What is it and how to do a SEM audit?

It will always be necessary to carry out analysis and studies of the existing configuration of the accounts or advertising profiles.

In this sense, it is essential to study and evaluate the actions, strategies and operations of marketing campaigns. Much is said about supervising SEO processes , however, how can those practices that belong to SEM be addressed?

If you want to know how a SEM audit can help you analyze the configuration and processes of your marketing campaign , we suggest you continue reading what we have for you.

Surely you will find relevant information for your SEM strategy.

What is EMS?

By now, you probably already know what SEM is, however, it never hurts to remember the elements of this practice. SEM (Search Engine Marketing), also known as Search Engine Marketing, is a practice (also considered as a strategy) that helps to improve and achieve the visibility of a website in the main search engines.

Its essence lies in the fact that it achieves positioning through the design and creation of ads, publicity and selection of keywords to meet its objectives.

Unlike SEO, which seeks the same thing but from an organic method, SEM is identified as requiring a greater monetary investment in its processes.

Also check: Google Ads: Types of advertising campaigns

What is a SEM audit?

Now that we remember what an SEM strategy or technique is, it is time to ask ourselves: What is an SEM audit? First, we must review what an audit by itself consists of, and that is that according to the RAE, it is a systemic review of an activity or situation that evaluates compliance with the rules or objective criteria.

In other words, it is verified that the appropriate processes are being carried out to fulfill the purposes established by a company.

Situated in the field of SEM, we can say that it is about evaluating, analyzing and examining the aspects that are related to the processes, strategies or actions of SEM practices.

In SEM audits, various elements and conditions are usually evaluated, among which are:

• Keywords or keywords.
• Landing Pages .
• Extensions and ads.
• Various metrics.
• Particular account structures (ad groups, extensions and campaign settings)
• Budgets.

Through the analysis of these scenarios, a complete audit can be carried out and reveals important information for process improvement.

Benefits of a SEM audit

During and after the SEM audit it is possible to obtain different benefits and advantages over the competition and, even better, over any obstacle that arises. In this sense, some benefits of SEM audits are:

• Save various costs. Unnecessary expenses are located, which helps to optimize and save the allocated budget or resources. This undoubtedly favors ROI.
• Discovery of new opportunities. It helps to know keywords, advertising strategies that can have a significant impact and, finally, areas of opportunity for business growth.
• Encourage creative competition. This refers to the fact that the strategies and actions of the competition can be known in order to improve and maintain a competitive advantage within the market.
• Performance is optimized. Without a doubt, the SEM audit allows you to improve campaigns by discarding inefficient keywords or incorrect adjustments. Everything goes through a filter and is optimized.
• Improve relevance. The impact of the keywords is evaluated so that they boost the ads and the landing pages. We always try to generate traffic through a timely and critical analysis of the elements of each practice or strategy.

How to do a SEM audit?

If you think it's time to launch your first SEM audit, here we tell you how to do it through 5 big steps so that the results are concrete and you can intervene based on them.

Find your brand online

The first step before any audit is to see the status of the website itself before the main search engines. From this, you have to ask yourself the following:

• Does the search offer a legitimate look?
• Does it appear on the Google My Business page?
• How is the status of the page if searched on Google or Bing?
• Is it complete and accurate during the search?

It is very important to keep track of all those aspects that derive from this first exercise.

Reference SERP features

The SERPs are those main results that are displayed at the beginning of any search engine, this also includes the PAA (People Also Ask or Related Questions). By taking these factors into account, it is possible to assess how website elements coexist with SERP features.

Identify relevant keywords

The keywords allow to know the performance of the contents. If a proper exercise is done with the keywords, it is possible that better results will be generated.

Study and evaluate ads and extensions

It is important to carefully review all the components of the ads, this includes: titles, descriptions, URL's. They also need to be totally attractive and relevant. It should be mentioned that within this step, the following tasks can be included:

• Carry out a competitive analysis and study .
• Analyze performance metrics.
• Study and evaluate landing pages.

From this, various recommendations (from the general to the particular) can be documented to provide background information and facilitate future audits.

Implement improvements and create a checklist

Throughout the investigation it is possible to make the pertinent adjustments and optimizations. Likewise, it is convenient to carry out a checklist, which will help to ensure that the audit processes are carried out in order and quality. This list may include:

• Current campaign settings.
• High performance keywords.
• Identification of the main competitors.
• PPC and SEO objectives.

Thanks to this list, future audits will be easier to perform.

In conclusion

SEM audits are essential to know and evaluate the status of any strategy or practice that is being carried out. For this reason, it is important to have the aspects to analyze well defined in order to build the appropriate marketing plan or to have the necessary adjustments ready to optimize each process. It is important that everything is consistent and stands out from the competition.

Written by Moises Hamui Abadi : I am an entrepreneur, founding partner of Viceversa and SoyMacho. After being in charge of several digital businesses and advising several other businesses; I decided to form MHA Consulting, a digital marketing consultancy dedicated to growing and empowering digital businesses in more than 7 countries and generating more than 1,500 million pesos.

If you want more information on this topic or you are looking for other options to profile your ideal client, at MHA you will find the solution you need. Schedule a call.