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Why you need to outsource search
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An ability to use that technology
SEM outsourcing companies are in business for one reason: SEM. You are not. You are distracted by whatever is the latest priority of resources. I have watched several clients take their SEM in-house, and the technologists assigned to SEM are stretched thin with countless other internal projects. In addition, SEM is often falls under a marketer's purview, and you and your staff just do not have the time or the resources to follow every little nuance in the search business. That is exactly what SEM firms do, and that is all they do. They manipulate algorithms and Google campaigns at a much more efficient clip than you can.
Have you ever launched a program on your computer that you have not used in awhile, and it takes time to get back up to speed? The people that work at these companies use their software repeatedly -- they connect to their contacts at Google and the other engines regularly. They tinker, tweak, and manipulate their systems and your campaigns for success. They constantly test and control their systems and algorithms to perform. Being better is what keeps them in business. It's a rare occurrence when a major company in the SEM spaces does not outperform, over time, the 10 to 15 percent it costs.
Wide knowledge of multiple industries
The company you decide to outsource to deals with many clients in many different industries, each with slightly different business models. Techniques emerge that work for one client and can be applied to others. Knowing more about your business does not translate into being able to run a more profitable SEM program. You know your company -- too well in fact -- making it almost impossible for you to understand what everyone else does not. An external view is often the best reality check you can get if you are willing to "begin as a beginner" and put yourself in the position of your customer.
You focus on your business and thus become myopic about it. Without continual infusion of external ideas and techniques, your program will often stagnate. The only real infusion of new ideas is usually the turnover of employees.
This is the landscape of the U.S. search market. The values are just approximations, but external systems can work with a wide array of search engines -- and your campaigns on them -- to maximize your overall business impact.
This is the only formula that matters in search: Value = (quantity * quality) / price. Outsourcing companies understand this formula. They do not focus on a single source of the search universe, but will counsel you on how your strategy with one search engine can be leveraged across many. Too often clients ignore this formula and concentrate solely on quality. This leads to ignoring the bottom-tier search networks, like LookSmart, as viable sources to increase dollars. Search is not television, and SEM companies understand it's a mass long-tail play, where the value is not the customer, but the balance between quality and cost.
The "arrogance blip"
Of the many reasons to outsource, this is probably the one that will hit home the most. I call it the "arrogance blip." You may not know the term, but you probably know the effect. So what is an arrogance blip? It's the effect of hiring an entry-level person who works for one year in SEM, and then either leaves for a job that pays three times as much for their limited experience, or holds the SEM program hostage while they continue to work in discontent.
Understand that you are training someone to leave when they get trained in SEM. The field is too competitive and the need too great. If your program is all in-house, the arrogance blip is often a single point of failure. Don't let your intellectual capital walk out the door when your employee does, safe-port it by outsourcing.