Choosing a search engine marketing (SEM) agency in Singapore can be a bit tricky. With many businesses adapting to digital platforms, they are hungry for online exposure, tons of opportunities and methods arise for more convenient and cheaper online marketing solutions. Companies are always looking out for the best SEM company that can give quality SEM services and strategies.
There is no secret that SEM is becoming a demand from companies prowling for higher rankings in search engine result pages (SERPs), online presence, and conversions that increase sales. This situation allowed the SEM companies to exhibit their services and prove that they are a trustworthy and ideal partner for local businesses.
Meanwhile, it is a crucial situation for you since there are many choices to choose from, which is why when you are looking for an SEM vendor, you should do your homework. Make sure you do check its background to rest any forms of doubt and sceptical senses.
Doing so should help you determine whether these SEM companies would fit in—getting you more sales and meeting your business’s objectives, as well as providing the right services in terms of what you are paying for.
Understanding SEM in Singapore
The increasing number of online users and consumers is always endlessly bombarded by online advertisements. With this, SEM becomes a common strategy of digital marketing.
As you know, people would only use the Internet to look up certain things they wanted. The marketers would then target these individuals who are looking for specific keywords in their searches. Using these particular keywords has superior worth to keep your brand more recognised by your target audience in SERPs.
In SEM, you have to pay each time your ads get clicked by someone online. The amount you have to pay per click depends on the competitiveness of the industry.
For example, when an industry is competitive with many SEM marketers buying the same sets of keywords, the cost per click tends to be a bit pricey. By then, we should figure out why they are willing to pay S$10, S$20, or even S$50 per click and use SEM in Singapore to drive traffic to their website.
The possible answer could be because they are getting sales and return on investments (ROIs) out of these clicks, that even when they pay a high cost per click, it gives them a positive return.
Why Work With A SEM Company?
Whether big or small, when it comes to SEM services, businesses are always demanding an enhancement or optimisation for their online ads to get better performance and results.
For this reason, many of them will engage a professional SEM company to manage their digital marketing campaigns. An ideal SEM company can help you run and reach this goal through a well-planned and well-managed campaign.
That means when you work with an SEM company in Singapore, you can expect them to take care of the day-to-day management of the campaign. As such, you could use your precious time by focusing on other areas of the business.
What Are Some Good SEM Practices?
Using good SEM practices and techniques can help your business stay ahead of your competitors.
A well-planned SEM strategy can give what your business deserves—creating a robust online presence and better conversion rate that yields sales. Here are just a few examples of SEM practices:
On Keyword Selection
With 3.5 billion searches happening every day, people use keywords to find the particular niche service or product that meets their needs.
An experienced SEM agency understands the intent of each keyword as they take advantage of them, both short tail and long tail. They will group the keywords into tightly-knitted ad groups to increase the relevance of the ads. With a high-quality score and relevancy, it leads to cheaper keyword cost-per-click, helping you save money.
Choosing the right keywords will also guarantee that your SEM campaign in Singapore brings you the desired conversions.
On Content Marketing and Using of Dedicated Landing Page (DLP)
Doing SEM in Singapore requires creating high-quality and distinctive content marketing, which is often arguably a challenging task to handle.
KNOW MORE: A Guide To Effective Content Marketing
Local businesses need to convey what they want to their target audience at a comprehensive level regardless of language or form. They should make it clear and concise. Doing so should help people who are constantly on the lookout to find what they are looking for.
These individuals are looking for accurate information, and it is your job to give them that. That is why you should be mindful that these users are very conscious, meaning they know what they are looking for. It could then lead to a transaction or just informational knowledge on a particular product or service.
It is also highly recommended to use a dedicated landing page when running your SEM campaign. A DLP should have a strong call-to-action since it helps lead to a higher conversion rate. With your local SEM agency, expect them to assist you with content marketing and build DLP for your campaigns.
On Tracking and Analytics
Tracking and analysing campaign results is part of the job of an SEM agency. A successful SEM campaign is more than just buying keywords and putting your ads up on search engines like Google.
Sure, it is easy to get notice and clicks, but you should focus on the bottom line, which is to get conversions. If you want to increase conversions without proper tracking and data analytics, it is simply not possible.
Always guarantee that your goal conversion tracking is set up well in your Google Analytics and Google Ads dashboard. That gives you a clear vision of what works and what does not work. Then with the data that you gathered, look beyond the aesthetic metrics such as clicks, impressions, and clicks-through-rate. Consider observing how your visitors interact with your content and your web pages. Also, figure out how long they spent on site and cost-per-acquisition, etc.
Reviewing the results of your SEM campaign takes time, but an experienced SEM agency should be able to help you with it.
Hot Trends in SEM
To further drive traffic to your website, gain leads and turn visitors into paying customers, you need to use the latest and most effective marketing SEM practices today in 2021.
Be aware of the current state of SEM in Singapore. Doing so should help you create the most effective paid advertising strategy for your business.
Benefits of SEM for Business Campaign
As ecommerce arises, many optimise their website to garner target audience and paid search ads to market their brand, along with their products and services.
A reliable SEM vendor will offer genuine SEM services that could help elevate your business. These are the benefits of SEM that your business could gain if you rely on them, or at least if you adapt SEM.
You Pay for Clicks and Not Impression
This one is a well-known SEM benefit and one core aspect of it. You only pay whenever someone clicks on your ad. That reassures you that you are only paying whenever you are getting someone’s attention online (assuming you have set the price you are willing to pay).
