SEO and SEM Campaign Management
Search Engine Optimization PPC Campaigns

Article Posted 2008 January 21, Monday
by Gord Collins
Bay Street Search Engine Optimization
Toronto, Ontario | Canada

Is there a Conflict between SEO and SEM at the Agency Level?

A client, an ad agency was conducting a $100k per month pay per click campaign for their client which they received a generous commission fee on a percentage basis. That fee collected over months and months was a substantial form of revenue for the agency. Any competing form of online promotion could disrupt that flow of revenue. When SEO was brought into the picture, the agency put a small, insignificant amount of investment into the project. I took the project on knowing that this probably was not a completely sincere intention, yet the agency had other clients where the revenue source wouldn't be affected. Lots of potential there for business, however I discovered that this situation can only lead to frustration.

Since SEO and the free ongoing traffic it generates will always be a threat, it is more likely to be degraded and hidden. An agency will protect their bread and butter. If the client can get their traffic and revenue for free, and avoid $3 to $12 per click and $1200 per conversion, they will rightfully cut the PPC spend. As ppc bid prices rise, the pressure to find alternatives will mount. And there is a lot of money going into adwords advertising. Every quarter, Google breaks new profit records. Businesses seem to be willing to pay the ante to play the game, but they're not aware of how organic campaigns can generate better results. That information needs to be dispersed to web site owners.

Ad agencies will have to adjust to this new sphere. Bringing SEO in-house will not be the panacea. Ad agencies need to work with specialist SEO consultants honestly and directly. There is a way for the agency to make money from SEO services. It comes from acknowledging the value of our work to their clients and getting the clients to realize the value in SEO.

Most SEO providers experience this conflict in their client relations, yet SEO consultants must remain clearly on the side of creating quality organic listings. The traffic is higher potentially and it is low cost. One of my clients spends more than $20k per month and another almost that amount, on PPC spending and at this point, it generates the same volume of traffic as the organic sources. It makes sense that an SEO would want to divert that revenue into organic campaigns and optimization projects. Most clients too, would rightfully want that if they knew. This particular agency had enormous client relationship problems because the client knew they weren't getting the best value. I'm not saying they were getting ripped off, since the PPC investment was working for them. Clearly, however, as their web site grew in the organic rankings, the PPC spend was threatened.

SEO Benefits

Online ad agencies struggle with this issue everyday. How do you generate the same profit from organic search engine optimization when it requires a lot more effort, expertise, and expense to produce high rankings and organic traffic? How do you sell the possible disruption on a web site to clients, in order to make it rank well? It's a lot easier to throw up a brochure site with a few catch phrases and graphics and bid on some AdWords advertising.

Part of the problem can be solved by valuating search engine optimization services more highly. SEO is grossly underpriced. In my situation, clients are paying 4 times as much for PPC clickthroughs as for organic clickthroughs. Studies show that people click on organic listings in the results pages, even though the space given to text ads is almost pushing them off the screen. Text ads still aren't precisely targeted either. Why should they be? If they're poorly targeted, it creates more clicks and more revenue for the search engines.

Organic rankings don't suffer that problem. If the person isn't interested, you're not out much.

Another solution is to create new web sites to cover specific facets of a product or service. This ensures funds will be invested in SEO, thus creating an opportunity for SEO to generate sales leads and revenue. Many companies stick to one web site when they should have 4 or 5. A single site is under tremendous pressure to perform. Putting all your eggs in one basket is not good risk management strategy since competitors will find it easier to beat your one site, and Google could alter its algorithm overnight resulting in a loss of half of your traffic. Not a likely scenario, but it does happen.

Web Site Monetization

Sites can and should be more monetized. That means the manager can find ways to work with certain marketing partners to share costs and boost each other's brands. Advertising is a possibility if it is brand friendly. I don't consider Adwords to be an attractive feature on a web site and the ads may actually diminish the company's brand strength. There's no telling what ad might show in those boxes.

One web site monetization solution is to provide third party service providers with an opportunity to demonstrate their technology on your site. For instance, a Flash-based video program on the homepage can be used to show real humans acting as a host to introduce the company and its services. Podcasts introduce the company's main employees, and online webcast events can be organized where third party advertisers can show their products and services. These outside advertisers can boost the company's prestige and extend the brand in positive directions.

As web site advertisers learn more about the relative performance of PPC versus organic optimization, they will invest more in organic campaigns. There is still resistance to moving the funds to organic, but the cost pressures are inevitable and ad agencies will have to embrace SEO and treat it with respect. Due to client confidentiality agreements, performance from SEO is not often reported, therefore the general online business community won't understand fully why SEO is so important not just from a cost perspective but in terms of quality of leads.

Get the word out that organic search engine optimization is the single best form of marketing available since it creates brand awareness and new customers and lets customers find your site in a natural, unforced way. But don't think cheap. Think powerful.

Gord Collins is SEO Director at Bay Street SEO

Gord writes frequently in magazines, blogs, and forums on new trends in search engine optimization and search engine marketing. He provides SEO services to numerous major US companies and other SEO companies.

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