SEA marketing stands for search engine marketing. Most likely you have already heard of the English abbreviation SEA, and you know that it stands for search engine advertising. SEA marketing is a very broad concept within online marketing. Giving a single definition makes SEA advertising marketing too short. However, all parts of SEA have one common goal. SEA advertising is all about getting high positions with your website or webshop in the paid search engine results. How to start with SEA as an entrepreneur and what different options there are follow in more detail below.
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What are the parts of SEA advertising?
There are several ways you can launch advertising campaigns using search engines. There are a number of different search engines that you can choose from. The most famous are Google, Bing, and Yahoo. In the Netherlands, about 95% of internet users use Google as a search engine. So in SEA advertising, we are generally talking about advertising in Google, unless otherwise stated. Google offers various advertising options to advertise in the search engine. The most well-known and most visible forms of advertising within the search engine are text ads and Shopping ads. Other options include Display, Discovery, and Video Ads. Below we’ll take a closer look at each of these advertising opportunities, but first, let’s talk about Google’s advertising program.
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What is Google Ads?
Google Ads is an advertising program developed by Google. By means of Google Ads, entrepreneurs can show advertisements in the Google Network to internet users. Within Google Ads you can then create the advertisements that you want to show to internet users. As we have briefly explained above, there are many options in terms of advertising types. Entrepreneurs need a Google account to use Google Ads. An entrepreneur can then indicate in his/her Google Ads account the maximum amount he/she wants to spend per campaign. Now it’s time to talk about the different advertising forms that Google offers.
What are text ads?
Text ads are the ads that appear at the top of Google’s search results. By setting keywords you can determine for which searches your ads should be shown. However, not all text ads developed by entrepreneurs are shown in the paid search results. Google Ads uses the auction model to determine whether or not an ad is shown.
An entrepreneur can indicate in his/her Google account the maximum amount he/she wants to spend on one click on his ad. With text ads, the entrepreneur only pays for an internet user who actually clicks on his ad. If your ad is shown in the paid search results, but your ad is not clicked, you do not have to pay. This cost per click for the advertiser is also known as Cost per click (CPC). The advertiser determines a fixed daily budget for his advertising campaign. Based on the CPC and budget, Google Ads can therefore determine whether advertisers are still eligible to show their ad or whether the budget is exhausted.
Back to the auction model for a moment. The auction model mainly relies on two factors: the level of competition and the quality score of the ad in question.
The level of competition determines the number of advertisers who want to show their ad for a certain target group or search term. The higher the competition level, the higher the CPC. The other factor in the auction model is the quality score of the ad. When determining the ad’s Quality Score, Google looks at the following factors:
1. Relevance of your ad in relation to the relevant keyword.
Google checks whether the relevant keyword or keyword group matches the content in your ad. If this is the case, it means that the search term being searched for is often present in the advertisement, and is therefore relevant. The Quality Score will drop if, for example, the keyword is not included in the ad title.
2. Relevance of underlying webpage.
In addition, Google analyzes how relevant the underlying webpage of the advertisement is in relation to the relevant keyword. When users click on an ad and are redirected to a webpage on a website or online store, they want to find the answer or content they were looking for. This ensures that the underlying web page is relevant in relation to the relevant keyword. When you link a web page to an ad that does not match the relevant search term, your quality score will be lower.
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3. The expected click-through rate (CTR)
Finally, the expected click behavior of internet users also influences the quality score. Google determines in advance the expected number of clicks per day on a developed ad. Google calls this calculation the expected click-through rate (CTR). A high CTR indicates that Google expects a lot of clicks from internet users on your ad when it appears in the paid search results. A high CTR will therefore also contribute to your quality score.
Your ad’s Quality Score is a number between 1 and 10. Along with the competition level, the Quality Score is used in the Google Ads auction model. A low level of competition and a high-Quality Score will lead to a favorable position with your ad within the auction model. In addition, both factors also affect the costs that you will have to pay per click. When few competitors advertise on the relevant keyword, you can rank high in the search results with a low CPC. When there is a lot of competition for the keyword, the price of the cost per click goes up and you will therefore also have to set a higher CPC to appear often in the search results.
