Career Head-Start Series

Search Engine
Marketing
Ready Reckoner
CONTENTS Page No

What is Paid Search Engine Marketing? 3

Major platforms 3
Google AdWords 3
Launching a Google AdWords campaign 4
Determining Marketing Objectives 4
Setting Up Your Account 4
Campaign Types 4
Campaign Sub-Types 5
Campaign Location Targeting 5
Campaign Bidding Strategy 6
Setting Daily Budgets 7
Organizing Your Account 7
Creating and Managing Ad Groups 8
Creating and Managing Ads 8
Text Ad Guidelines 9
Keyword Strategy 10
Keyword Match Types 10
Negative Keywords 11
Managing Campaign Payments 12
Tracking Campaign Performance 12
Conversion Tracking and ROI 13
 WHAT IS PAID SEARCH MAJOR SEARCH
ENGINE MARKETING? ENGINE PLATFORMS

Paid Search Engine Marketing (SEM) is 1. Google AdWords

a form of online advertising where 2. Bing Ads
businesses pay advertising platforms 3. Microsoft adCenter
when users click on their ads. Paid
With over 75% of the market share and
advertising is typically associated with
2.3 million searches a second, Google
search engines like Google and Bing.
AdWords is the de facto standard for
search engine marketers.
Digital marketers use ad-text to
promote a product, service, or an offer.
The advertising copy is generally linked
GOOGLE ADWORDS
to the content of the web-pages the
user lands on. AdWords works by using a set of
keywords and rules pre-defined by the
Objectives of Paid Advertising advertiser to target users. Users of
Paid Advertising is a great way to reach Google’s search engine results pages
a global audience of internet users and and web-pages of Google’s partners
can help a business achieve several then display these ads. Advertisers pay
objectives, including - when users respond to the
call-to-action and visit the business
1. Increased sales.
page.
2. Lead generation and conversion.
3. Enhanced brand awareness. Google AdWords consists of
two networks –
At its core, search engine marketing is
all about relevance. Users searching for
1. Google Search Network.
specific products or services are shown
2. Google Partner Network.
a highly specific, targeted ad that
meets their need and significantly
lowers the time required to find the
right solution.

Page 3 of 13
 LAUNCHING A PAID SEARCH Setting Up Your Account
CAMPAIGN
Create an AdWords account with your
Determining Marketing Objectives email id.
Before investing in paid advertising for
Campaign Name
your organization, it’s important to
Choose a campaign name that reflects
clearly set out your goals and
its objective, the product/service being
objectives for your campaigns.
advertised, or the date of launch.

What are you advertising? Who is the Choosing Campaign Type

intended target audience? What are AdWords offers 5 campaign types for
the actions you would like the user to advertisers –
take after viewing your ad?
1. Search Network with Display Select

Depending on the type of business and Your ads are shown on Google’s search

product/service on offer, any/all of the network pages and on a select set of

following user actions could generate Google’s partner network (2+ million

value for you - websites, videos, and apps).

Pick this campaign type to reach the

Buy on your website widest audience of all types.

Visit website
2. Search Network Only – Your text ad
Take an action on your website is displayed on Google’s and
(for example, fill out a form) non-Google partner search engine
results pages when a user’s search
Call your business query matches keywords specified in
your campaign.
See your ad
a. Dynamic Search Ads – Dynamic
Visit your business search ads are a sub-type of Search
Network Only ads. For Dynamic
Source: Google AdWords Guide

