Search Engine Marketing
Search Engine Marketing, or commonly referred to as Paid Search is becoming a dominant part of online marketing these days. The initial evolution of Goto.com (now Yahoo Search) in the late 1990's has triggered one of the most lucrative online advertising programs on earth. According to one of my blog posts on Commerce360, Paid Search: The Margin Perspective a December 2005 study done by SEMPO (Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization) states that “SEM was a $5.75 billion industry in North America in 2005, and will grow to $11.1 billion in 2010.”
SEM is Instant - Good SEM is Gradual
The million dollar question is "how do you win the game?". The answer, like SEO, is relevancy, relevancy, relevancy. But, we need to take this further and put our smart business hats on. There are many ways to create a well-oiled PPC machine, but the question remains "is it profitable for you?" and the answer will surprise you.The biggest misconception with paid search is that driving traffic to your site doesn't mean anything to your bottom line. Even for those with web analytics in place, and achieving 100% ROI still is not profitable. Let me explain.
Today, SEM is going above and beyond typical paid traffic. Companies, agencies and individuals are tracking paid performance at the campaign, adgroup and keyword levels. In fact, some agencies are going as far as to calculate the businesses Cost/Profit margins of specific products which are using SEM to drive traffic.
SEM Resources