Reviewing Your SEM Campaign

By: Alison Engelsman, Senior Strategist

This is the third article in a series of three.

In this series, we have taken a look at Search Engine Marketing (SEM), beginning with how SEM has created enhanced value for recruitment advertising campaigns; and we've reviewed core SEM concepts as well as examined the search engines themselves. However, I think it is most important to understand the impact that the results of an SEM campaign can provide. An SEM campaign is more than just a tool to drive traffic to a company’s employment website—it is a platform that can give key market data that will not only lead to refining one’s advertising campaigns but, more importantly, will strengthen a company’s overall recruitment campaign and process. In this final article on SEM, we will take a look at how to incorporate tracking technology into an SEM campaign and capitalize on the results.

Metrics and SEM

Metrics are a vital tool for any online advertiser. Tracking technology is able to provide a variety of information for measuring the success of any campaign whether it is in the form of job postings, graphic ad units, email campaigns, and yes, even a search engine marketing campaign. However, understanding metrics and their implications is another issue. At the end of the day, metrics are just numbers. It is through Shaker Recruitment Advertising & Communication’s strategy and analysis that meaning comes into play and the questions about quality, performance, and ROI can be answered.

Since SEM campaigns work directly with users and their search behavior, these campaigns often aid in evaluating major recruitment advertising objectives such as:

How effective is the content on your website/career site?
How are users interacting with your website/career site?
Is SEM traffic converting to applications?
How effective is your online application process? Are there drop-off points?
Are there other sites on which we should consider advertising?

What data needs to be collected, however, in order to evaluate some of the above questions? Let’s take a look at the different types of tracking available.

Tracking Options

Implementing a tracking strategy is one of the most important factors before launching an SEM campaign. Tracking strategies are developed based on desired goals or formulated questions. An effective tracking strategy will create benchmarks and measurement standards for the lifecycle of an SEM campaign. Remember that SEM campaigns are run in real time, so tracking data will be a main method in optimizing a campaign and making adjustments for higher performance. Since SEM can be used in a variety of methods for advertising, every strategy will be customized based on the information desired. Below are some sample levels, which include the types of data that can be collected, and how that data can be used to answer certain marketing questions.

Level	Type of Data Collected	Sample Benchmark Questions
1	Impressions Clicks Keyword Performance CPC Total Cost ROI	What terms generate the highest volume of clicks? Are there terms that give insight into new media outlets? How does SEM traffic volume compare to other advertising venues? Are there other keywords that should be included in a campaign or excluded?
2	Leads Conversions	What are the top converting keywords? What is the cost per applicant? What is the cost per hire?
3	Page Views Bounce Rate Type of Visitor Keyword Reference Traffic Sources Geographic Market Differentiation	Which search engine provides the highest conversion rate? Is the content on the landing page effective? What are users doing post click? What is the quality of a click?

Putting it all together

As more advertisers adjust their budgets to include more online initiatives, tracking is playing a more important role than ever. Not only is the industry focused on developing measurement standards, but also companies need to prove their online investments are performing for them. Developing solid tracking strategies is a necessity for any online advertising, and SEM is not exempt. If anything, SEM offers advertisers the best of both worlds. Not only is it a unique medium, allowing advertisers flexibility and cost-effective means for advertising, but also there are large amounts of tracking options that can help companies determine answers to many ambiguous marketing questions.

Overall, SEM has proven to be a productive, cost-efficient means of advertising. It is strengthening every day, transitioning into mobile platforms and the social networking space, and is becoming a key staple in many recruitment strategies. Shaker’s SEM team is here to help provide insight into the industry, initiate and maintain SEM programs, and ultimately help our clients find success. Feel free to reach out to us at seminfo@shaker.com and we can get you started!

Previous articles in this series: