Pay per click advertising, commonly abbreviated to PPC, is often mentioned alongside a slew of other terms like SEM, paid traffic, and Google Ads. Here, we’ll be answering some of the most common questions related to this digital marketing channel like, “What is PPC?”, “What does PPC stand for?”, “What is SEM?”, “What does SEM stand for?” and many more.
In a previous blog, which was the first in a series of Digital Marketing 101 blogs aimed at helping tech businesses better understand the wide world of digital marketing, we discussed Search Engine Marketing, or SEO. SEO is one very important digital marketing channel to understand, and today we’ll be looking at another highly beneficial avenue of digital marketing.
What is PPC?
While the term “pay per click advertising” might sound self-explanatory to some, you still might be wondering, “what is PPC?” Here’s what you should know: PPC is an online advertising method where an advertiser runs ads on a platform like Google. As the world’s most popular search engine, Google is where most advertisers run the majority of their PPC advertising campaigns, and it’s what we’ll primarily be focusing on below.
PPC ads show the advertiser’s website at the top of a Search Engine Results Page (SERP) for relevant queries, putting them directly in front of users. Advertisers pay a fee every time one of their links is clicked, hence the term “pay per click.” The term “cost per click,” which is commonly abbreviated to CPC, refers to how much an advertiser paid for a user to click on their link and overall ad spend. With PPC, advertisers are in full control of when and where their ads run and how much they pay.
Advertisers compete against others to bid on certain keywords, and a higher bid will mean better ad placement. While advertisers can bid on any keywords, they should only bid on those that are relevant to their products and services.
There are several types of PPC ads, including search ads, display ads, shopping ads, video ads, and map ads. To differentiate them from organic search results, they feature bolded text that reads “Ad” or “Sponsored” on Google.
While search engines like Google are the primary platform that advertisers run PPC ads on, they can also be run on various social media platforms, media networks, and other websites.
Assuming an advertiser knows the search habits of their customers, PPC can be very beneficial. It is a very quick way to increase traffic to a website – in some cases, results can be seen mere hours after campaigns have been launched. Additionally, PPC enables advertisers to precisely target a specific audience much better than traditional forms of advertising, which reduces wasted ad spend.
What is SEM?
So, what is SEM? And what does SEM stand for? SEM stands for Search Engine Marketing, which is an umbrella term that describes a variety of digital marketing strategies, techniques, and methods, including SEO and PPC. Both SEO and PPC aim to increase a website’s visibility on search engines like Google and rank highly for certain queries and keywords but in different ways.
However, SEM can often be used synonymously with PPC, which can make differentiating between the two terms confusing.
What is Paid Traffic?
As you may have already guessed, paid traffic refers to the traffic a website receives from paid advertisements.
What is Google Ads?
Google is the most popular search engine, and Google Ads is the world’s most popular PPC advertising system. Google Ads is where advertisers create the ads that will ultimately appear on Google’s SERPs and other properties, like YouTube.
Digital Marketing is the future, so you don’t want to get left behind! Check back for more Digital Marketing 101 blogs every month, and contact Intero Digital for the services you need to start maximizing the opportunities PPC advertising offers!
About Intero Digital
Intero Digital is a full-service digital marketing company that has been testing, building, evolving, and creating next-level digital marketing solutions for over 20 years. They can provide all of the digital marketing services your business needs to grow, and will support your whole sales funnel. Contact Intero Digital for a free quote today or speak with a consultant to determine your needs today.
Search engines like Google process billions of searches – called “queries” in digital marketing – every day. You probably account for a few of these yourself. Have you ever wondered why you’re shown the results that you’re shown? SEO is a big reason why, and it’s a crucial aspect of digital marketing for companies big and small.
However, with digital marketing still being a relatively new field that is constantly changing and evolving as search algorithms do, even some tech companies might be stumped when it comes to SEO, what it does, and how to do it right. Here, we’ll be answering common questions like “what is SEO?” “what does SEO do?” “what does SEO stand for?” and more. Consider this a crash course in SEO.
What Does SEO Stand For?
SEO stands for search engine optimization. The term refers to the process of improving a website so it will be more visible on search engines like Google, Bing, Yahoo, and others.
SERP is another important acronym to know. It stands for search engine results page and refers to the page of website listings a search engine presents to internet users after they have typed in their query.
What is SEO?
So, what is SEO? At its core, SEO is the process of optimizing aspects of a website’s technical configuration so that it is more attractive to search engines. This helps sites become more visible to users in a specific target audience. Improving the appearance and positioning of a website on relevant SERPs ultimately leads to more website traffic, which means more conversion opportunities.
Attracting new users who may eventually become your customers, clients, and/or audience by getting your website to rank highly on SERPs for relevant queries is the primary goal of SEO.
What is Organic Traffic?
Organic traffic is a term used to refer to visitors that have arrived at a website by entering a query into a search engine and then clicking one of the non-sponsored links on the SERP. Sponsored links and ads will always appear at the top or bottom of a SERP page. Sometimes, organic traffic is also called “unpaid traffic.” All SEO efforts focus on organic traffic rather than other sources because this is the main way that users discover and access content online.
What Platforms is SEO For?
SEO is used for search engines like Google, Bing, Yahoo, and others. Most digital marketers focus almost exclusively on optimizing websites to be more attractive to Google’s algorithms because Google is by far the most used search engine in the world.
What Does SEO Do, and Why Is It So Important?
All businesses want to attract new customers to generate more revenue, reach new markets, and grow. This is what SEO does, making it important for all businesses to focus on – even startups and businesses in niche markets. When done right, SEO makes your website more visible, which increases organic traffic from new and relevant users, ultimately resulting in more opportunities to convert users into customers and clients.
SEO is just one of many types of digital marketing that is important for businesses in our increasingly digital world. Others, like PPC, Amazon, and Social Media, will be covered in upcoming blogs! This is the first in a series of Digital Marketing 101 blogs that we are producing with Intero Digital to help tech businesses like yours better understand the wide world of digital marketing and all the ways they can benefit from the different digital marketing services Intero can offer.
Digital marketing is the future, so don’t be left behind! Stay tuned for more blogs and contact Intero Digital for the services you need to better reach your target audience, promote your product or service, and grow.
About Intero Digital
For more than two decades, Intero Digital has been testing, building, evolving and strategizing next-level solutions in digital marketing. When you work with Intero Digital, you can expect to reach your full marketing potential with integrated digital marketing solutions that support your entire sales funnel. Intero Digital is a one-stop shop for digital marketing, offering integrated solutions from start to finish that support your entire customer journey. Reach out for a free quote today or speak with a representative to determine your needs.