What is Google Shopping?
Google Shopping is an online sales service from Google, which was launched in 2002 under the (old) name Froogle. Google Shopping makes it possible to show your products to internet users when they search for keywords that are relevant to the relevant products. Google Shopping is displayed at the top of the search results page (SERP) and thus gives the internet user an overview of the most relevant products for his search. In Google Shopping there are two options for showing your products. This can be done organically or by using paid advertising campaigns.
To be able to place your products in Google Shopping at all, you need to upload your store and product information (product feed) to Google. Uploading your product feed can be done manually via Google Merchant Center or automatically via the Product Feed Pro plugin for WooCommerce. If Google Shopping owns your product feed, your products can be shown to users without having to pay. If you want your products to be shown more often in Google Shopping, an advertising campaign can be set up via the link with Google Ads. Via Google Ads you develop an advertising campaign that promotes your products in Google Shopping when searches are made for relevant search terms.
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What is display advertising?
Display advertising or display advertising is a form of advertising that uses banner ads. Banner ads are graphical ads and are shown on the Google Display Network (GDN). Examples of this are banners on NU.nl, YouTube, and Nos.nl. Nowadays many Dutch people are actively present on the internet and the potential reach of display advertising is therefore enormous. Because as an entrepreneur you are advertising with banners at display advertising, it costs you money. It is therefore important to carefully consider the costs and benefits of any display advertising campaign.
A banner ad differs from a standard ad in terms of text, images, flash, video, and audio. Banners are (generally) more interactive and therefore yield more clicks. Moreover, through display advertising, you can give a clear picture of your business. If you make sure that your banner ads are successful and are designed in the right way, it can give a huge positive boost to your brand awareness. Finally, display advertising uses Google Ads to set up advertising campaigns (banner campaigns). In Google Ads, you have the option to pay per click (CPC) for your ad or pay per conversion. With pay per conversion, you as an entrepreneur only have to pay when customers generate conversions on your website/webshop or app.
What are discovery ads?
Discovery ads are a new form of ads within Google Ads. Discovery ads have been available within Google Ads since 2020 and offer advertisers the ability to target a large number of internet users. Discovery ads can be found in various places on the internet:
- Google Discover Feed
- Homepage Youtube and Watch Later Feed
- In Gmail under promotions and social
Discovery ads are visual ads where you can choose to show one image or a carousel. You may know a carousel from the Facebook ads where you can swipe past a number of images. The possibilities in terms of targeting are comparable to those of display ads.
What are video ads?
Video ads, the word says it all, are video ads that can be shown on YouTube and on video partner sites. Within the video ads, there are different formats that allow you to create very unique and cool ads.
The following ad formats are available:
- In- Stream Ads that could be skipped
- In-Stream Ads that cannot be skipped
- Video Discovery Ads
- Bumper Ads
- OutstreamAds
- Masthead Ads
Based on your goals, you can choose one of the ad layouts.
Video ads provide the user with a unique experience.
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What is remarketing?
Remarketing, also known as retargeting, is an online marketing method in which you let previous visitors to your website or webshop find their way back to your website/webshop by means of targeted advertisements. Visitors to your website have already shown interest in your products/services or company. They just sometimes need an extra push to make a purchase. Remarketing gives this extra push by showing highly targeted image, text, video ads to the previous visitors. Remarketing does not only have to have the goal that visitors come back to the website / webshop and make a purchase. Remarketing can bring about different conversions and can be very relevant to your business. This is partly because a very small percentage of visitors already convert on the first visit.
Remarketing can be applied on different platforms. It is important that the target group(s) and your business are taken into account when choosing the channel to use. Every remarketing campaign starts with placing a remarketing tag on every page of your website or webshop. A remarketing tag is a piece of code fragment (remarketing pixel) that is placed in the backend of your website/webshop. With the help of a remarketing tag and a (legal) cookie on your website/webshop, visitors are added to a so-called remarketing list. These remarketing lists are used to segment and show targeted ads.
With the right implementation of remarketing, it can be very profitable for your company.
