One of the biggest reasons why small and midsize local businesses have shied away from search engine marketing (SEM) in recent years is due to the growth of social media marketing.

Facebook in particular has been a great platform for local businesses, as its programmatic infrastructure is easily scalable to fit almost any budget, and marketers are often already familiar with the platform.

However, though social media has made marketing accessible to the masses, there are a number of reasons not to discount the importance of SEM for local businesses.

Paid search is one of the most effective ways to grow your online business, and call-to-action phrases are one of the most important elements of successful search engine marketing. But search engine results pages (SERPs) are highly competitive arenas. With all these businesses going after the same customers in the same place, it's more important than ever to refine your call-to-action phrases so they're irresistibly clickable.

The Call-to-Action Phrase

The best known call-to-action phrase (CTA) is "Buy Now." But while this may be exactly what you want a visitor to do, it's not a very enticing message. In a search engine marketing (SEM) context, you must consider that when your ad appears, it will appear as one of many others. Design and page placement matter, but the difference between being passed over and actually getting your customer to "Buy Now" lies in the wording of your CTA.

Google AdWords recently announced it will launch a new feature for marketers that allows cross-device targeting campaigns for the first time ever. This means that if someone searches for a company's product or service in the morning on a smartphone, you can then serve ads related to that product on his or her desktop computer at work or tablet on the train ride home.

As long as the potential customer is signed in to a Google account (via Gmail, YouTube or any other Google service), marketers are now able to use powerful tools within AdWords for retargeting. Though it's been a long time coming — Facebook has been leading the way in cross-device targeting for many years now — this new development has some very practical implications for advertisers using Google's AdWord platform.

With over one billion global Gmail users as of February, according to Digital Trends, chances are good that either you or the person sitting next to you is one of those users. And though this free email service is only a decade old, Google has provided an interesting way for advertisers to reach consumers in a place where (according to The Huffington Post) they spend over six hours a day: their inboxes!

What are Gmail ads?

Gmail ads are a specific type of native advertising that uses Google's AdWords platform to target users based on the content of messages in their Gmail accounts. If you've ever used the browser version of Gmail, you may have noticed a "Promotions" tab near the top of the page. This is where they can be found most easily. These ads are formatted like short emails with 25-character headlines and 100-character mini-bodies. Consumers can click anywhere on these lines to view expanded ads that look like emails and typically contain graphics, links, and additional text.

If you do any travel advertising, you know that the days of the white-gloved, bespoke traveler are far gone. It's long been true that travel is booked almost exclusively online — whether through branded travel apps such as Expedia, independently by going directly to hotel and airline websites, or even by travel agents (who, yes, still exist). For businesses that rely on tourism, this has created new opportunities to reach customers.

The Purchase Journey

Long before a trip is booked, consumers begin to research destinations. The purchase journey can run the gamut from daydreaming about what it would be like to stay in the Caribbean to actually investigating the cost of flights, hotel rooms and things to do in Antigua. It is along this path that marketers for hotels, chambers of commerce and travel destinations can reach customers, particularly through search engine marketing (SEM).

If your PPC budget is generating lots of traffic, but you're not seeing a return in sales, you're probably wasting money with the wrong keywords. If you want clicks that convert, you need to help the right customers find your ad. Think of it as prequalifying your leads. Here are four quick ways to zero in on profitable keywords and eliminate the excess.

You've Got This

When it comes to maximizing your PPC budget, the best tools you have are stored in your AdWords account already. Search Engine Land recommends that you concentrate on the past three to four months of data, noting that anything older introduces too many variables to be useful. Within each campaign, you can delve into the specific performance of keywords. From the keywords menu, click the "search terms" tab to see exactly what people are searching for when they click on your ad. Once you see what people are looking for, there will be obvious keywords to eliminate.