SEA Agency Switzerland
SEA - Search Engine Advertising
SEA Marketing, what is it? SEA Marketing, what is it?
What is SEA in marketing? SEA in digital marketing refers to the strategy of paying for ads in search engines such as Google, Bing, Yahoo, etc.
SEA, or search engine advertising, refers to a form of paid marketing that helps companies get their ads in front of searchers by paying for their ad copy to appear at the top of search results. It is a form of pay-per-click (PPC) advertising where they bid for relevant search queries and pay for each click their ad receives.
This definition of SEA refers to a style of marketing based on paid ads, which distinguishes it from SEO (which focuses only on organic results based on better search algorithm performance). Many marketers also refer to this style of advertising as "PPC" - or "paid search" advertising. SEA marketing is generally interchangeable with these terms.
However, PPC refers to a broadly defined advertising model used across the web. In fact, pay-per-click style ads appear not only in search engines but also on:
- popular social media platforms, e.g. Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Xing, Youtube, Twitter, Pinterest, Tiktok, and many more.
- Search campaigns from shopping channels, e.g. Google Shopping, Facebook Marketplace, Etsy, etc.
- Backlinks from and to affiliated ad partner websites, videos, etc.
The importance of SEA marketing refers specifically to the style of PPC ads placed on search engines such as Google or Bing.
What is SEA in marketing? What is SEA in marketing?
Please don't despair, because there are still some more shortcuts to come....
SEA refers to search engine advertising, which exists as a branch of SEM. SEM, in turn, refers to all search engine marketing, which is the umbrella term for the world of marketing that includes both SEO and PPC, where brands and businesses use search engines for business growth and drive more traffic to their website. SEM therefore encompasses all aspects - both SEO and SEA marketing.
br> As explained earlier, this definition of SEA digital marketing refers specifically to ads that work on the pay-per-click model. Each time a searcher clicks on your ad, you pay the bid amount (usually between a few cents and a few francs at most). By bidding on search terms, sellers and service providers compete for the opportunity to list their ads in search results for important search terms that are particularly relevant to their business.
Since Google and Bing only offer these types of ads as PPC, most people understand that SEA marketing and search engine PPC essentially mean the same thing.
In the past year, SEA, i.e. paid search advertising or PPC, has overtaken organic search as the top-selling method in online marketing.
All our data suggests that up to 65% of users click on ads when they buy - especially search ads.
HellYes creates the necessary accounts for you. To do SEA marketing with Google, we use GoogleAds (formerly called AdWords), and for Bing we use a Microsoft Advertising account. Both platforms can be used free of charge - but the ads themselves work on the basis of a budget provided by the user, which feeds the pay-per-click bidding system.
As these ads are based on bids and the "cost per click", the effective cost of placing your ads is on your personal budget. We advise you and find the best possible keywords for you to maximise the ROAS (Return on Ads spend), i.e. the profitability of your advertising spend. For business websites that want to increase sales quickly, SEA is a good strategy as the first digital marketing measure. Together we will work out the optimal budget to achieve your targeted sales growth and the corresponding success.
Unlike SEO, search engine optimisation, you see the effect almost immediately. The more aggressive you are, the better the result will be. In fact, one of the best advantages of SEA marketing is that it gets results very quickly. For SEA online marketing and Google advertising, we create and configure your GoogleAds account. You get access to the account so you can always check and track all activities in real time.
For Google, the actual position and performance of ads is determined by a ranking system called "Ad Rank", which uses both your bid amount and your website's quality factor, as well as a few other factors. The ad system calculates your ad rank based on these factors along with expected ad performance, relevance, landing page quality, dwell time and more. This means that bidding is not the only way to achieve top rank or win the keyword auction. Even if your competitors pay more, you can still win the auction if your ad or landing page is deemed better. The AdRank is immediately recalculated for every auction - billions of times per day!
SEA works largely the same way in Bing. Here we create and configure your ads via the Microsoft Advertising platform.
There is another advertising style that HellYes uses for e-commerce companies and retailers for better product performance.
