Hello and welcome to this edition of Five Things to Know. Today we will be focusing on terms associated with Search Engine Marketing, or SEM.
More and more marketing and advertising dollars are going into Search Engine Marketing – whether it be standard Google ad words, banner ads or ads on specific platforms such as LinkedIn. When using Search Engine Marketing, there are several terms that you should be familiar with. These include:
What is a Keyword?
A keyword is a specific words or phrases that users type into Google and other search engines when looking for information or products. Some examples of legal keywords are Car Accident Lawyer, Denver Divorce Lawyer, and Chapter 7 Attorney. In SEM, selecting the right keywords is crucial for targeting the right audience and driving relevant traffic to your website.
What is Pay-per-click / PPC?
PPC is a form of online advertising where advertisers pay a fee each time their ad is clicked. Advertisers bid on keywords relevant to their target audience, and their ads appear on search engines like Google or Bing when users search for those keywords.
What is Click-through-rate / CTR?
CTR is a metric that measures the effectiveness of your digital ads in terms of how often users click on them after seeing them. It’s calculated by dividing the number of clicks by the number of times the ad was shown and is a key indicator of ad performance.
What is Ad Rank?
Ad rank is a metric used by search engines to determine the position of an advertisement on the search results pages. It is influenced by factors like the bid amount, quality score, and ad extensions. A higher ad rank increases the likelihood of your ad being displayed prominently.
What is Quality Score?
Quality score is a metric used by search engines to measure the quality and relevance of your ad and landing page to the user’s search query. A higher quality score can lead to better ad positions and lower costs per click. Factors that impact quality score include click-through rate, ad relevance, and landing page experience.
Bonus Term - What is a Landing Page?
A landing page is designed so that the visitor takes a specific action such as calling your law firm. For best results with your SEM campaign, you will create landing pages rather than just having the visitor land on one of the standard pages on your site. As a rule of thumb, a standard webpage is designed to provide information where a landing page is designed to drive a specific action from the visitor.
There are many more terms but the critical issue in using and paying for SEM, ultimately, is the return on investment or ROI. The ROI is typically calculated by the increased qualified intake divided by the cost spent on the Search Engine Marketing campaign. Like all forms of marketing for law firms, understanding intake source is critical in identifying ROI and success of your marketing. It is important to note that just paying for Keywords and getting a lot of clicks is often not enough. You will need compelling and consistent content on the landing page to both help the Quality Score and, more importantly, to compel the visitor to take the planned-for action.
SEM can be a worthwhile investment for law firms but in order to ensure that you are getting the best results possible, it pays to understand these terms as well as how to create an effective SEM campaign. LAWBARD will continue to provide more information to help ensure your SEM campaigns are successful.
Thanks, and see you next time!
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