E-Commerce SEM Manager

Working Schedule

• E-commerce SEM Managers keep very busy because employers rely heavily on their skills. Expect full-time work with possible overtime during holidays or major shopping events. 

Typical Duties

• Work with business leadership, developers, and marketing teams to review current and upcoming products or services 
• Devise a comprehensive SEM/SEO strategy, including content calendars, social media and email campaigns, and link building activities
• Determine suitable keywords to enable organic search optimization
• Decide upon applicable SEO Key Performance Indicators
• Review analytics on click-through rates, bounce rates, and redirects
• Continually analyze data to assess if Return on Investment can be improved
• Optimize all online content to ensure search engines can readily find and rank it
• Track site performance and take action to address deficiencies
• Assess if site traffic volume corresponds with sales figures 
• Use pay-per-click (PPC) to enhance site exposure

Additional Responsibilities

• Create customer avatars (i.e. buyer personas) 
• Share findings via written reports, including benchmarks and lessons learned 
• Keep up-to-date with emerging technologies, digital marketing trends, and changes in consumer behavior 
• Suggest engaging media mixtures to optimize user engagement (such as adding videos or animation) 

Soft Skills

• Analytical
• Attention-to-detail
• Business focused
• Collaboration and teamwork
• Critical thinking 
• Curiosity
• Flexibility 
• Investigative
• Marketing 
• Organized 
• Problem-solving skills
• Skills for coordinating and instructing activities
• Sound judgment and decision-making
• Strong communication skills 
• Time management skills

Technical Skills

• A/B Testing
• Attribution modeling
• Business development
• Conversion Rate Optimization 
• Data analysis 
• HTML / CSS
• JavaScript
• Marketing
• Paid search advertising 
• Social Media Marketing
• Web analytics
• Search Engine Marketing
• Ad copywriting 
• Ad design
• Audience targeting
• Content marketing
• Google Ads
• Keyword targeting
• Website design
• Search Engine Optimization
• Content creation
• Link building 
• On-page SEO
• Technical SEO

• Ad agencies
• Colleges and universities
• E-commerce businesses
• Governmental organizations
• Public relations 
• Self-employed (freelance)
• Traditional companies with online sales
• Wholesale trade    

Building an e-commerce website doesn’t mean shoppers will come. Customers have to know the site exists and be interested in what it has to offer. 
 
Organizations rely on their E-commerce SEM Managers to ensure consumers are able to find their website, products, services, or content. They are integral members of the marketing team and especially critical in the modern era, where an invisible war rages for the attention of Internet users. 
 
When it comes to marketing, e-commerce companies must find creative ways to break through the constant noise and clutter. They must grab a consumer’s interest long enough to entice them to click an ad or link. To find potential shoppers, they have to pepper links across a range of sources, like casting fishing lines but in an ocean already filled with boats. 
 
E-commerce SEM Managers ensure the sites they’re responsible for are constantly up-to-date and optimized so that Google et al. can bring shoppers directly to them. All this technical work requires enormous effort and persistence. After all, other e-commerce businesses are engaged in the same behavior, and it only takes a second for potential customers to lose interest and look elsewhere. 

E-commerce SEM Managers work in a field that is constantly changing yet relies on many stable principles. To be effective, they must determine how to leverage evolving digital strategies and technologies to perform traditional marketing tactics. One of the many emerging trends is the rise of Amazon’s paid advertising model, which garnered the e-commerce behemoth $12.75 billion in 2020. Another hot trend is the use of Google’s new responsive search ads. 
 
Consumers are becoming increasingly frustrated with data breaches and intrusions into their privacy, which is why cookies may soon become an endangered species. Meanwhile, Conversion Rate Optimization is taking a front seat as companies scramble to make the most of ad budgets. A final trend in SEM is the shift to a more customer-oriented approach, which includes taking customers’ “lifetime values” into consideration. 

E-commerce SEM Managers may be analytical by nature, but they understand human psychology, too. They’re usually very organized and may have been in charge of younger siblings or managing activities at school. Growing up, they may have enjoyed puzzles, reading mystery stories, or watching shows that involved searching for clues. 
 
It goes without saying that most are adept with technology, so they could have been exposed early on to computers and devices. At some point, they took an interest in the “behind-the-scenes” workings of how search engines and websites function in terms of their interaction with human users!