Google and Bing both offer paid "shopping" results for SEA marketing. These results function as an ad style where products and items for sale are displayed directly in search results. These types of ads look like product listings and typically appear in search engines for queries related to products or retail items. These ads act as a feature that allows users to view products from different retailers on one page without having to navigate directly to individual websites. Kind of like Amazon, Zalando or Ebay...
Google only offers Shopping product ads via its Merchant Center platform. We set up these SEA paid search campaigns for your company via the Google platform. After the required product details have been ported, i.e. uploaded, your products become directly findable and purchasable. We create Bing Shopping campaigns via the Microsoft Merchant Center (MMC).
Google Shopping SEA Marketing offers 3 types of ads:
- Regular Product Shopping Ads - These are the main form of listing and appear in the Product Listing section under the main Shopping tab of Google.
- Showcase Shopping ads can be created in Google Ads by grouping related products in ads or in the GoogleAds API. One of the main benefits of Showcase ads is that they allow retailers to present a range of their products for a single broad search term, showcasing their entire product range with all its variations.
- Ads for local catalogues. These are created using feed data from local inventory ads to target buyers on the Google Display Network. They help drive traffic to your local business.
- Another option in Google Shopping is that ads are placed on "Google banners". This SEA marketing option means that businesses can place their paid product ads in different areas of Google, including Image Search, the main Shopping tab, GoogleLens and regular search carousels.
We look forward to creating a professional presence and the best possible findability for your business. HellYes takes care of your search ad campaigns in the Google Merchant Center or also in the Microsoft Merchant Center.
Keywords are the core of search advertising, as ads are designed to be served for specific, relevant and often manually selected search queries. Searchers are literally the whole point of search engines - and Google's PPC advertising system is based on showing the right ads for the right searches.
This ad model would not work if ads were placed randomly. For example, it would not make sense for a construction equipment company to have their ads appear for something like "summer fashion for sale". They would get no clicks and waste money.
We are very meticulous at HellYes to get the most out of keyword research advice and support, and to define exactly which search queries you and your business will be displayed for.
Keyword research is a critical part of SEA online marketing - as traders and service providers achieve better results with more accurate, higher traffic and less competitive keywords. We use the most professional tools like Xovi, Sistrix and Seobility to define the best keywords for you and additionally optimise them in Google Keyword Planner.
We monitor key KPIs for the most effective PPC campaigns and can accurately analyse and continuously refine PPC ads using performance feedback from click-through rate, impressions, cost-per-action (CPA) and estimated return-on-ad-spend (ROAS). We are also happy to review your current advertising campaigns and give you input for an adjustment of your previous keyword research.
In-depth and detailed keyword research and the isolation of high-value, intent-driven keywords are important for SEA marketing.
One of the reasons why paid search advertising is so widespread is that it is one of the most successful forms of digital marketing. Its popularity is driven by a high ROI.
Google famously states that pay-per-click-based SEA marketing results in an average of 2 francs in revenue for every 1 franc spent. This 100% ROI comes from the fact that search ads can be fine-tuned. Specific target groups and specific keywords are targeted and you appear in the top 3 searches, which means that they receive up to 40% of all clicks from search engines there.
In addition, website visitors who come from paid SEA search traffic are 1.5 times more likely to close a sale. According to a study by Google, SEA digital marketing is now by far the highest revenue generating sales channel there is. That's why PPC marketing is important to so many online businesses. And HellYes! we are happy to guide you to success.
This metric measures the predicted lifetime value of a customer during their relationship with the retailer. Using predictive analytics, CLV estimates how much a customer will spend based on their activities and actions with the brand.
Contact us to learn more about SEA in digital marketing and how our team can help your business grow. We offer complete PPC management services with years of experience in the best SEA marketing strategies. Contact us to learn more about SEA in digital marketing and how our team can help your business grow. We offer complete PPC management services with years of experience in the best SEA marketing strategies.
Why you should hire HellYes?! Why you should hire HellYes?!
