Search Engine
Marketing
Jacob Orquin PhD researcher
Aarhus School of Business

Search engines marketing
Search engine marketing (SEM): how to market
your company or product through search
engines
Paid placement
Organic search results

Search engine taxonomy
 General search engines
 Specialty search engines
 Directory listings
http://www.searchengineoptimization
company.ca/img/search-engines.jpg

The search engine motor
The search engine algorithm will search for the
best content match for you search term
Moran (2005)

SEM tools
 Search engine optimization (SEO)
 Paid placement / pay per click (PPC)
 Directory listings
 Specialty search engines

Understanding the searcher
What are they searching for?
Google Top searches 16th of july 2009
1. british open 2009
2. the open championship
3. british open tv schedule
4. michael jackson autopsy picture
5. cheyenne cherry
6. tom watson
7. omgpop
8. 13 days in hell
9. bruce jenner plastic surgery before and after
10. quakebuttock
Rose & Levinson (2004)

Understanding the searcher
Why are they searching?
The web search goal
is directed by a need
to solve a problem or
a task.
Broder (2002)

Understanding the searcher
Is web search always a deliberate action? Can
we think of unplanned/unreasoned searches?
Theory of reasoned action
Theory of planned behavior

Search terms and categorization
Superordinate level
Furniture
categories
Basic level
Chair Table Sofa
categories
Subordinate level Dining Office Wheel
categories Chair chair chair
The Ant Wegener IKEA dining
chair chair chair no 28
The search terms can potentially reveal level of
expertise according to the level of categorization

Understanding the click
Users click on search results that they expect to
fulfill their needs. Of course they first need to
see the result!
Moran (2005)

SEM process
The process can contain:
 SEM strategy
 Definition of KPI’s
 Web analytics
 ROI assesment
 Keyword planning
 Cross evaluation PPC/SEO

SEM strategy
1. Choose the scope of the SEM program
product line, brand line, country, market, segment etc.
2. Divide the work
copywriting, programming, bidding and optimizing
3. Choose your approach
internal or external team?
4. Project your costs
Assess costs and ROI

1. Scope of the SEM program
On what scale is your SEM working, corporate or
SBU level?
Moran (2005)

2. Divide the work
SEM tasks
 Choosing the search marketing strategy.
 Targeting search engines.
 Planning keywords.
 Managing bids.
 Optimizing content.
 Developing technology.
 Defining standards.
 Selecting search marketing tools.
 Reporting metrics.

3. Choose your approach
Internal or external SEM team?
Consider the following before deciding:
 Corporate culture
 Budget
 Expertise
 Time
 Quality

4. Project your costs
SEO costs ~ $100 - $200 per page
Dependent on website size and
competition
PPC costs ~ $0,1 - $10 per click
Dependent on competition

KPI’s
 Web sales. Ring the digital cash register! Your customer buys
your product on the Web.
 Offline sales. Ring that other cash register! Your customer uses
the Web to research your product, but buys it in a brick-and-
mortar store or over the phone.
 Leads. Find a new customer! Your customer uses the Web to
research a problem and leaves contact information.
 Market awareness. Tell your story! Your customer learns about
what you do or engages in an activity (sponsored by your
brand).
 Information and entertainment. Inform people! Your visitor
wants to learn something or have fun killing time.
 Persuasion. Change someone's mind! Your organization might
be trying to help people with a problem or medical condition, or
you might be trying to influence public opinion.

Search Engine Optimization
1. Select keywords based on web
analytics
2. Onsite optimization: Title, copy,
HTML coding, metatags etc.
3. Offsite/linkbuilding: create ingoing
links to te website from relevant and
high ranking sites
4. Continously monitor the performance
of the website in search engines, and
the performance of the keywords.

Paid placement proces
PPC management is iterative and often
requires daily refinements and bid
management.
1. Set up your paid search program (PPC
software like Google Adwords)
2. Choose your keywords
3. Attract searcher's clicks (ad copy)
4. Optimize paid search landing pages
5. Measure and adjust your campaign

1. PPC program
Choose you PPC software and set up your
account. Do you want more than one PPC
program?

2. Keywords
Identify main keywords: take a look on you
WA, but what problems could arise here?
Expand the list: variations, (mis-)spelling,
acronyms, combinations
Test keywords: check search volume and est.
Bid to hold position
Bid, trim, and track: bid management, trim
keyword list, track conversion rates on
keywords

3. Attract clicks
The ad copy must simultaneously attract all
potential customers and sort out non customers
while increasing the click through rate (CTR)
Rules of thumb for ad copywriting:
 Use the keywords.
 Sell factual benefits.
 Attract attention.
 Call the searcher to action.
 Create urgency.

4. Optimize landing pages
Don’t throw you traffic away: optimize you
landing pages for low bounce rates and high
conversion!

5. Measure and adjust
Measure conversion rate and CPA, adjust bids
and keywords

Contact
Feel free to contact me:
M: +45 2217 8621
T: +45 8648 6884
F: +45 8615 3988
E: jalo@asb.dk
W: www.asb.dk/staff/jalo
Contact me on
www.linkedin.com/in/orquin