With search budgets growing, it may be time to manage search in-house. Red Door Interactive's director of search marketing tells you how to pull it off.
As a marketing strategy, search is currently the most popular internet marketing channel, used more often than email and banner ads. That's because it is accountable and cost-effective.
With search marketing budgets and the complexities of search campaigns continuing to increase, having a well-trained, dedicated search engine marketing staff is imperative.
Search marketing budgets
There's strong proof that search has gone mainstream as a line item in the budget. According to the Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization (SEMPO) 83 percent of corporate advertisers plan for search engine optimization (SEO or organic search), and 80 percent plan for search engine marketing (SEM or pay-per-click) in their 2007 search budgets.
In addition, human resource departments have added such titles as VP search, Chief Search Engine Strategist and Senior SEO/SEM Analyst to their job classifications in the company handbooks. As search becomes a dominant force in internet marketing, in-house search marketing commands the attention of the CEO and senior managers.
Company management styles
First, let me say that if you work for a more traditional company, you will probably spend a significant amount of time educating top-level management on the benefits of search marketing and the importance of integrating search with traditional marketing strategies, not to mention justifying your job.
If you work for a more savvy company, you can avoid all of that because the CEO knows that search contributes to lifetime customer value (LCV), that organic and paid search listings create branding and direct response, and a combination of SEO and SEM creates lift in clicks and conversions. You can spend your time educating and leading your staff to search marketing excellence, instead.
In-house vs. outsource
In 2004, Jupiter Research reported that two-thirds of search engine marketing services were performed in-house. Since then, the number of service providers, the size of marketing budgets, and the complexity of search campaigns have all been growing exponentially, suggesting a need for more agency involvement. However, the in-house statistic remains basically the same today as in 2004.
Despite the fact that the majority of search campaigns are managed in-house, most companies do not have a dedicated search marketing staff. Jupiter Research reports that most in-house search personnel share search duties with up to five other job functions including web design, email marketing, marketing communications, market research and other functions such as banner, print, radio and outdoor advertising. That's a mistake.
Needs assessment analysis is decisive
An important consideration when contemplating bringing all search management inside and creating a dedicated team to handle it is identifying the critical path items that must be addressed.
It is wise to conduct a professional, unbiased needs assessment analysis for in-house search marketing that will include both SEO and SEM. This will provide a solid and diversified search marketing platform with guidelines, documentation, procedures, policies, proven tools and methodologies for use by existing on-site search marketing managers, personnel and new hires.
Outsourced professional SEO campaigns can vary between $10,000 and $50,000 per month, depending on such factors as keyword competitiveness, backlinking required to improve rankings, whether or not original content is necessary, current site ranking, technical and editorial factors hindering site ranking and length of time required to achieve improved results. SEO is a long-term strategic investment rather than a one-time project. A needs assessment can help you decide whether or not in-house SEO is a viable option and what is required to build the team within your company.
In-house SEM advertising campaign costs can vary widely depending on campaign goals, keyword price fluctuations, seasonality and the time necessary for monitoring campaign effectiveness and changing bids, ad copy, and landing pages to optimize campaign performance.
Aside from managing and optimizing the in-house SEM campaign, the advertising spends with the search engines can vary significantly: from $20,000 to $2,000,000 per month. Again, a needs assessment can help you decide whether or not in-house SEM is a viable option and what is required to build the team within your company.
Some firms elect to keep SEM in-house while outsourcing SEO. I see this as a serious disconnect when it comes to measurement. Your paid and organic listings must be measured concurrently to maximize results and maintain synergy. There is no doubt SEO and SEM can be accomplished effectively in-house, but it takes the appropriate planning and allocation of resources to get the best results.