Many businesses are aware of the value of pay-per-click advertising, but may not be sure where to start. It is possible to run search engine ads internally and for your business to manage your PPC itself. Which is rarely the best choice.
Google and Bing offer ad services that allow your business to run ads as broadly or as narrowly as you like. And with no minimum budget required for pay-per-click style SEA advertising, it's easy enough for some businesses to run small campaigns themselves.
Since HellYes Specialised in SEA marketing and it is precisely this PPC marketing strategy that is so valuable and successful, many companies choose to entrust HellYes with the professionalisation of their advertising efforts.
But why should you hire PPC management experts like us?
The main advantage of hiring a PPC agency is that we offer knowledge and experience that your team may not have. Our routine and structured work processes enable us to set up your campaigns quickly without having to rethink the process. We also have access to tools and technology required for professional campaign management, performance tracking and reporting that can help you understand how SEA paid search ads help your business achieve its KPIs.
Our dedicated GoogleAds/PPC SEA management team is another important reason why many businesses prefer to use HellYes SEA services. We offer excellent SEA services:
- Set up, manage and edit campaigns for GoogleAds and Bing accounts to start and stop campaigns.
- Continuous monitoring of campaign factors such as structure, contexts, keywords, keywords to be excluded, budget, bids, ads, landing pages, advertising times and locations and certainly something more...
- Adjustments for your ads and content suggestions for optimising the quality factor and a better ad rank.
- Budget recommendations, forecasts and ad tests to achieve your company's goals.
- Monthly reporting on account performance.
- Remove/replace low-cost, low-performing ad keywords to reduce inefficient ad spend and save budget.
How do SEA marketing and SEO fit together? How do SEA marketing and SEO fit together?
Obviously, there is a big difference between SEO and SEA. Search engine advertising is based on paid results, custom ad copy, ad approvals and various other factors.
But SEO works in the world of "organic" traffic and operates on principles designed to optimise a website and then let the search engine algorithm do the rest. Companies have much more control over their PPC ads and not as much direct control over whether search engine algorithms think their SEO is very good. However, these two marketing strategies go well together and can also help each other. Most companies agree that it is best to, to do both.
After all, you are targeting the same searchers in both cases. Although there is no direct link between SEA marketing on Google/Bing and SEO, it is more likely that companies that optimise both will also improve their organic traffic. This is because, in truth, there is a lot of overlap between SEA and SEO. If you are doing the same keyword research and keyword density, you are already halfway to completing the key strategies for SEO and PPC. Companies that optimise their website and on-site content for a better quality factor often inadvertently optimise their website for better SEO. In addition, a paid search ads campaign can help businesses increase backlinks, build brand awareness and lead to more shares - all of which can potentially improve SEO.
Search engine ads have another advantage in that they bring almost instant results. This is a big part of their popularity in marketing. Once an ad is approved and goes live, it immediately appears on the search engine results pages.
And because ads are placed more prominently, they offer a very good CTR and therefore much faster traffic growth. For search ads on Google or Bing, we set up your ads through each platform's portal, set up your ad campaigns and ad groups, set up your budget and then determine your ad parameters. And off you go, HellYes!
Once this is done, they can start placing ads. This speed comes at a price - that's just part of the definition of SEA. But it all means faster sales and the ability to appear to millions of search engine users instantly. This style of marketing is also ideal for certain KPIs where slower types of digital marketing would not work.
HellYes-SEA is ideal for:
- Starting a new business or website that does not yet have a brand reputation or awareness.
- Publish new products and gain recognition for your brand or product.
- For seasonal events (e.g. OpenAirs, theatre performances, etc.), weather-related demand (e.g. air conditioners in summer, fan heaters in winter, etc.) short-term sales (e.g. clearance sales, winter sales, etc.) or holidays (e.g. Black Friday, Mother's Day, Valentine's Day...)
- When expanding into a new industry niche.
- To generate cash flow or turnover quickly.
- To generate interest in an event or a deadline.
- To promote brand awareness in a dominated environment.
- Or simply to establish a good multi-channel internet marketing strategy!
