Search Marketing: SEM, SEO, and More

July 18, 2024

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How are marketers utilizing and optimizing their search marketing efforts?

Utilizing and optimizing search marketing is an ongoing effort marketers are continously, and will continue to, grow and develop as technology evolves. Due to the rise of generative AI and chatbot tools, search will be forever changed. As Ashton Hall described for ANA, the "rise of chatbots, powered by artificial intelligence, represents another formidable challenge for Google. People are increasingly using these tools to get more personalized answers to their questions, allowing them to access information in real-time, without the need for traditional search queries."

Hall, head of social at Code3, also noted that this "shift in the search evolution means more places for marketers to show up in placements within the digital landscape where their users are actively seeking information. It's no longer 'let me google that,' instead, it's critical to think about user behavior and show up where a brand's consumers are finding information. Platforms will continue to evolve their search capabilities and it's important to adapt as user behavior evolves."

Thus, it's crucial for marketers to understand why and what their consumers search for, so they can better leverarge and embrace generative AI effectively with search, coupled with establishing key insights and KPIs. For instance, during an ANA presentation, Razorfish noted that consumers search online for three reasons: navigation, commerce, and information. Setting KPIs around these goals as well as implementing a test and learn approach is the key to discovering what works and doesn't work for your brand. This also makes it far easier to distill insights into content and create campaigns that will perform well and resonate with target audiences.

Luanne Marek, SVP of media at Centerfield, summed up the strategy behind search marketing, imploring to marketers not to "make the mistake of getting stuck on mid-funnel KPIs when experimenting, ensure you are looking at the impact to the full funnel with sale per impression in addition to cost per acquisition (CPA) impact. To optimize customer experience, attribution, and consumer engagement that ultimately drive incremental sales, search marketers need to let data drive their decisions. CMOs need to study the conversions per 1,000 impressions to fine-tune their SEM strategy and maximize customer acquisition."

Below are resources, examples, and best practices to help companies leverage search effectively.

Resources

Benefits and Challenges of SEM and SEO. ANA, May 2024.
An advertiser can create and launch an SEM campaign quickly. Tools like Google Ads provide maximum control over every element of a text ad. With the right attention to detail, successful campaigns with specific landing pages and calls to action can drive tremendous growth for businesses. However, depending on how competitive the landscape, costs per click can be high. SEM can often represent the largest line item on a digital marketing budget.

SEO, on the other hand, takes time, resources, and patience to implement and drive results. Once first page visibility and rankings are achieved, organic traffic can significantly increase, and website conversions can soar. That said, the waiting, trial and error, and overall difficulty of SEO can be trying for even the most patient marketers.
The Ultimate Guide to Search Engine Marketing (SEM). Forbes, April 2024.
When was the last time you needed to buy a product? Chances are you turned to a search engine such as Google to start your research. The companies you see first paid to get their listing at the top, however, are ads. This is search engine marketing (SEM) in a nutshell. Here Forbes explains what SEM is, how it can help your business grow, and where to get started.
Search Engine Marketing (SEM): Ultimate Guide + Expert Tips. HubSpot, January 2024.
Search engines are a part of daily life. Set up your search engine marketing correctly, and it can also be a part of your daily business growth. While you must employ organic strategies to attract traffic over the long term, sometimes you can't properly compete on the search engine ranking pages without putting money behind it — and that's where SEM comes into play.
SEO Best Practices: 10 Ways to Boost Organic Rankings & Traffic. SEM Rush, April 2024.
SEO best practices are tried-and-tested tactics for improving a website or brand's visibility in search engine results pages. Without paying for ads. Following these best practices can help you improve brand awareness. And get more organic traffic (unpaid clicks) from search engines like Google. Here are the 10 most important SEO best practices you need to know:

Align Your Content with Search Intent
Leverage Primary Keywords
Write Compelling Title Tags and Meta Descriptions
Optimize Your Images
Optimize Your Site's Page Loading Speed
Build an Internal Linking Structure
Improve User Experience
Make Your URLs SEO-Friendly
Earn Authoritative Backlinks
Create Useful Content

Where Is All That Search Investment Going? ANA, June 2024.
Digital marketers aren't new to change, and we've seen a lot of it throughout the course of our careers. Once again, the winds of change are blowing strong, and nowhere is this more evident than in the realm of search. For years, Google has reigned supreme as the go-to platform for search advertising, commanding the lion's share of ad spend. But a big shift is underway, propelled by the rise of consumers performing their searches on social versus traditional search platforms such as Google or Bing.
AI and the Evolution of Search: How Brands Can Adapt to a Transforming Landscape. ANA, May 2024.
AI is impacting every facet of our lives and how we search online is no exception. It's very early days, but we're already starting to see the impact generative AI will have on how people search. Generative AI has led to new online search behaviors just like smartphones led to an explosion in people searching for things "near me." Razorfish's Amos Ductan explored some of these early search trends and what brands need to know to stay ahead in this rapidly changing environment.
The Search Marketer's AI. ANA, June 2024.
The integration of AI into search and search advertising represents a significant shift, offering both opportunities and challenges for brands. As search continues to evolve, staying informed about these changes and adapting strategies accordingly is key for brands looking to effectively reach and engage their target audiences. Helping divine what you need and how you like it is a perpetual objective for brands as search continues to evolve, now with the help of AI. In this session, Motivity founder Kevin Ryan discussed search and its economic model companion, search advertising. See the full presentation by clicking here.
The KPI Search Marketers Actually Need to Monitor. ANA, December 2023.
Brand search should already be one of your highest converting channels. But what if you're leaving money on the table? If you don't have the capability to easily do hundreds of multivariate A/B tests on your search campaign a year, there's no way you're converting as much as you can.

