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Search Engine Marketing (SEM) FAQs

For answers to frequently asked questions about search engine marketing, please select one of the links below:

• What is Pay-Per-Click Advertising?
• What is Quality Score?
• What's the difference between Broad Match and Exact Match?
• Which search engines does Reprise Media work with?
• Does Reprise Media offer landing page development?
• What are the limits of PPC advertising?
• What is Contextual Advertising?
• How should I explain Paid Search to my boss?

What is Pay-Per-Click Advertising?

Pay-Per-Click (PPC) advertising is a model in which an advertiser is charged a specific fee each time a user clicks their ad and is transferred to another Website. This is different from the impression-based, or CPM model (cost per 1,000 impressions), which is standard in traditional media and graphical interactive advertising. With Search Engine Marketing, the price per click is often determined by a free-market auction. The higher the bid, the higher the advertiser’s message will appear on the search engine results pages. Some examples of well known Pay-Per-Click advertising networks are Google’s AdWords network and Yahoo!’s Overture network. Also known as: Pay For Placement (PFP, P4P) and Paid Placement.

What is the Quality Score?

The Quality Score is Google’s algorithm for determining the end rank of their AdWords paid search ads. Although Google does not share all of the factors which contribute to an advertiser’s Quality Score, they have indicated that an advertiser’s bid, click through rate, historical performance and the relevance of both their advertisement and landing page are all considered in the algorithm.

What's the difference between Broad Match and Exact Match?

Broad Match assigns text ads to relevant search queries, regardless of the order in which keywords appear, whereas Exact Match only serves text ads when the user's query exactly matches the paid keyword or phrase. An ad for "tennis shoes", for example, would in Broad Match apply to any related term --"comfortable tennis shoe", "athletic shoes for tennis", etc. In Exact Match, however, the paid keyword [tennis shoe] would only appear when the query term exactly matches the phrase "tennis shoe". Broad Match terms draw greater traffic volume because they're served to a greater number of search queries, whereas Exact Match terms are better targeted.

Which search engines does Reprise Media work with?

Reprise Media has very strong relations with the largest search engines in the world (Google, Yahoo and MSN) in addition to a broader network of smaller search engines. While smaller engines don’t have the same volume as the Big 3, they do provide extremely targeted traffic and can contribute significant leads in a PPC blend campaign. As a result, we currently work with 15 different search engines, all of which are directly integrated into our PROSuite campaign management platform. For more information about Reprise Media’s search engine partners, visit the Technology section of our website.

Does Reprise Media offer landing page development ?

Reprise Media offers Landing Page Identification, Consultation and Testing. We do not typically design or implement Landing Pages as a part of a paid search campaign, but we do work with extremely talented agencies to coordinate the implementation of our Landing Page consultation services. For more information about Reprise Media's Landing Page Development services, visit the Landing Page section of our website.

What are the limits of PPC advertising?

Most goods can be purchased in bulk at a lower per unit price than they’re sold individually. Paid Search, however, gets more expensive the more you purchase. Higher keyword bids will attract more traffic that can easily max a budget over a short period of time. Less expensive keywords, on the other hand, may not attract enough traffic to deliver a significant return on investment. As a result, PPC advertising is a constant see-saw between the acquisition of traffic and the balance of bid price. Our technology is designed to identify that perfect point between traffic and bid price that maximized ROI for any campaign scale.

What is Contextual Advertising ?

Contextual advertising is the paid placement of ads on contextually relevant websites. Contextual ads are dynamically served, based on the user's current web activity. For example, if a user is viewing a site about sports, the user might see a contextual ad for sports-related companies, such as memorabilia dealers or ticket sellers. Contextual advertising is also used by search engines to display ads on their search results pages, based on keywords in the user's search query.

For more information, visit Google's contextual ad explanation.

How should I explain Paid Search to my boss ?

Think of search as a conversation. A customer initiates conversation when they enter a keyword or phrase into a search engine box. You have an opportunity to respond by presenting an advertisement that matches up to that keyword, and, based upon how effective that ad is, you can further elevate the discussion with that person based upon the contents and relevance of your website to what they’re looking for.

Most marketing channels are based upon a push model. That is, you create your positioning, find where your targets are behaving and try to address that market in a way that is appealing enough that someone raises their hand and asks for more information. Before search, Marketing at its core can be defined as trying to figure out where your consumers are and then presenting messages as they travel along that path. But search is almost the inverse of that model. With Search, the consumer has initiated the engagement by typing in a keyword, and you as a marketer have a unique opportunity at that exact moment they are interested. It can be argued that search marketing isn’t even the presentation of an ad – it’s a response to a question, and your message is the content they are looking for.

Besides, Paid Search delivers the best ROI on the Internet, according to a recent poll by the American Advertising Federation: 42 percentof the 140 respondents chose search advertising, compared to just 24 percentwho said email advertising. For more information about Paid Search and a full list of our services, check out the Paid Search Section of our website.