B2B Web Strategy Blog - eMagine

Why it Usually Makes Sense to Outsource Your SEM (SEO & PPC)

January 24th, 2008 Posted by: Matt Roche

Many B2Bs consider it some sort of badge of honor to “bring their search engine marketing (SEM) in-house” …as though it were a checkmark item on some master business goal sheet. But if your business is drug discovery, or developing test-suite generation software for SQA, or anything not intimately related to search engines – and if your company isn’t yet large enough to tolerate some organizational flab – then doing SEM in-house is generally not a goal worth pursuing; and here’s why.

First – the problems with in-house SEM
Cost. Experienced SEM specialists are fairly expensive …if you can find one: in a recent MarketingSherpa survey of marketers that do SEM in-house, 20-30% of respondents report that is very difficult to find and hire qualified candidates. You’d also better have something else appropriate to their skill set for that person to do: having a top-flight SEM specialist take care of only one website is a lot like driving your Ferrari the five blocks to the grocery store.
Risk. You can certainly cut corners by hiring an untrained or inexperienced technician; but such a person can easily make things worse for an indefinite period of time before they achieve competency.
Spool-up. That same survey reports that it takes on average between 4.5 and 6 months for an in-house SEM effort to become self-sufficient (if it ever does).

Second – the benefits of outsourcing your SEM to a professional firm
Inexpensive. You’ll pay a fixed fee that’s significantly less than hiring and managing an employee, because your vendor’s staffing cost can be spread over the several client sites that any one specialist can easily manage.
Focus. Because SEM is fundamental to a Web marketing firm’s business, its staff simply has to be up on the current and future trends and techniques with all of the important search engines …which of course are dynamic and continually evolving. And you’ll experience no spool-up time; because your provider does this all the time, they’re always ready to go.
Experience. The pros have tried all of the feasible approaches, and know what works and what doesn’t.
Critical mass. The combined insights of a team of experts means more comprehensive strategies and lower risk than any one in-house specialist could provide.
Safety. There’s little to no risk of negative impact, because professionals understand what’s penalized by the search engines and simply won’t employ such techniques …deliberately or inadvertently.
Timely support. Because the search engines realize that SEM firms are representing numerous clients, such firms receive priority phone and email support when those strange things that “should never happen” actually happen.

Shouldn’t your B2B have the best and most cost-effective SEM?
Give a qualified Web marketing firm – such as eMagine – a try; the evidence suggests that you’ll get better results with a smaller investment by outsourcing your SEM.

Entry Filed under: B2B Web Strategy, Driving Traffic, PPC, Search Engine Marketing