320 Alisal Road Suite 100
Solvang, CA 93463
P: 805-430-9879
Paid Search (SEM)
Responsive advertising designed to capture audience engagement where they are actively searching.
Central Coast Paid Search Experts
In over 20 years of digital marketing + advertising strategy, we have seen few strategies that can have a greater impact for an advertiser than Paid Search, also known in some circles as SEM. Screechy Cat Media’s founder comes to the Central Coast with SEM experience dating back to 2006, just a few years after Google was formed.
What is paid search advertising or SEM?
Paid Search is a digital advertising strategy where businesses pay to promote mostly text-based advertising in results pages on search engines such as Google and Bing. SEM stands for Search Engine Marketing, which is the term some people in the industry use interchangeably with paid search.
SEM campaigns are, essentially, groups of keywords and keyword phrases, relevant to the business or nonprofit, that advertisers place bids on. If someone searches for a keyword or keyword phrase in an advertiser’s campaign, their ad has the opportunity to show. The process is similar to bidding on available impressions in programmatic advertising.
Paid Search ads usually appear above and below organic or natural search listings. The number of ads on a given page depends on the competition for that keyword; Google also limits or avoids placing advertising entirely on sensitive search queries, so not all queries will show ads.
What is paid search used for?
Paid Search tends to be a middle to bottom of the funnel tactic for advertisers. SEM keywords tend to fall into one of the following categories:
- Branded: keywords containing some variation of your brand name
- Non-branded: category keywords related to your business and industry
- Conquesting: keywords containing some variation of your competitors’ names
Branded campaigns usually lead to more bottom-of-the-funnel activity like lead generation or online sales; non-branded campaigns are higher up in the funnel, as they tend to drive traffic but few conversions. Conquesting is also a mid-funnel strategy: if folks are looking for your competition by name, they already are likely in consideration for your products or services, but may still need a few touchpoints before they are ready to convert.
What Can I Do with Paid search?
- Ensure valuable brand-related searches are finding “the right you”
- Reach new customers & donors via non-branded keyword queries
- Conquest main competitors by bidding on their popular branded terms
- Geotargeting and in-market/intent audience targeting
- Banner and video advertising via Performance Max
Paid Search FAQ
Screechy Cat Media’s minimum budget for paid search advertising is $1,000 per month.
Yes, Screechy Cat Media will develop branded and category (non-branded) keyword lists, ad copy, and ad extensions for your SEM campaign.
Probably. Strong SEO is great, but unless you always show up in the #1 spot for branded and top non-branded keywords, Paid Search may be a nice compliment to your organic rankings.
Yes, bidding on competitor keywords is perfectly acceptable in paid search. Your competitors including your brand in their ad, however, is not allowed under Google & Bing policies.
Yes! Please see Screechy Cat Media’s nonprofit page for more information about claiming the Google Ad Grant.
Recently, Google introduced a new campaign type called Performance Max, which includes banner and video ads. These campaigns are not Paid Search campaigns in the traditional sense, but work alongside SEM campaigns to drive traffic and conversions.
©2026 Three J’s and a K, Limited dba Screechy Cat Media
Privacy Policy
320 Alisal Road Suite 100
Solvang, CA 93463
P: 805-430-9879