Now that it is clear how visitors are added to remarketing lists and are eligible for remarketing, let’s look at the different channels for remarketing. The best-known form of remarketing is Google Ads remarketing. In Google Ads you can set up your remarketing campaigns and then show them to people from your remarketing lists via the Google Display Network (GDN). Google also gives the option for dynamic remarketing, which goes a step further than the standard remarketing campaigns. For example, through dynamic remarketing, specific products/services or brands can be shown to users from remarketing lists if they have already looked at this before.
The third channel to use for remarketing is the Remarketing Lists for Search Ads (RLSA) feature. This function within Google makes it possible to approach people with remarketing campaigns who have already visited your website/webshop via text ads
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What does a SEA marketing campaign cost?
As discussed earlier, a SEA advertising campaign in Google Ads relies on the auction model. Google Ads uses the auction model to determine whether or not an ad is shown in the paid search results. The auction model consists of two factors, the level of competition and the quality score of the ad in question. If the competition level on a keyword is high and the quality score of your ad is low, then you probably won’t be shown in the paid search results. Conversely, if the competition level is low and your ad’s Quality Score is high, your ad will likely show up in the paid search results. The costs that you as an entrepreneur pay for a SEA advertising campaign are therefore highly dependent on the competition.
In the past, a lot was advertised through newspapers and magazines with different types of advertisements. In this traditional form, the average cost of an ad was based on the reach of the newspaper or magazine and the size of the ad in the medium. Today, SEA marketing campaigns are not about the size and location of the ad, but about the competition. The minimum cost that an entrepreneur pays for a click on his ad is €0.01 in Google Ads. Globally, the average cost-per-click for an ad is estimated to be between $1.00 and $2.00 on the Search Network and $1.00 on average on the Google Display Network. Let’s say you pay $2.00 per click for your ad and your set monthly budget is $200.
The average cost per click is higher in the Google search network than in the Google Display Network (GDN). Google’s standard search network consists of normal Google search, Google Maps, Google Shopping, Google images, Google discussion groups, and Google search partners. The Google Display Network consists of sites such as Gmail, YouTube, Blogger, Google Finance, and sites that are set up as search partners such as NU.nl and marktplaats.nl. The costs of an SEA marketing campaign are higher in the Google search network than in the GDN because the click-through rate is higher.
Finally, the average cost of a SEA advertising campaign is strongly related to the sector concerned. For example, large companies in the financial & insurance sector pay CPCs that go up to €50.00. And retailer Amazon spends about $50 million a year on Google Ads campaigns. This is an average cost per ad that small businesses cannot afford and, moreover, are not profitable for them. The CPC for other sectors is much lower. For example, an SMB can pay an average of between $1,000 and $2,000 per month in Google Ads, which equates to an average of $18,000 per year. The average cost of a SEA marketing campaign, therefore, depends on several factors.
What are the pros and cons of SEA advertising?
Applying SEA advertising to your business can have several advantages and/or disadvantages. Below we have prepared a list for you.
Advantages of SEA marketing
1. Immediate result
SEA advertising gives the entrepreneur immediate results with the right working method. Once the ad has been developed and the budget has been set, the ad campaign can go live. This means that, with a suitable bid, the advertisement can be shown directly to internet users, and traffic to your website or webshop is realized. The direct result does require that the ad campaign remains live. The moment you as an entrepreneur decide to stop advertising in Google Ads, your SEA advertiang will also stop. More about this in the paragraphs below.
2. Targeted advertising
With the help of SEA marketing, you can advertise very specifically. This means that your ad campaign can be designed in such a way that it is relevant to your target group and generates conversions. Targeted advertising is mainly possible because the advertiser can indicate for which keywords the advertisement should be shown. In addition, the advertiser can create target groups and in this way indicate to which target group(s) the advertisement(s) can be shown.
3. Appear at the top
With the right bid in the Google Ads auction model, your ads can appear at the top of paid search results, potentially generating a lot of clicks and traffic. With search engine optimization or SEO, it takes much more effort and energy to increase your pages in the organic search results.
