The use of paid and sometimes broader search tactics to increase visibility on search engine results pages.
In common usage, the term often refers primarily to paid search advertising.
Short and sweet:
The use of paid and sometimes broader search tactics to increase visibility on search engine results pages.
In common usage, the term often refers primarily to paid search advertising.
See also: SEM, Paid Search, SEO
Search engine marketing, or SEM, is often used as an umbrella term for all search-related marketing, though many practitioners use it specifically to mean paid search advertising as distinct from the unpaid work of SEO. Under that narrower definition, SEM covers the bidding, ad copy, and budget management involved in buying placement on a search results page rather than earning it organically. Because the two approaches, paid and organic, often target the same keywords, coordinating them together tends to produce better overall results than running either in isolation.
A mattress startup like Purple relies heavily on search engine marketing, bidding on terms like “best mattress for back pain” so its ad appears the instant a shopper starts researching options.
Home service companies such as ADT invest significant budget in this channel, since a single converted lead from a high-intent search can be worth thousands of dollars in contract value.
Agencies running campaigns for a client like a regional hospital system might combine paid Google Ads with organic content strategy under this umbrella, covering both quick wins and long-term visibility.