We know that the modern purchase journey is nonlinear, so while some brand searchers are already at the purchase point, others are still in the consideration phase which means you still need to work at winning them over. To know if you are doing this effectively, CMOs can gain the most insight paying close attention to sales per 1,000 impressions. There is a ceiling to your brand's impressions, which you are likely already hitting. So, getting the most conversions for those impressions is where you need to focus.

With the north star KPI being sales per 1,000 impressions, search marketers can employ the following tactics to fully optimize their search ecosystem.
Internal Site Search Engine Optimization: The Treasure Right Under Our Noses. ANA, August 2023.
Although the phrase "knowledge is power" was likely coined by Sir Francis Bacon way back in 1597, it has been repeated in the writings of many throughout history and continues to resonate today — especially at Google.

Since the search giant's inception in 1999, the people behind it have been gaining knowledge about humanity, usually without even asking. By spending billions on developing a search engine, Google has become the arena where we share our hopes, fears, curiosity, and desires more than we do with each other. With this user input, Google has built an empire of services — Google Maps, Google News, self-driving cars, YouTube, Shopping, AI, Gmail, Google Docs, and more — that evolves daily to satisfy the needs and wants of literally billions of people.

But this blog post isn't about Google, which is by no means the only treasure trove of information. Here, the DAC Group shares how to leverage the power of internal site search engine optimization to understand customer needs and enhance user experience.

Examples

How Sea-Doo Used SEM to Overcome Supply Chain Issues and Increase Sales. ANA, April 2023.
With the entire globe experiencing a supply chain crisis in 2021, watercraft brand Sea-Doo was in a pickle. Its entire product portfolio had sold out by summer of 2021 — during the height of supply chain woes — and the difficulty in getting parts made constructing more inventory a challenge. As such, the brand had to pivot from driving sales of its 2021 line to driving consideration of its 2022 line over the course of several months. To do this, the brand turned to a cutting-edge Search Engine Marketing (SEM) strategy, reimagining existing assets and using a popular tool on its website, to engage consumers over a much longer sales cycle.
Vaseline's See My Skin Campaign Was a Success. ANA, December 2022.
As the brand that exists to give everybody healthy skin, Vaseline approached the lack of diversity in dermatological imagery not just as a user experience problem, but as an equity issue. The brand set out to raise awareness of the racially biased systems that impact algorithmic search, provide proper representation and access to equal care, and most of all, help Black and Hispanic people be seen.

The strategic objective of See My Skin was to connect with communities of color by providing unbiased, culturally competent resources along the path to diagnosis, and in turn, connect them with the proper care they deserve.

Leveraging Data to Build and Optimize Your SEO Strategy. ANA, September 2022.
As recently as 2018, American Express was not prioritizing an SEO strategy. As a result, its approach to SEO left much to be desired. The company's website had over 100,000 pages, with over 500 different teams contributing to those pages. However, only three employees had roles dedicated to SEO. At a September 2022 ANA One-Day Conference, American Express described six, non-sequential measures it took to improve its approach to SEO.
Scanmarker Overhauls its Approach to Marketing on Amazon. ANA, August 2022.
Sometimes, a great product needs to be looked at a little differently to rise in the ranks on Amazon. With overcrowded categories and fierce competition from brands of all sizes, innovation without the right representation could end up lost in the noise. That's exactly why Scanmarker engaged with Channel Bakers EMEA in June of 2020 with the intent to increase its presence in the European region.
Sendbird Tackles Demand Generation. ANA, July 2022.
Sendbird's mission is to build connections in a digital world through its chat, voice, and video API. But like many rapidly growing startups, the company needed strategic marketing expertise to help it connect with its audience and increase revenue. Specifically, the inability to fill, track, and nurture prospects in its lead pipeline presented a major obstacle.

Sendbird initially approached the agency Walker Sands to provide guidance on personas, paid advertising, and content. Following these early foundational successes, Sendbird looked to the agency to optimize the paid program and SEO strategy to improve organic and paid ad performance, drive leads, and unlock the full potential and value in its sales pipeline.

Tools

SEO Playbook. ANA/Demand Metric, March 2024.
Follow this simple, step-by-step playbook to create an effective search engine optimization plan and optimize your website to increase traffic and support your marketing goals.

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