The SA economy has experienced a number of blows. The recession took a huge toll leaving thousands of people without jobs. The same could be said about companies whom are struggling to stay afloat. A number of companies have chosen to do their marketing and advertising in-house as a way of keeping down costs. However, is it worth the sacrifice, for example quality?
Here’s reasons why self-service paid search isn’t worth the headache:
1. Level of Expertise
If you’re looking for quality and service then a search company is the way to go. These companies have a team of individuals who have years of experience and have managed specified campaigns according to client requirements. Some search companies have an entire department, which has worked on industry related campaigns.
2. Competition and Cost
Using an internal employee isn’t a good idea. An internal employee isn’t familiar with the competition and in some cases lacks knowledge on specific topics and concepts both of which are related to experience. In addition, internal employees are usually busy with other responsibilities, which mean their time, and attention is stretched thin.
3. Resource Limitations
Many of the reps offered by Yahoo, Bing, and Google are straight out of varsity. The publisher and not the industry provided their education. The publisher wants your company to spend money and resources on these college students. On the other hand, an agency provides an unbiased individual. The agency wants you to invest your money on something, which your customers will thank you for. For example, Google representatives use Google’s internal tools for keyword research; a professional search agency uses third-party tools for keyword research.
4. Biggest Bang For Your Buck
Before a company chooses to work with you, they need examples of all your successful campaigns. They look at the history of similar campaigns; can the agency provide case studies and proper references? They look at experience and industries such as B2C, B2B, local and technology. Agencies will have to provide a manager who’s going to be managing the campaign, what team he/she has. These are some of things companies focus on when selecting agencies for their campaigns.
5. Ability to Measure Success
Your company’s website needs to track the following: phone calls received, white papers downloads the number of forms submitted, orders placed and other items, which are reported on a regular basis. Other companies will request ROI from each marketing campaign. A successful campaign is deemed successful only with a positive ROI.