Page 4 of 13
Search Ads, Google automatically Choosing Campaign Sub-Type
parses your landing page content to The campaign subtype determines
create ads relevant to the content of which ad design options are available
your web-page. to you. Use these options to refine your
ad and tailor it for different target
3. Display Network – Your ads are
audiences.
automatically displayed on web-pages,
apps, videos, and allied placements Campaign subtypes include:
with related content. • Standard
• All features
4. Shopping – Your product listings are
• Marketing objectives
directly displayed on Google’s Display
or Search networks. Unlike text-only
Location Targeting
Search network and Display ads, these
Use location targeting to display ads to
include a photo preview of the
a specific geographic region or
product, its price, the store name, and
location. This feature can also be used
more.
to restrict display in regions of your
Shopping ads use product data from choice.
Google’s Merchant Center instead of
You can refine location targeting at
keywords.
four levels –
Pick this type if you’re an experienced
1. Radius targeting – ads displayed to
AdWords user and are looking for
users within specified radius from
more qualified leads (i.e., click-through
point-of-origin.
users who are more likely to make a
2. Cities/regions within country.
purchase).
3. States/provinces within country.
4. Country-level or group of multiple
5. Video – Create video ads to display
countries.
on the search or partner networks.

Page 5 of 13
 AdWords offers advertisers the option
SETTING YOUR BIDDING STRATEGY
to choose between any of the
Paid Search Engine Marketing uses a following bidding strategies -
bidding system for purchase of ad
1. CPC – If your primary aim is to get
inventory. Advertisers compete with
users to visit your website/page and
each another for a given ad slot, and
generate traffic, Cost-Per-Click biding
the final bid price for an ad that goes
may be ideal for you.
live affects its cost-per-click rate.
a. Maximized Clicks – this is an

Your bid strategy determines how you automated CPC bidding strategy

pay the platform to display your ad. where you set a maximum budget and
AdWords automatically maximizes the
The final bid price that wins is the
number of clicks within your budget.
cost-per-click rate. It’s what every
registered click on the ad will cost the b. Manual CPC bidding - With Manual CPC
company. bidding, you can set different
maximum bid sizes for different
The following factors affect the bid
campaigns, ad groups, and ads.
price for a text-ad –
2. Cost-Per-Impression – If your
1. Keyword popularity.
objective is to increase visibility,
2. Competition. Rivals who are willing
enhance brand awareness, and spread
to up the bid and pay more for a
the word about your offering, then a
coveted slot will push the price up.
Cost-Per-Impression bidding strategy
3. Quality Score. Google AdWords and is the way to go.
other search ad platforms rank highly
With CPI, you pay for the number of
relevant ads at a lower bid above
times your ad is displayed, not user
poorly optimized ads at a higher bid.
visits or clicks.
4. Seasonality – ranking for keywords
In practice, advertisers pay for every
that are trending costs a lot more than
thousand clicks, a model that’s termed
non-seasonal keywords.
Cost-Per-Mille (CPM).

Page 6 of 13
3. Cost-Per-Acquisition - If you are Setting Your Daily Budget
landing users directly on a product AdWords gives you the option to set a
page with the objective of getting maximum daily budget to spend. The
them to complete a purchase, you may advertising platform will stop
wish to consider CPA bidding. displaying your ad for queries once the

In CPA, you pay Google only for users daily budget is exhausted.

who convert – i.e., users who don’t just In practice, AdWords can allow up to
land on your page but also take the 20% more traffic/clicks per day than
desired action. CPA bidding requires your budget allows. This is because the
the use of AdWords’ conversion traffic for a given keyword can vary
tracking tool to track the number of from one day to another.
visits who are making a purchase.
ORGANIZING YOUR ACCOUNT
4. vCPM – A variant of CPI, Viewable
A great way to organize your account
Cost-Per-Mille bidding is used when
would be to launch separate
your aim is to maximize the number of campaigns (at least 1) for each product
viewable impressions. This becomes category, with an ad group for each
particularly important for display product on offer.
network campaigns where you are
For example, if you were an e-learning
looking for finer control over
company offering training courses in
placement of your banner ads.
categories like big data and digital
marketing, here is one way to structure
your account -

ACCOUNT NAME- www.elearning.com

Campaign 1 Big data courses Campaign 2 Digital marketing courses
Ad Group 1 Ad Group 2 Ad Group 1 Ad Group 2

Big data course A Big data course B Digital marketing Digital marketing
course A course B

Keywords Keywords Keywords Keywords

2-3 Ads 2-3 Ads 2-3 Ads 2-3 Ads

Page 7 of 13
Creating Ad Groups Ad groups can also help you test
An ad group consists of one or more different versions of copy for the same
ads grouped together by theme. These product.
are mapped to the advertising
Every campaign needs at least one ad
business’ range of products and
group, and every ad group needs at
services on offer.
least one ad.
While campaigns represent a high-level
Creating an Ad
of organization, ad groups offer more
Each ad group created in the
control to tailor targeting and ad copy.
preceding step can contain multiple
For example, a retail store selling ads. Once your campaign is up and
footwear and apparel might have two running, AdWords automatically
campaigns for both, with an ad group accords greater importance to the
within footwear for sports shoes and best-performing ad variant.
another for ladies footwear.
Since the ad is the heart and soul of
PPC advertising, it’s important to take
the time to craft messaging that will
resonate with the target audience and
result in qualified traffic to your
website. Crisp, compelling copy that
directly addresses the user’s
immediate need always works best.

Step 1 - Write an attention-grabbing

headline that conveys the value
proposition up front. Wherever
possible, include your campaign
keywords so the reader knows exactly
what is on offer.
Source: Google AdWords guide

Page 8 of 13
Step 2 - Choose a landing page that Step 4 - Consider using ad extensions.
matches the ad. Users landing on a Ad extensions allow you to include
webpage that is not relevant to the more information in the ad, including
communication will likely leave before contact numbers, address, and pricing
making a purchase or taking the details.
desired action.
Use these if you’re looking to pack
Step 3 - Make the most of your
more information in less, or want users
description.
to take an action on the search results
• Use this field to communicate more page.
info about the product, advertise your
Ad Title: Just enter
unique selling propositions or any
special offers that will convince the Text line 1: your ad text here
user to click-through.
Text line 2:
• Use title casing to make your copy
URL: http://www.yourwebsite.com
stand out.

• Include a clear and unambiguous Just enter

your ad text here
call-to-action.
http://www.yourwebsite.com

Text Ad Guidelines
Google AdWords restricts the number of characters you can include in
your text ad -

Limits for most Limits for double-width

Example ad languages characters

Headline Example website 25 characters 12 characters

Description
Summer sale 35 characters 17 characters
line 1
Description
Save 15% 35 characters 17 characters
line 2
Display URL 255 characters 255 characters
www.example.com
(35 characters) (17 characters)

Source: Google AdWords guide

Page 9 of 13
 KEYWORD STRATEGY
If you’re struggling to get started,
Step 1 - Prepare a set of user pain Google’s Keyword Planner can come in
points that your product or service handy.
offers a possible solution for.
Keyword Match Types

Step 2 – Collate user search queries AdWords offers 3 match types to

around these pain points. What would refine how closely your keywords

the user search for to find your match user search queries –

product and recognize that it is the 1. Exact match – this is a precise

ideal solution? Prepare a keyword list matching option. Use this when you
based on these search queries. want your ads to be displayed when
the search query exactly matches your
Step 3 – Use information from steps 1 keyword or phrase.
and 2 to assign the right keywords to
Syntax – for exact matching, surround
each ad group.
your keyword with square brackets.
For best results, use between 5 and 20 Example: [yellow athlete running shoes]
keywords per ad group.
Your ad will show when users search
Example – for yellow athlete running shoes, in that
order.
If you are advertising your line of
running shoes for athletes, your Misspelled phrases or close variations
keyword list might look something like will also match. E.g. yllow athelet running
this: shoes, yellow athlete running shoe

Athlete running shoes Your ad will NOT show when users

Running shoes male/female athletes search for male athlete running shoes,
Athletic running shoes athlete running shoes, yellow running shoes,
Sports shoes etc.

