If you’re new to online advertising or the world of Google in general, you’ve probably heard the terms “SEM” and “SEO” (or at least their synonyms) thrown around when discussing how to drive tra c to a site. But what do they mean, and how are they di erent? Let’s start with the basics. “SEM” stands for search engine marketing. You might also hear “PPC,” “digital marketing,” or “paid search,” all of which are some variation of the same thing: the world of paid advertising, which encompasses traditional search on search engines (Google, Bing, etc.), display advertising, social advertising, and mobile advertising (note that we’ll concentrate on search in this paper). There are a few di erent factors that go into SEM, but basically, the more you bid for a click, the higher you’ll rank on the page.
