With SEA to success – How search engine advertising helps you to find customers

In online marketing, there are many ways to reach potentially new customers. One of the most promising methods is SEA. But what is it actually and how can you benefit from it?

What is Search Engine Advertising?

Search engine advertising, also abbreviated as SEA, is the placement of ads in the search engine results pages (SERPs) of search engines such as Bing, Yahoo or Google. The advertisements are displayed to users as a result of their search when they enter certain terms (keywords) in the search bar. The ads usually consist of text, but there is also the possibility to integrate images.

How does SEA work?

A big advantage of Search Engine Advertising is that many people do not even notice that the ad is an advertisement. Since they are usually displayed as the top results, the chance that someone will click on the link is very high.

The Internet is the perfect place to place advertisements. Specifically search engines, as they are used by a large part of the population on a regular basis. A potential customer who has never heard of your service or product will come directly to your advertisement by searching on keywords set by you. Due to the fact that most search engines place a maximum of four advertisements above the organic search results, competition is reduced.

By showing the ad only to users who have entered the keywords, the target audience searches for your product – not the other way around. High visibility is generated, which also brings newly placed ads to users immediately. Further restrictions allow you to set who exactly you want your ads to be displayed to.

You can customize your ad specifically to languages, regions, age groups, genders and devices. You can also change the times of day and days of the week you want your ads to be served.

What is re-targeting?

A special function of search engine advertising is retargeting (also called remarketing, depending on the search engine). This allows you to repeatedly target users who have already come into contact with your product (who have already clicked on your ad). Users who have viewed specific products or even already had something in their shopping cart but did not complete the purchase will receive special ads based on their activity on your website.

You get data on user activity, which not only helps you win back active customers, but also helps you expand and better understand your target audience. The more you know about your target audience, the more accurately you can target future ads.

How much does it cost to advertise in a search engine?

There are different billing models for search engine advertising that you can choose from. Often it is calculated by PPC (pay-per-click), that is, per click on your ad. Your ad is displayed, but you only pay if someone clicks on it.

There is also the CPA (cost-per-acquisition) model, where you specify an action and only pay if users perform it on your website.

If you place a visual ad, such as a display ad, you can also use the CPT (cost-per-thousand) model, which charges for the number of times your ad is displayed.

How to place an ad on search engines?

Depending on the search engine, there are platforms on which an ad can be placed. For Google, the world leader in search engines, this platform is called Google Ads. The advantages of an online marketing agency include that you don’t have to deal with individual platforms and ad placements. Instead, you can communicate your ideas to the agency and they will place your ads where, when and to whom you want.