4 Reasons Why Traditional Media Companies Should Offer SEM

There’s no question that traditional marketing works for local advertisers: billboards, print ads, radio, and television commercials are all highly effective mediums for reaching broad audiences. Considering today’s consumer habits, a broad audience isn’t enough. That’s where digital media comes in. Digital media, like display ads, social media, and search engine marketing (SEM), is more effective at reaching a specific, targeted audience of existing and potential customers. Media companies that use a mix of both traditional and digital advertising strategies can cast a wider net and reach different audiences. Today, we’ll dive into SEM and why traditional media companies should offer this digital advertising tool.

Here are the four reasons why traditional media companies should offer search engine marketing:

1. Creates consistent revenue streams
2. Increases new customer sales and extends current business
3. Reduces in-house costs
4. Builds brand loyalty

But first, what is SEM?

SEM stands for search engine marketing, a paid digital marketing strategy used to increase the visibility of a website in search engine results pages (SERPs). SEM is also referred to as paid search or pay per click (PPC). The most commonly known and used paid search tool is Google Ads. According to a Clutch report, 63% of users will likely click on a paid search ad on Google.

What isn’t SEM?

SEM is not to be confused with search engine optimization (SEO) which focuses on organic or free traffic growth through optimizing a brand’s content for search terms. SEM and SEO work closely together, but through SEM, advertisers pay to have their ads appear higher-up in the list of search results to increase the chance of a user clicking on the ad.

SEM creates consistent revenue streams

93% of online experiences begin with a search engine, which means SEM is extremely valuable to getting more eyes on a brand’s website. The digital space is where consumers are spending a huge amount of their time. With this digital transformation, SEM has the potential to create powerful, consistent, and reliable revenue streams for traditional media companies. SEM is more cost-effective with a low barrier to entry for advertisers when compared to other digital media options. It brings in a higher ROI as it reaches people when they are ready to take action (the bottom of sales funnel). Being lower in the sales funnel than other traditional or digital media, SEM can give advertisers results immediately and consistently, motivating them to refine their campaigns and increase daily ad spend. SEM directly contributes to a business’s primary KPIs and can directly (and measurably) bring in revenue.

SEM increases new customer sales and extends current business

SEM is scalable and testable. By analyzing the thousands of campaigns that we manage, Frequence has identified that an SEM product offering helps reduce churn (90% renewal rate), extends advertiser relationships (advertiser relationships with SEM are 70% longer), and there is increased opportunity to extend into other digital advertising products (30% of SEM-only advertisers will add another product into their mix within 90 days).

For advertisers new to digital advertising, it’s not uncommon to start small and slowly add new platforms into the mix or increase daily ad spend over time. SEM is a great first stepping stone. ‍

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SEM reduces in-house expenses

As a person moves from the awareness stage through the buying cycle, the ads they experience get more and more precise based on where they are in the sales funnel. The campaign strategy can be adjusted to target consumers in different stages of the funnel. Evolving your ads to include SEM within an omnichannel strategy will benefit advertisers in the online space.

Ultimately, there’s a lot to know, plan for, and execute on when running omnichannel ads. Traditional media companies that have a knowledgeable partner like Frequence can offload the weight of needing to know everything and cut the cost of having to pay multiple salaries to in-house managers. Frequence’s all-in-one platform translates data into informed strategies with AI-driven recommendations to help media companies plan and improve upon their advertising strategy.

SEM builds brand loyalty

Search engines drive more traffic to websites than any other source. SEM reaches consumers at exactly the right time: when they are open to new information. When people realize they want or need something (a product, a vacation, a family activity, a piece of information) they turn to search, and specifically Google, to find what they need. Unlike the majority of digital advertising, SEM is non-intrusive and does not interrupt a consumer’s tasks. It allows advertisers to focus in on target customers in a way traditional marketing can’t. The customer’s journey to find what they need started days, weeks, or even months ago. A brand has the power to be along for that journey at every touchpoint, consistently and repeatedly presenting itself front and center in a search engine. Consistency over time turns a prospect into a paying customer.

Traditional media is great for reaching a broad audience while digital is more effective at reaching a specific audience. Digital media can provide advertisers with maximum exposure and more consumer interaction. A combination of digital and traditional media advertising is more effective than either on their own. Frequence’s platform has the power to professionally manage SEM, allowing media companies to spend more time focusing on growing business.

To learn more about how SEM can transform your advertising campaigns, get in touch.

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