Search Engine Marketing (SEM) is simply the process of gaining more website traffic by purchasing ads on the search engine results pages (SERPs). Within this process, advertisers are able to bid on keywords that potential users might search for. Which in return gives the advertiser's site the opportunity to appear within that query.
The ads available within search engine marketing come in a wide variety of formats. Through pay per click (PPC) ads, you can get a small, text based ads, while you can also get a more visual product listing ad. These product based ads are able to showcase prices and reviews and a glance.
The greatest asset to invest in SEM, is that it gives you a greater chance to showcase your ad in front of a probable customer. The best part about this is that you can present the ad at the precise time the customer is ready to make a purchase. No other aspect of advertising is able to do this, which is why SEM is used so effectively.
E.g. “SEO is a long process, but using SEM helped me get a lot more website traffic really quickly.”