What is SEA (Search Engine Advertising) in 2025
SEO

What is SEA (Search Engine Advertising) in 2025

Paid referencing, also called SEA (Search Engine Advertising), is one of the preferred ways to make yourself known on the Internet. It is often used when launching your business to gain visibility. Here are some tips to understand and use it for your business.

What is SEA (Search Engine Advertising)?

SEA (Search Engine Advertising), or paid referencing, consists of optimizing keyword purchasing campaigns in search engines. SEA positioning allows you to gain visibility and generate targeted traffic. A SEA agency works on all possible optimizations of campaigns on Google Ads and Microsoft Advertising: account audit, semantics, page indexing, internal meshing, backlinks (net linking), and improving the popularity of the site.

In a global digital presence strategy, advertisers use paid referencing (SEA) and SEO to ensure optimal visibility and the acquisition of targeted traffic on your website. Indeed, SEO and SEA are not incompatible; quite the contrary, they represent two complementary acquisition levers in any successful digital strategy.

Importance of SEA in a Web Marketing Strategy

Do you not understand or do you poorly understand the role of search engines like Google or Bing in your digital strategy and in acquiring visitors to your website?

According to some studies, on average, 50% of a website’s traffic comes from a search engine. This proportion can increase to more than 85% for a certain number of sites. If you neglect search engines and paid referencing, you are missing out on much of your business potential! The objective of SEA is to improve the positioning of a website on paid search engine results and, above all, to choose the most profitable keywords according to your budget and your objectives. This has the effect of increasing visibility and, therefore, qualified traffic coming from relevant searches that could attract prospects and customers.

Paid SEO is a very effective way to position yourself on the first page of Google quickly!

What are the advantages of SEA?

Ensure Traffic FAST

Paid referencing is part of the short term and instantaneous; the returns are measured immediately even if the optimization of keyword purchasing campaigns must be part of an iterative and incremental project approach, allowing to react in relation to the first results.

Benefit from an Excellent Return on Investment

SEA referencing is a strategic action with high profitability that must be integrated into any media plan on the internet. These keyword purchasing campaigns allow you to generate qualified traffic with an ROI that has little equivalent with other levers for acquiring online traffic.

Get more Conversions

The work of the expert or agency in paid referencing does not stop at the acquisition of traffic. The discipline of SEA also covers the optimization of landing pages and user experience to obtain more conversions. With particular attention to the search intent and the content of the landing page, you put all the chances on your side to succeed in achieving your objectives.

Generate Qualified Traffic

By displaying your website on qualified searches, you place yourself on the path of your prospect in full search for products, solutions or information. Thus, it is considered that SEA generates qualified traffic with a real conversion potential compared to other acquisition levers that generate less targeted traffic.

Make Yourself Visible to Your Target Audience

Occupying the ground on search engines opens up very significant gains in visibility, regardless of your target, your activity or your sector of activity. Searching for information via engines is a common practice, even essential, before deciding. By placing your site on the first page of Google on the most strategic requests, you give yourself the means to be visible where it matters for your business.

Why use SEA? 

Paid referencing can be a very interesting marketing lever, given the importance of the volume of searches carried out each month.

Currently, three major search engines represent more than 98% of the French market: Bing, Yahoo and Google. The latter, the leader, alone accounts for around 90% of searches in France.

SEA, also called sponsored links or commercial links, allows you to:

  • generate qualified traffic on its site;
  • generate leads by directing prospects to contact forms on your site;
  • advertise their products and then sell them on an e-commerce site.

SEA allows you to reach consumers very targeted when they are looking for information and elements to prepare their purchase.

Unlike traditional advertising, sponsored links, often placed at the top of search results with the word “Ad” in bold, allow you to reach a qualified audience. We are, therefore, sure that when the sponsored link is displayed, the consultant will be receptive to the commercial message and that he has every chance of clicking on it.

Finally, given the performance-based remuneration offered by search engines, sponsored links have an excellent efficiency/price ratio compared to other forms of advertising.

