Search engine advertising (SEA)

Ad placement
in the search engines (SEA)

Search engine advertising (SEA) is the most efficient use of ad placements in the search engines.

SEA is to be seen as part of one’s marketing or brand building strategy.

SEA is the art of placing paid advertisements in search engines and thus directing demand-specific customer groups to one’s own website. SEA is therefore the paid counterpart to “organic” search results, which is based on search engine optimization (SEO).

How prominently your own ad is shown by Google on the search results page (in competition with the ads of your competitors) depends on the keywords and what price you are willing to pay if the corresponding ad should be clicked.
So you deposit a click price bid with Google for each ad. In the background of a search query, an auction is then running, so to speak. The higher your bid per click, the more likely it is that your ads will be played out, even in front of other ads, and sometimes even appear in front of dominant “organic” search results.

Ads are not very different visually from “organic” search results (except for the “ad” label) and are therefore often perceived by searchers as just another type of search result worth clicking on.

So with a higher budget alone, you can make it ahead of your competition. This also opens up marketing scope when the company’s own SEO strategy, which tends to be designed for the very long term, may not yet be effective.

SEO and SEA complement each other

Coordinating both methods perfects success.

The available space on a search engine results page is divided between the actual search results and matching ads. You would be optimally visible if you are well placed in both areas.

While SEO achieves the desired goal by placing search result links to one’s own website as high as possible, SEA controls the highest possible placement of ads compared to the competition. So, both actions, SEO and SEA, are intended to bring users to your site and encourage them to respond in a certain way (conversion).

SEA is also excellent for finding the optimal keywords for your own website: Which keywords bring the most sales in the end can be tested quickly and well here. In SEO, these keywords can be used as targets: When a web visitor searches with these keywords, you want your website to be as far ahead as possible in the natural search results.

SEA can therefore first push a campaign and SEO then take over more and more in the long term and replace the costly ads (SEA).

Why SEO and not just ads?

In both cases, it is of course important to have good landing pages that pick up the user precisely to his question, his keyword, provide sufficient qualitative information and then encourage the user to respond. This is one of the classic tasks of SEO.

Many websites are also not created in a vacuum. A brand often already exists that people are already searching for online. Or the website is not completely new, but a relaunch of an old site. Here the task of SEO is to direct here already existing searches for the brand or clicks on targets to the previous website to the desired target pages of the new website.

With SEO, there are no other costs (apart from the SEO costs), because the user’s click on a “natural” (i.e. not ad-driven) search result is free of charge for you as a website operator:

SEO therefore has the better return of investment (ROI) in the long term – once the campaign is up and running properly.

CONCLUSION / RECOMMENDATION

In the beginning, we always recommend parallel SEO and Google Ad campaigns:

  • Via Google Ads, I get measurement data about which keywords convert well – I can then use that for the SEO campaign.
  • Through Google Ads, I can spontaneously and immediately control how much
    conversions (i.e. sales/other goals) I achieve – and in doing so, also set accents in areas perhaps not yet covered by SEO.
  • SEO should be there from the start, for example, to build up the relevant content in the first place that searchers expect after clicking on either the ad or the search result. In addition, SEO can target existing user flows (backlinks, brand search).

The successes through natural search results (SEO) are more likely in the long term, SEO offers, of course, then a better ROI and can gradually replace the ads.

How can TBA-Berlin support you with your Google Ads campaign?

As a digital agency, we offer our clients customized SEA campaigns, which are developed and implemented together with our high-performance partners.

Very great emphasis is placed on relevance, budgeting and positive return on investment (ROI).

We will be happy to answer any questions you may have in a personal meeting.

Request a quote now: