SEMrush is an online marketing toolkit that helps users efficiently facilitate strategic planning and understand what is happening in their niche and market. It is a research and business intelligence software that provides data and analysis on paid and organic search, social media, mobile data, and link-building activities worldwide. In short, it is an all-in-one application that provides customers with valuable data to gather a deep understanding of competition and market trends, help them develop a content strategy, and enable them to conduct website analysis.
What is Paid Search Advertising?
All search engines (ex., Google, Bing, Yahoo!, Yandex, Ask.com, etc.) have their own paid advertising. Businesses of any size can use and benefit from paid search ads. Pay-per-click, or PPC, involves bidding on keywords and placing ads at the top or sides of search results.
To better understand paid search advertising, we must first understand the search engine results page (SERP). When we type something in a search engine (ex., Google), it responds with a list of web pages that are relevant to the words we typed. This page is the SERP. A big part of that list comprises web pages that Google’s algorithm determined to be the best match for our search. This is also called organic results.
However, we can also see results that appear at the top and sides of the SERP. These are paid search ads, which look similar to the organic results or listings, except they are labeled as ads or Ads. Paid ads or PPCs are powerful because they give the advertisements a prime spot in front of people already searching for the same topics.
What is Social Media Advertising?
Social media advertising is simply serving advertisements to users on social media platforms. The number of social media users worldwide in 2019, according to Statista, is about 2.77B. By 2021, it will be about 3.02 billion. That is why social media platforms offer the option to sponsor or boost posts. Ads placed on their platform puts the company’s message in front of their target audience. They can easily encourage users to engage, click through, and buy. It is also noticeable that social media sites are now prioritizing ad space over organic content to help them bring in more revenue.
The good news is that any business or brand can benefit from social media advertising. With the growing number of social media users worldwide, it can be the only channel consistently bringing sales from day one. It serves a double purpose of advertising products or services, as well as promoting the social media page to grow its following. Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Twitter each have their version of ads placed on their page. For instance, Facebook has different types of ads, from simple Marketplace Ads to Page Post Ads, Sponsored Stories, and Promoted Posts.