Increase Your Business Presence Quickly
As mentioned above, SEM allows you to buy any keywords and launch them to your ads quickly. Your business can then be searchable online and start attracting potential customers. Once they click your ads, they will get redirected to one of your web pages.
Measurable Results
SEM provides measurable data results that can be tracked and analysed. With the help of your partnered SEM agency in Singapore, you can get an accurate track record and result from your local SEM campaign.
That allows you to monitor and grasp a better decision-effort to help you reach your goal within the span of the campaign.
You Get to Set How Much You Want to Spend
Set what is comfortable to you and start with any amount. Your budget lowers the barrier of entry and allows you to market your business to your potential customers as soon as possible.
Hiring a Professional SEM Company in Singapore
With many local SEM companies offering SEM services, SEM is becoming a flashy yet effective form of digital advertising.
Using search engines such as Google as advertisement platforms, businesses can implement paid search ads that cater to their respective target audience and increase brand awareness.
What should you look out for when choosing the right SEM agency to partner with?
Firstly, you should have solid criteria for an SEM vendor before hiring them aboard your business. Most SEM companies are different from one another. Yes, they specialise in SEM and do have in-house experts, but what sets them apart from one another is their strategy and their understanding of your business.
Knowing each agency’s strengths and weaknesses can draw a line that will be distinctive enough for you to recognise which SEM agency in Singapore can provide a decent role to help you fulfil your business goals.
Here are the things you should do before hiring an SEM agency for your business:
Perform a Background Check
It is crucial to know the background of anyone you are planning to hire or partner with so you can determine if they are the right one for you.
Since there are many SEM agencies in Singapore, you should take your time to check out everything. You could start from the SEM services they offer, their foundation history as well as their portfolio.
Read their Customers Reviews
This one is almost a no-brainer yet sometimes, often neglected.
Several SEM companies like to paint themselves in a lighter and (sometimes) glorious tone. That is why it is crucial to figure out what their clients say about them, their services, and their approach.
To do so, look out for an SEM agency with customer reviews. These are testimonials that could provide you with a glimpse of how these SEM companies work with their clients, and it is more likely that their common experience might tell what you could get or expect from the SEM agency.
If an SEM company is getting a rave of positive reviews, that is a good sign. That means they are reliable and can provide honest service with actual results.
Check Transparency
See if the SEM agency provides a Google Ads dashboard and allows you to check on it. As they will be handling your media dollars, you must see if you are getting what you paid for right directly from the Google Ads dashboard.
Also, clarify with the SEM agency if you could keep all the work they have done and the Google Ad account ownership even if you choose to stop working with them.
Make sure everything is 100% yours. If an SEM agency does not give you the ownership, it is time to think twice about working with them.
Discuss business goals.
SEM is not just about clicks and impressions. You have to look for an agency that is willing to discuss the in-depth goals of your business that they can help you achieve with SEM.
For example, you should know how many leads they could generate and the cost you have to pay.
When an SEM agency is open to discussing these matters, it shows that they are serious about achieving success for your business.
Search Engine Marketing In Singapore: The SEM Agency Pricing
With many tactics and strategies, several factors determine the price of SEM. Additionally, every SEM vendor that provides SEM services can range from various packages or pricing models that could fit in with your advertising strategy, budget, campaign scale and duration.
There are many pricing models that you need to know as well as the mentioned factors above. But how much does SEM cost? Honestly, there is no such concrete answer, and the expectation is not enthralling enough for most people and customers.
You should know that SEM in Singapore is not just as linear as buying a particular product from a seller. Most SEM companies will usually base the price of their services on the following:
- Media Budget of the Campaign
- Duration of Your Campaign
- Scope of Work
- Competitiveness of the industry
- Geographical Locations
The Pricing Models of an SEM Agency in Singapore
Fixed-Rate Model
This pricing model covers the entire span of your SEM campaign operation—that is, from the beginning until the end.
This type of pricing lets you pay your SEM agency at a flat monthly rate. It is like how you settle the payment with your electricity provider. But the price will change if you seek to employ additional SEM strategies for your campaign. That means you have to pay extra fees and may likely negate the flat-rate fee.
This pricing model gives you a favourable position since you know how much you have to pay even in busy seasons because the SEO agency pricing does not alter or fluctuate their pricing.
Therefore, you can freely optimise and adjust the ad costs without worrying about the billing rate from your SEO agency.
Due to its predictability in nature, this alone brings forth an advantage for your ad management cost and helps you further optimise your allocated advertising budget with anticipation.
Ad Revenue Percent Rate Model
Unlike the flat-rate model, this type of pricing model lets you pay your local SEM agency based on your total committed media budget.
For example, if you are willing to spend S$1,000 a month with Google ads, the SEM agency might charge you around 20% to 30% of S$1000, which is S$200 to S$300 a month as the service fee.
This model might seem attractive because of its low service fee amount. But it might not be the best option for you if your campaign requires a lot of optimisation work every day.
If the agency is only making S$300 a month and is required to do tons of work for your campaign, it does not make business sense to them. That might result in mismanagement of your campaign.
Conclusion
Hiring the right SEM company is a vital step for your business, and you should never rush through it. You should take and screen through every agency and consider many factors mentioned above before making a decision.
For reliable and affordable SEO services, check out OOm! Rest assured that your business will be in good hands if you consider hiring as your partner SEM agency.