Page 10 of 13
2. Phrase match – with the match type Broad match allows you to reach the
set to phrase, your ads will display widest audience of all match types.
when a user search query includes the
Syntax – no special syntax.
keyword, even if it has words before or
after it. Use this option to reach a Example: yellow athlete running shoes
larger potential audience than with Your ad will display when users search
exact match. for shoes for runners, athlete shoes, running
shoes, yellow shoes, etc.
Syntax – for phrase matching, wrap the
keyword in quotes. E.g. “yellow athlete Bear in mind that while the volume of
running shoes” traffic you attract will be highest with
broad match, not all of it will be
Example: “yellow athlete running shoes” qualified. For instance, a user looking
for yellow shoes may not be interested
Your ad will show when users search
for cheap yellow athlete running shoes, male in purchasing a pair of specialist

running shoes, athlete running shoes for men, running shoes for athletes.
etc.
Negative Keywords
Your ad will NOT show when users AdWords allows you to define
search for shoes for athletes, athletic shoes keywords that will not trigger your ad.
for running, etc.
For instance, if your business sells
3. Broad match – this is the default shoes but does not offer
AdWords matching type. With broad water-resistant boots, adding
match, your ad is displayed when a water-proof boots as a negative
user search query is contains one or keyword will ensure your ad is not
more of your keywords in any order, displayed to searches with this query
and possibly with several other terms. string.

Page 11 of 13
 Clickthrough Rate (CTR)
MANAGING CAMPAIGN PAYMENTS
Click-through-rate is the proportion of
AdWords offers a convenient people seeing your ad who click on it.
automated billing system, used by In other words, CTR = Number of
most advertisers. With this feature clicks/number of impressions.
turned on, Google automatically
CTR tells you whether your ad is
charges your payment method every
actually working. Ads with keywords
30 days or when a pre-set cost
that carry broad appeal are likely to
threshold is reached. The cost
receive more clicks than ads for niche
threshold can be changed by the
products, so the number of clicks per
advertiser.
impression registered is a more
accurate measure of ad performance.
TRACKING CAMPAIGN PERFORMANCE
Average Cost-Per-Click (CPC)
Metrics Not to be confused with the maximum
Clicks CPC bid you set when formulating a
Clicks are a measure of the number of bidding strategy, the average CPC is
times your ad was clicked by users to what you as advertiser end up paying
visit your web-page. Highly-relevant, for each registered click.
interesting ads get the highest clicks.
Average CPC = total cost for

Impressions campaign/total number of clicks for

An impression is a single instance of the campaign

your ad displayed on the search engine

Quality Score
results page. This is a measure of the
An ad’s Quality Score is a measure of
number of times your ad is shown and
the quality of your ads, keywords, and
is helpful when determining the size of
landing pages. Higher quality ads can
your audience. Not all impressions
lead to lower prices and better ad
result in clicks.
placement.

Page 12 of 13
 Your ad’s quality score is affected by 3. The relative performance of two or
the following factors - more campaigns. This can help you

• Expected clickthrough rate: The fine-tune your paid advertising

likelihood that your ads will get clicked strategy.

for that keyword. AdWords’ conversion tracking tool can

• Ad relevance. keep track of all valuable user actions
• Landing page experience. on your website, including sales and
lead capture.
Average Cost-Per-Acquisition (CPA)
To set up conversion tracking for your
This is the cost you pay Google for
campaigns, you will need to assign –
every user who lands on your page and
takes the desired action. • A value to each conversion, in
monetary terms. This may be set to be
Conversion Tracking and ROI
the same for all instances, vary from
A campaign’s cost-effectiveness is
one instance to another, or not set at
measured in terms of its return on
all.
investment. ROI can help you
• A count for the total number of
determine –
conversions. This may be set to every if
1. If your campaign has achieved its you want every user visit to count as a
intended objectives and goals. conversion (e.g., if every visit improves
2. The amount of sales/revenue you brand awareness and adds value to
have been able to drive with paid your business) or to one when only
advertising. one conversion per ad-click adds value.

Visit Career Edge, our online library for more free

guides and 500+ informative articles.
Simplilearn Americas LLC
Simplilearn is the world’s largest certifications training
201 Spear Street,
provider, bringing 400+ courses in 20+ industry
Suite 1100, San Francisco, CA 94105
domains to a global audience.
United States
Browse Simplilearn’s digital marketing courses here.