Why Search Engine Marketing is Your Most Effective Marketing Tool

Now that you have an understanding of paid search and search engine optimization, I need explain why I believe paid search marketing is the most effective method of direct marketing.

The main reason search marketing is such a powerful vehicle is that the quality of traffic is so high. As you can see in the diagram below, a user conducts many steps before landing on your web site. A user decided to do a search, go to the Internet, choose a search engine, type in a key phrase that relates to your products or services, and then out of all of the options available, selected your site. In my opinion, you can not ask for a more qualified visitor!



Another big advantage is that the search engines are able to deliver a substantial amount of traffic. I am consistently seeing this marketing channel provide my clients the largest number of customers at the lowest cost relative to other marketing vehicles.

Part of the reason this is possible is that search marketing provides an incredible amount of control to its advertisers. One can start a search marketing campaign for as little as $50 per month, which provides a low risk method to test this channel.

Additionally, you can easily track all of your advertising placement and make changes to your campaign instantly. This means that if you found out that you were paying too much for a customer on a specific key phrase, you could lower your bid instantly or even stop advertising on this key phrase all together. Similarly, if a search term is performing extremely well, you could either improve your ranking in the search engine for that phrase, start advertising on similar words, or try advertising on that key phrase in additional search engines. Being able to measure everything and make changes instantly allows you to ensure that your budget is spent as efficiently as possible.

Now that you have an understanding of why it is important, I think we are ready to go back to my initial post, which is how to properly choose a search engine marketing firm. This will be discussed in the next post.


Jon Morris has 11 years of experience in the search marketing field. Prior to creating Internet Marketing Initiative, Jon managed the Internet Marketing department for Ketchum Directory Advertising an Omnicom Company from January 2002 to June 2003. To learn more about Jon, visit his website: http://www.internetmi.com.