.2 trillion queries per year.
What might be more astonishing than these figures is that capturing a fraction of this traffic with various search marketing practices is incredibly challenging; with this many searches taking place every day, you’d think there would be enough to go around.
The key to effectively driving users to your business’ webpage lies in deploying effective SEO and SEM techniques that will help your business outrank competitors on Google and other search engines.
While most are still under the impression that SEM encompasses SEO, over the past several years, the term has evolved, now strictly revolving around boosting visibility in the SERPs via paid advertising techniques.
One of the key differences between SEO and SEM is that the optimization route is a slow-going but powerful process, whereas SEM is more capable of providing quick bursts of business.
If your brand needs some fast-moving SEM strategies, look no further.
Here are four SEM tactics that drive quick results.
1. Adopt AMP
In the era of 4G Internet, no mobile user on Earth wants to sit around and wait for a website to load. In fact, 40 percent of mobile surfers will wait no more than three seconds for a website to load; after that, they are on to another site; probably one of your competitors. Moreover, a two second delay can impact bounce rates by a whopping 103 percent.
This is significant information when you take into account that more than 50 percent of all searches take place on mobile devices.
What makes these revelations even more frightening is that the average U.S. retail website takes almost a full five seconds to load.
When we put this information in the context of paid search advertising, the scene can be pretty disheartening. You’re spending your business’ money, hoping for a return on your investment, but slow load times send users fleeing from your landing page without converting.
This means that solving your load speed problem is vital; and Google has just the solution: Accelerated Mobile Pages.
By leveraging AMP for your ad’s landing pages, brands can provide users with a faster (and therefore better) experience; Wired did this very thing and saw a 25 percent CTR increase.
Additionally, the lower a brand’s bounce rate, the more benefit it adds to its organic placement in the SERPs.
Accelerated Mobile Pages are a powerful means to driving fast results.
2. Leverage Call Extensions
Extensions are powerful AdWords addons that enable brands to include more information in their adverts without taking away space from their limited character counts.
Speaking directly to call extensions (see what I did there?), these expansions make it possible for mobile search users to contact a brand directly through the advert by placing a company’s phone number in the headline or having a call button next to the ad.
This effectively eliminates a step in the conversion process and helps brands to see more immediate results from their ad campaigns.
Additionally, if you are promoting an application, you can accomplish a similar goal by having users download the offering directly from the SERPs.
3. Ensure Proper Relevance and Intent
A great way to aggravate potential customers (not to mention Google) is to send search users to a landing page that seemingly has little to do with your advert’s promises.
This happens quite often which, in turn, sends prospects in search of more suitable info, and lowers your ad’s quality score.
The key to avoiding this type of blunder is to ensure that the keywords your campaign is targeting matches the assurance made in your ad copy.
For instance, if you are targeting users searching for “great deals on Converse shoes,” don’t send them to an article about Converse; send them to a sales page featuring this type of footwear.
If you want to drive fast results, the keywords you bid on need to clearly display intent to purchase, download, or drive whatever goal you are aiming to achieve.
That means that if you are selling Converse shoes, you don’t want to target keywords like “shoes” or “Converse,” but terms like “discount Converse shoes,” “Converse shoes for sale,” and similar phrases.
4. Make an Offer They Can’t Refuse
Here’s the thing: The word “free” is a total eye-catcher.
Previous studies have shown that terms like “free” and “discount” are able to drive higher click-through rates than ads that don’t feature such words. If you want to drive clicks fast, this is the way to do it.
It’s also important to keep in mind that “free” doesn’t need to be expensive. This could be a “buy one get one free offer” on certain items, a free consultation, a free eBook download, or similar offering.
If giving away something for free isn’t your style, you may want to consider highlighting any deals or discounts you are running, instead of merely displaying the price of an item.
When running a Product ad, displaying prices only reminds the customer that they will be spending their money. Discounts, however, show potential buyers that they can get a great deal; if they act quickly.
The prospect of saving money is something that many consumers can’t pass up. This is a great way to drive traffic to your website and receive a quick influx of sales.
Search engine marketing may be difficult, but it surely isn’t impossible. The key to attaining results in an expedient manner is simply understanding user pain points and desires and incorporating those elements into your campaign.
Using these tips, you should be able to target users who are looking to act now, drive them to quick-loading landing pages using compelling offers, or even get them to convert directly from the SERPs.
Results don’t get any faster than that.
Which of these tips are your favorite? Do you think that SEM is better for your business than SEO?

Conscious online marketer, web executive, and multi-faceted writer Tina Courtney has been creating and fostering online innovations since 1996. Tina has assisted many clients in maximizing online production and marketing efforts, and is a staff writer for SiteProNews, one of the Web’s foremost webmaster and tech news blogs. She’s produced and marketed innovative content for major players like Disney and JDate, as well as boutique startups galore, with fortes including social media, SEO, influencer marketing, community management, lead generation, and project management. Tina is also a certified Reiki practitioner, herbalist, and accomplished life coach.  Learn more on LinkedIn, Facebook and Google+.The post 4 SEM Tactics that Produce Fast Results appeared first on SiteProNews.
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