A while back, we put together a list of interview questions for SEO positions. SEO jobs are still super demanded but also, lately we’ve been witnessing a surge of openings for positions in a broader category that SEO belongs to: SEM.

SEM or Search Engine Marketing uses both paid and organic tactics to increase a website’s visibility in search engine results pages. We thought it would be good to also gather and share some helpful interview questions for AdWords-related positions.

If you’re looking for a job in SEM, here are some questions that may help you kick ass on your interview.

Personal questions

1. How many years of experience do you have with SEM?

2. Explain Adwords to a 9 year old kid.

3. What do you like about SEM marketing?

4. Tell me about your most successful AdWords campaign

5. Tell about an AdWords campaign that failed. What did you do wrong?

6. Have you passed the exams to get the AdWords certification?

7. Do you have experience with Adwords Editor?

8. What are your favorite SEM tools?

9. What are your favorite SEM blogs/forums?

General questions

10. How do you define SEM’s role in an integrated marketing plan?

11. What are the advantages and disadvantages of PPC?

12. How do you do your keyword research?

13. What’s your methodology in creating ad copies?

14. How do you optimize your results?

Technical questions

15. Describe the structure of a Google AdWords paid search campaign.

16. Explain how does a Google auction work.

17. Explain what is CTR and how you can calculate it.

18. What is remarketing?

19. Explain how does Ad rank impact CPC.

20. What are your favorite KPIs to track performance?

21. What are the main factors you consider when auditing an Adwords account?

22. Mention some of the Google Adword Ad Extensions.

23. How would you stop your Ads from showing for not relevant searches?

Cases

24. Our company already ranks first organically for our main brand keyword. Does it make sense to have a branded SEM strategy? If so, what would you propose?

25. If you were given an extra budget to help increase conversions for an ecommerce site, how would you spend it?

We hope you found these questions helpful, did I miss any? Share it with us in the comment section below!