Search Engine Marketing (SEM) is also commonly referred to as 'Paid Search' and has many channels and delivery methods. Most major search engines display paid advertising as well as content distribution sites such as Youtube. Even Facebook has excellent SEM opportunities available with highly targeted user profiles. With the increasing popularity of mobile devices, SEM opportunities also exist to specifically target users based on the device they're using.

Channels

Search Engine Marketing opportunities are continuing to expand providing more and more places to display your ads and drive people to your website. Some popular SEM channels include:

• Google AdWords
• Bing Ads
• Yahoo Search Ads
• Youtube
• Facebook
• LinkedIn
• The list goes on...

Targeting

One of the best parts about Search Engine Marketing is that it provides you with the ability to target your ads at a number of levels. Depending on the platform you're using, you can target things such as keywords, location, industries, demographics and even personal interests. As the advertiser, you can choose to only show your ad to people who are interested in your market segment, or perhaps only people of a specific age and location.

Remarketing

Another area of SEM is called Remarketing. This allows you to target your advertisements only to people who have been to a particular page on your site or seen a specific advertisement previously. Remarketing is excellent for closing sales, attract in-market customers, cross-sell products and even exclude users who have already purchased.

Planning

With such a large number of platforms available, it's important to understand your market and where your customers spend their time online. Plan which sites your target market frequent and invest in those channels.

Support

Another benefit of Search Engine Marketing is that it enables you to increase your brand awareness for a new product or service that you currently don't rank well organically for.