SEA vs SEO: the different strategies to gain visibility on search engines
For some it is a synonym for SEM, while others understand it as a separate branch worthy of specificity: we are talking about SEA, an acronym for Search Engine Advertising, and thus all the activities of promoting a brand through paid ads on search engines.
What is SEA, search engine advertising
We know very well how important it is for a brand of any type, size and sector to have visibility on search engines, and therefore how much digital marketing strategies serve to increase the chances of success and earnings of businesses.
As such, it makes sense to be aware of all the opportunities available, and SEA is certainly one online marketing tool that can be used by businesses to increase their exposure and sales.
In the most common and widespread definition, SEA stands for Search Engine Advertising, and we can summarize it as “search engine advertising”: it involves buying advertising space on the SERPs of Google and other search engines using targeted keywords, with cost based on market bids for those same queries in which the ads are placed.
These paid ads often have prominent position on the search results page, with priority (or otherwise prominence) over traditional organic results, and are shown in a targeted manner to users searching for specific keywords and phrases; the company using them pays a variable commission each time a person actually clicks on the ad.
The characteristics of search engine advertising
Search engine advertising is thus a native form of Internet advertising, and is sometimes also referred to by other names such as search advertising, Internet search advertising, online search advertising, or even keyword advertising, while the payment method used by advertisers is universally known as pay per click or PPC.
Google’s dominance in the market has led its advertising platform, Google Ads (formerly Adwords, until a few years ago), to become another term used for SEA, but beyond the linguistic aspects and despite its various forms, the concept is still the same: placing the ad above, below or next to free search results.
We can therefore think of SEA as a subfield of online marketing and, more precisely, a subfield of search marketing and SEM.
In any case, even if we have never encountered these terms before and have never heard of SEA, we certainly know its resulting output, i.e., search results labeled “ad” in SERPs, which are frequent for so many types of queries and intents.
How SEA works and how ads are created
The principle of search engine advertising is quite simple: unlike traditional advertisements that are purchased outright (making it easier to control the cost of the campaign), companies essentially bo