By Jeff Julian on February 17, 2014

Search is one of the only mar­ket­ing medi­ums in which the con­sumer is actively seek­ing out a solu­tion (e.g. a prod­uct or an answer). Because of this, mar­keters have a unique oppor­tu­nity to see what cus­tomers are search­ing for and what is pop­u­lar based on search terms. SEM (that is, paid search) updates in real time and allows for more cus­tomiza­tion than in SEO, so it is the best way to under­stand what cus­tomers want. The rela­tion­ship between searchers and search results can yield a lot of infor­ma­tion about prod­ucts, search terms, and mar­ket­ing cam­paigns. The smart SEM mar­keter will use this infor­ma­tion as a test­ing tool, and here are three ways you can too.

1. Deter­mine the Most Effec­tive Prod­uct Names

Using SEM as a vari­a­tion of A/B test­ing, you can show cus­tomers dif­fer­ent names in your SEM ads and then use search data to see which of the names sparked the most cus­tomer inter­est. SEM is cheaper than using focus groups and more dynamic than using social media, plus SEM data can show you what search terms are most pop­u­lar with searchers and which of these terms cus­tomers are most likely to click.

If, for exam­ple, you sell mobile phones, you may want to know what type of phras­ing is most inter­est­ing to cus­tomers. You can run one SEM ad that adver­tises “mobile phones,” another that fea­tures the phrase “smart­phones,” and a third that men­tions “cell phones”. Using these vari­a­tions in your search ads, you can see which terms cul­ti­vate the most cus­tomer inter­est, i.e. click-throughs, and searches. You might also con­sider the cost-per-click in rela­tion to the pop­u­lar­ity of some terms over others.

READ MORE:  http://blogs.adobe.com/digitalmarketing/search-marketing/use-sem-testing-tool/