4. Brand awareness
Another advantage of SEA marketing is that it increases the brand awareness of your company. By building awareness of and positive association with your business, products/services, your brand awareness will increase. This can be done by advertising in the Google search network or in the Google Display Network (GDN). In the GDN you can indicate exactly who your target group(s) is and therefore advertise specifically to increase your brand awareness.
SEA marketing has many advantages. However, do you also keep an eye on the disadvantages?
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Disadvantages of SEA advertising
1. No organic traffic
The disadvantage of SEA marketing is that it does not generate organic traffic for your website or webshop. Organic traffic means that you have not incurred any costs for its realization. SEA marketing is all about getting high positions in the paid search results. The moment you as an entrepreneur decide to stop advertising in Google Ads, your SEA marketing will also stop. This can mean that your website or webshop suddenly has much fewer visitors and therefore income decreases. Always keep in mind that SEA marketing can deliver immediate results, but stops when your ad campaign is also stopped. If you want to use SEA marketing in the long term, you need a solid strategy.
2. Costs money
As we know, SEA marketing costs money and can be very expensive. Determining your CPC and advertising budget can sometimes be experienced as difficult. A plan of action drawn up in advance and a correct working method are necessary for a success story. Convident’s online marketers can help you manage the return on investment (ROI) of your advertising campaigns.
3. High competition
For certain keywords, the level of competition is very high. When competition is high and the demand for certain search terms is high, it will drive up the CPC. In some sectors, the competition within SEA marketing is higher and the average costs will therefore also be higher.
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Why is SEA advertising important?
Due to increasing competition, it has become increasingly expensive to apply SEA marketing for your company. However, SEA marketing is still a very important part of online marketing. While commercials on television have increasingly come to be seen as annoying or intrusive, SEA ads retain their value. This is because SEA ads have become smarter and thus more targeted. So SEA marketing is still very important because it targets people who are actively looking or may be interested in a solution that you have to offer. An example of this is that an advertisement by a painter during your favorite series is experienced as annoying. But if you Google “painting a bathroom” and an ad from a painter in your area appears, it can be seen as useful.
In addition, SEA marketing is still an important part of online marketing, because text ads are hardly distinguishable from organic search results. Previously, internet users disapproved of clicking on paid search results. Especially because companies paid for this and the organic search results came up because they gave the best answer to the entered search term. Nowadays, paid ads don’t stand out among the organic search results. The format of both search results is the same, only the paid results contain a label of ‘Advertising’. Internet users give themselves less and less time to orientate on the search results page and often click on the first option (a text ad).
“SEA marketing at Convident delivers relevant and targeted ads”
Outsourcing SEA marketing at Convident
When setting up and executing a SEA marketing campaign, many different things are involved. It can therefore be a lot more efficient for your company to outsource SEA marketing. This can save you a lot of money, especially in terms of time and money. This way you can focus on your products, services, customers, and partners.
Convident sets up and manages your SEA marketing campaign on a monthly basis. We help you increase your ad reach. We do this through the following applications, among other things:
Convident provides grip, control and measurability
1. Grip on the results
With SEA marketing at Convident you always have a grip on your results. Convident works with certified specialists for advertising in search engines. We can therefore perfectly help you grow responsibly (online) as a company and get the maximum result from your budget. We do this by cost-effectively targeting – only potential customers who are specifically looking for your products or services.
2. Control
At Convident you are always in control of advertising and the (daily) budgets set. That’s what makes it so handy and clear. Ads and keywords can be adjusted at any time of the day, just like your budget and campaign costs.
3. Measurability
In addition, you will receive a monthly report from our online marketers of the performed advertising activities. By means of the reports you gain/maintain insight into the visitors of your website/webshop. The monthly overviews answer questions such as where your visitors come from, what their age is or which channels they use. We use this information to better understand your target audience and to provide an even more user-friendly service in future advertisements.
Could your website or webshop generate more traffic and/or conversions? Contact us to develop a targeted advertising campaign for your target audience(s). Do you just want to spar with an online marketer from Convident? Then visit the office to discuss the possibilities of SEA marketing for your company.
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