Search Engine Advertising (SEA) plays an important role in a company's marketing strategy. It is a subcategory of search engine marketing, referring to the placement of paid ads on search engine results pages. This includes platforms like Google, Yandex, Bing, and Baidu. These ads appear as paid results before the organic results in response to search queries, and must be labeled as ads. The placement is done through booked keywords related to the searched topic.

The advantage of SEA is that it leads to success after only a short time. It is therefore well suited for product launches or new websites. If you want to draw attention to a campaign or product for a specific period of time, SEA is a good choice. The ads usually appear within a very short time.

In contrast, there is search engine optimization. This is designed to improve the ranking of websites in the organic area. However, it can take up to six months for a website to appear at the top of the rankings. That is why search engine marketing always includes both areas in order to achieve the greatest possible success.

ChatGPT: Search engine advertising is a powerful marketing tool for the success of an online marketing campaign. It can also be used for regional campaigns. Google alone records more than 3 billion visits per day. Most users only look at the first results page, so it’s beneficial if your website appears there.

How can SEA be optimized?

Google Ads is the advertising network that, along with the Google Display Network, is the main revenue source for the search engine. The question now arises: how can an SEA campaign be optimized? It is not necessary to make decisions based on gut feeling.

Everything is measurable, as there are a wealth of tools and metrics available to monitor all relevant data. The aim is to present ads at precisely the moment when users are searching for your offering. This primarily depends on the company's objectives. The targets determine the selection of advertising measures and the budget.

These are possible goals of an online marketing measure:

• Increase range
• Improve visibility
• Improve ad quality
• Designing a profitable online marketing campaign
• acquisition of new customers
• increase sales

Advertising success can be measured precisely using Ads KPIs (Key Performance Indicators). These are used to determine how the advertising budget is being used. Since there are many different metrics that are all interrelated, it is important to understand them thoroughly.

How often does the advertisement appear on the results pages?

The number of impressions indicates how often the ad appears in search results. Total impressions show the search volume of the used keywords. This provides valuable insights into the reach of the advertising network. However, it doesn't say anything about whether users actually perceive the ad.

How often does a user click on the ad?

Each click takes the user to your website. This tells us whether the user considered the ad relevant. It is a good indicator of whether the user feels addressed by the ad. This value corresponds to the number of users who saw the ad. With ads, the advertiser usually pays for clicks.

Click-through rate (CTR)

The click-through rate is the ratio between impressions and clicks. It is the percentage of users who actually click on the ad. This value is an important indicator of the quality of the ad design. An ad that generates thousands of impressions but no clicks doesn't provide much value. The click-through rate reveals whether the ad motivates people to click.

The formula for this is:

• Clicks/impressions x 100 = click rate (in %)

If users see the ad 1,000 times and ten of them click on it, the click-through rate is one percent. A high rate is a sure sign of relevance in online marketing. The higher this number is, the more users perceive you as a competent contact.

You can already make adjustments here by reviewing the text and tone. This will show you how well a keyword converts. Keywords that indicate an intention to buy convert better than informal keywords. The Google Ads Campaign Manager has fields that show these values.

Relevance is an important criterion

There should be a connection between the booked keyword and the ad. Both must be reflected in the headline as well as in the text. The customer's journey continues with matching keywords and landing page. The landing page must be designed in a way that ensures a positive user experience. Google always aims to deliver the best possible result, which is why this aspect is taken into account in the evaluation.

How profitable are my ads?

Search Engine Advertising costs money, so every advertising campaign should be as profitable as possible to provide the maximum benefit.

The profitability of an advertising strategy can be measured using these key figures:

• Cost per click (CPC)
• Cost-per-Lead
• Conversions
• Conversion-Rate (CVR)
• Cost-per-Order (CPO)
• Revenue per click
• Return on Advertising Spend

The advantage of online marketing is that almost everything can be measured. Conversions show whether the visitor actually performs the desired action after clicking on an ad. This includes sales, leads, contact inquiries, or newsletter sign-ups.

Important key figures for shop operators

Since online marketing experts must always keep an eye on costs, there are key metrics for cost control. For example, Cost per Click represents the actual costs incurred for a click on the website. Additionally, there are costs associated with a contact address, which is referred to as Cost-per-Lead. There are also other variants, such as Cost-per-Order, which are incurred when an order is placed.

Also important is the "Return on Advertising Spend", which indicates the actual profit generated per advertising expenditure. It is a subset of the Return on Investment (ROI), which generally shows the relationship between revenue and costs.

These figures are primarily of interest to shop operators who want to achieve a reasonable profit. Even the revenue per click is important here, as it shows how much revenue each individual click on the advertisement generates. Here, the revenue generated can be divided by the number of clicks.

An average shopping cart value is also calculated. This value indicates how much money the user spends on average when shopping in the online shop. This is calculated by dividing the turnover by the average conversions.

Always adapt SEA key figures to your own information needs

The available metrics and KPIs offer a wide range of analysis possibilities. Therefore, every SEA manager must adapt the existing measurement methods to their individual needs. This greatly depends on the specific company. Only refer to the key metrics that are meaningful for your business to avoid being overwhelmed with unnecessary information. With the appropriate software and tools provided by search engines, it is possible to stay on top of things. As a full-service agency in Munich, we help you find the right strategy for your business.