Search engine marketing informs and shapes every aspect of the marketing mix. SearchRev's CMO describes how to effectively integrate your efforts.

Now that paid search has become an integral component of the marketing mix, marketing managers need to plan for the impact it will have on other media such as television, direct mail, websites and email. Today, no matter which marketing medium is used to touch a potential customer, the most likely medium of deeper engagement is going to start at a search engine. To help you think this through we have put together a few recommendations based on our experiences with clients.

SEM intersections with traditional media
Direct mail: For direct mail campaigns, we have found that both search traffic and conversion rates tend to increase when a marketing piece such as a catalog ships out. To capture the opportunity, there are two possible SEM bidding strategies that an advertiser might consider:

1. Reduce SEM spending on branded terms. Since people are already looking for your company name, you can allow organic search results to pick up the increased traffic. This approach is typically used with campaigns that are more budget constrained.
2. For campaigns with larger budgets and profit margins, increasing SEM spending on branded terms may prove a more valuable strategy. This way you will saturate the market and ensure that your company's ads appear when customers are looking for you and are ready to convert. This also works defensively, as it reduces the rank of competitors' ads on your branded terms.

Television: For marketers running television campaigns and SEM campaigns simultaneously, we recommended the following:

1. Create a separate SEM campaign that mirrors the content and messaging of the television campaign. For example, Real Network's Rhapsody ran a television commercial that showcased Eric Clapton. For its SEM campaign, the company may choose to include keywords such as "Rhapsody Eric Clapton" or "Eric Clapton music commercial." The ad creatives should also be customized to match. 
2. Create a landing page related to the television campaign. The content and design of the landing page should mirror the television commercial to ensure continuity and help to guarantee that you capture as much relevant traffic as possible.
3. Modify bids based on the timing of the commercial release. For example, if the commercial is going to run during "Survivor" on Thursday night, bids could be modified either up or down during that time frame in order to take advantage of heightened traffic and varying conversion rates.

SEM impacts on website design
Website and landing page design can have a big impact on your Google quality score and conversion rates, which directly affect the results of your SEM campaign. To maximize performance we recommend:

1. Creating separate landing pages for each product in order to maximize the relevancy of the SEM ad. This allows the Google system to see that the landing page is directly tied to the search term and the ad that the user sees.
2. Adding the most relevant text-based content to each landing page. If you are using flash or images on your landing page, make sure your keywords are also displayed in a text form so that Google can index the content.

SEM for market intelligence gathering
By working closely with your search engine marketing team, you can ask its members to capture valuable data such as the time of day, day of week and geographic location of each click. You can also determine which ad creatives and landing pages are performing best. This click-data can be used to inform non-SEM campaigns. For example, if we know that SEM conversion rates are best on Saturday we could plan for all direct mail to arrive on Saturday as well. You may learn that your conversion rate is highest in Los Angeles at 6 pm. Use this information to help you to decide when to run television ads.

To start harnessing SEM intelligence data we recommend taking the following steps:

1. Capture and store data for all clicks, especially for clicks that convert.
2. Don't allow your SEM campaigns to live on an island. Share SEM intelligence data with the rest of your marketing team on a consistent basis.
3. Think of SEM intelligence as a real-time focus group. Consistently evaluate how your general customer profile compares to the profile of the customers coming in from your SEM campaigns.

You can see from just a few examples that search engine marketing informs and shapes every aspect of the marketing mix. From measuring and monetizing traditional campaigns to providing real-time market research, paid search today is making the concept of an integrated marketing plan a reality.

Eduardo Llach is CMO and co-founder, SearchRev. Read full bio.