Advancements in the Search Engine Marketing Industry

The SEM (search engine marketing) industry has faced many changes throughout the year. Google, the leader in market share for search advertising, has changed the layout of their SERP (search engine results page) earlier this year. This new format removes 4 PPC (pay-per-click) ads from every SERP. By no longer having positions 8-11, advertisers must make the necessary optimizations in order to remain within the first page. Google continues to reward ads based on relevance, so it is important to match the ad text, with the landing page.

Google has developed an algorithm called Ad Rank, which calculates the cost and positioning of every eligible PPC ad. Many factors are taken into consideration with Ad Rank such as the expected CTR (click through rate) and the quality of the landing page. The landing page should be transparent and easy to navigate around. CTR’s allow advertisers to see how engaging the ads are. Having a high CTR improves the Ad Rank which also lowers the CPC (cost-per-click). If the CTR is low, the advertisers may want to change the verbiage and create a more compelling message.

Google also updated the format of their text ads later in the year; increasing the amount of characters allowed per line. The description line increased from 35 to 80 characters including spaces and punctuation. Advertisers are already taking advantage of these expanded text ads. The additional ad space gives marketers more freedom when creating text ads. The deadline to transition from standard ads to expanded ads is January 31, 2017, so this gives marketers plenty of time to make the necessary updates. 

Smart phones and tablets play an important role in the SEM industry. With all the technological advances in the past decade, phones continue to be a big part of our daily lives. Companies are now making dynamic webpages that adjust websites for different screen sizes. When optimizing for mobile devices, pop-ups should definitely be avoided. The small screen sizes from mobile devices tends to generate a lot of accidental clicks. Another factor to take into consideration is the font style and size. The text from the landing pages should be clear and easy to read, for both mobile and tablet devices.  

In conclusion, the SEM industry is constantly changing and finding new ways of targeting internet users. Google continues to lead the way with innovative and new ideas, but they are not the only ones. The Yahoo/Bing network is also a force to be reckoned with. This network has steadily increased in market share since the two networks first merged in 2009. Although the future is uncertain, 2017 will be an interesting year for search advertising as Google strives to stay ahead of the competition.