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SEM advice: who should you turn to?

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Russell Easther is a communications graduate and digital media expert. He commenced his career with Cyber-NY in the USA and continued onto eMitch, Flip Media in Dubai and most recently was the Interactive Media Manager at Carat Interactive. As a consultant to P3Digital and the director of The Interactive Group, Russell brings a wealth of international experience combined with a wide range of online marketing capabilities spanning across many digital offerings

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I can’t count the number of times p3 clients ask questions about search engine marketing. If the client is new to the opportunity, I generally introduce the concept and once we get beyond the basics of paid vs natural search and the pro’s and con’s of investment in each, i’m then asked...

“Who should run my search engine marketing campaigns? In house by junior marketing staff? Or in other departments like IT? ...(because they know a lot about ‘computers’.) What about my media agency? Or should I contact a search engine marketing agency?”

Of course every marketeer’s situation is different and how much focus you will need in this area of marketing often depends on what category your brand is in. For example, the travel industry is quite advanced with search therefore you may wish to look to a specialist agency. Taking a look at FMCG, however? You wouldn’t really bother too much outside of buying campaign and obvious keywords.

Saying this, I attended a search engine marketing conference not long ago and ran into an international travel company marketeer who runs her paid search marketing in house. She had a couple of nasty experiences with her existing media agencies online department and had no confidence in search engine marketing suppliers locally.

What are your thoughts? What experiences have you had with search? Search agencies? Interactive departments in media agencies? In house?

Would love to hear your thoughts,

Russ

3 Comments

MissingAuthor
  • Wrote on 6 May, at 12:39PM
It's a tough situation at the moment because demand for good search suppliers has been out-stripping supply of late.

Everyone seems to be hanging the shingle out the front of the shop and calling themselves and expert, often with little basis in fact. Poaching from search agencies is rife to feed this growth.

Having said that, I've been with a dedicated search agency for three years and would be reluctant to bring the campaign management in-house. Search agencies are still the best equipped to effectively manage campaigns and deliver the best results, though there is no room to shirk responsiblity and expect the agency to make critical management decisions. The well informed marketer is as great an asset as the expert agency.
LukeF
  • Wrote on 13 May, at 10:34AM
Good to see you online Russ – and asking the tricky questions.

As you know we provide search services and have some rigorous processes we follow to ensure progress and outcomes. However many do not, in the many meetings that we attend with clients and prospects we commonly hear:
- Horror stories about the kind of advice that is being provided
- About the high fees and lack of accountability of providers
- About the complete lack of measurement and feedback offered
- The in ability to marry marketing and search (i.e. suppliers who see SEM as a technical operation not a marketing one)

If you are looking to an outsourced provider, beware the above, ask detailed questions and expect clear and detailed answers!

For some (free) marketing oriented SEO/SEM advice you can visit Search Marketing Australia. (www.semoz.com.au)
OnlineMarketingSydne
  • Wrote on 18 Sep, at 12:34PM
Hey Russ,

Great to see you back in Australia! Love the articles mate.

Fred Schebesta

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