About 30% of Internet users click on sponsored links following their search.

How Does it Work? 

  • Determine the budget allocated.  

All search engines operate on a pay-for-performance basis: you only pay when someone clicks on one of your ads. Sponsored links are charged at a cost-per-click (CPC).

The advantage of SEA is that it prevents you from going over your budget. You set the maximum daily cost to spend, and the ads stop as soon as the amount is reached.

  • Choose the campaign type. 

Several choices are available to you:

  • A “display” campaign. The advertisements are broadcast on partner sites of the search engines.
  • A “search” campaign. Sponsored links only appear on search engine results.

Both options can also act simultaneously.

It takes less than 24 hours for your campaign to be live.

  • Select the right keywords 

The principle of operation of sponsored links is identical for the three main engines. It is about determining which keywords will be searched by Internet users and to which you wish to link your ads.

After purchasing these keywords through an auction system by determining what CPC you are willing to pay, this will determine the position and distribution of the ad.

Once this step is completed, you will be displayed in the areas dedicated to commercial links on search engines when an Internet user has typed one of your keywords.

Some tools to help you determine your keywords: Ubersuggest, Google Keyword Planner, SemRush, Google Trends

  • Determine the content of commercial links 

Take care of the meta description and the short presentation text present under the URL link of the ad. This allows your page to be indexed in search engines and directories. It must concisely describe the page’s content in one or two sentences.

Be brief and punchy to catch the eye of Internet users and encourage them to click on your ad. Don’t hesitate to place a special promotion or a “good deal” in the ad. Be careful, however, with the length of the texts because space is very limited (3 titles of 30 characters each).

The Different Types of SEA Referencing

Classic Text Search (text ads)

SEA text ads are paid advertisements that appear on search engine results pages (SERPs). They are designed to help businesses get in front of potential customers who are searching for products or services they offer.

SEA text ads usually contain a title, a URL and a description. The title should be clear, concise and relevant to the search query. The URL should be the same as the ad’s landing page URL. The description should provide more details about the product or service offered and entice users to click on the ad.

SEA text ads are a great way for businesses to increase their online visibility and get more traffic to their website. They can also be used to improve conversions and generate sales.

Shopping Search (Product Ads)

SEA product ads are a type of paid ads that appear in Google search results and the Shopping showcase. They are designed to help businesses get exposure to potential customers who are searching for products or services they offer.

SEA product ads consist of an image, a title, a price and a description. The image must be clear and representative of the product or service offered. The title must be clear, concise and relevant to the search query. The price must be displayed clearly and visibly. The description must provide more details about the product or service offered and encourage users to click on the ad.

SEA product ads allow companies to increase the visibility of their product catalog online and get more traffic to their website. They are used to generate online sales.

How to Do Paid SEO?

Paid search (SEA) is a form of online marketing that involves placing ads on search engines and other websites. When users search for keywords relevant to your business, your ads may appear in search results.

To do SEA, you must create an account in a search engine like Google Ads or Bing Ads. Once you have created an account, you can start creating ad campaigns. When creating a campaign, you must choose the keywords you want to show your ads. You must also set your daily budget and maximum bid per click.

Once you create a campaign, your ads appear in search results. Your ad placement will depend on your bid, the quality of your ads, and the competition for your chosen keywords.

Set a budget and monitor your spending. SEM can be expensive, so setting a budget and monitoring your spending carefully is important.

Optimize your campaigns. Test different bids, keywords, and ads to see what works best for your business.

1. Choose the right keywords

Choose the right keywords. Your chosen keywords should be relevant to your business and searched by many users.

2. Create effective ads

Your ads should be clear, concise, and compelling, highlighting your competitive advantages and product benefits. They should also include a call to action.

3. Set a budget and monitor your spending

SEA can be expensive, so setting a budget and monitoring your spending carefully is important.

4. Optimize your SEA campaigns

Test different bids, keywords, and ads to see what works best for your business.