Choosing an SEM firm

[Crash]

I have recently been hired to manage my company's search efforts (Adwords/Yahoo!Search, etc.). It didn't take me long to realize that manual is not the way to go, no matter how mathematically inclined or Excel-friendly I happen to be. I have been combing the web looking for the right bid management software/company to work with, and Efficient Frontier appears to have everyone else by the tail. I've been enjoying the war or words all over this forum and the web between Did-It's Kevin Lee and EF's "Stonebreaker." While I may be slightly wet behind the ears, I feel like Mr. Lee is trying very hard to play Mr. Nice Guy rather than getting into the specifics of what makes his product superior.

However, for a relatively small company such as mine, price of the respective services is an issue...It seems to be something nobody ever brings up, as if the returns from going with bid management software completely negate any risk in the cost of employing them without fail. My budget is almost limitless, but I am restricted to starting small.

Other players such as AtlasOnePoint, 360i, Performics, and Inceptor also have some notability, but they seem to be less covered in my readings. Who has the time to inspect what typically boils down to a black box and a similar product with each of these companies? Cost is important, isn't it? Can anybody show me the way? I am thoroughly confused and probably not alone. Thanks in advance.

[caugas]

Beware of hiring an SEM firm.
It it were up to me, I would hire someone to work in house.

How big is your business? What kind of Budget to you have? Do you have the money to recruit. SEM firms are expensive, and often times over promise and under deliever... JMO I hope I don't offend anyone, but myself and alot of inhouse managers can attest to this statement. Especailly inhouse managers who where hired directly after outsourcing to an agency. Our metrics are up dramatically.

In house Managers have a stake in the CO, fixes and solutions can get fixed real time.

I hope I did not step in anyones toes....

[Crash]

Thanks for the initial reply...Hopefully, if I get a little more specific, that will help this thread as an informative tool (and a means to resolve my frustration):

Our company does almost 1.5MM in revenue per month. Our CPA's deals are going great, but we neglected search for far too long. As long as we can convert at an acceptable CPA, which has proven to be very feasible, our budget is nearly bottomless (the supply far outweighs the demand). We are looking to manage over 2,000 KWs right off the bat, spending as much as $40K per month on PPC. We realistically hope to scale this to 10K keywords and a $300K per month spend within a few short months. The sky is the limit, but time is of the essence.

I respect the points of the human benefit and high cost of the SEM firms, but I can't see doing this manually long term. I would be neck-deep in it all day, and to hire somebody to grind on SEM all day before the big profits are there doesn't jive with the company. So I am appealing/defering to my peers with more experience than myself...just humbly looking for some advice on the right SEM product or firm. Thanks again to the next replier...

[egain]

From the figures you have mentioned, I would personally be looking at an agency firm to manage those, from both a project management and economies mof scale perspective, whilst I dont doubt that the one person would have the drive to manage it - outsourcing it gets rid of the little niggles like - what happens when my Internet Manager goes on holiday.

From a practical perspective, do your homework, and get references/overviews of previous work with appropriate metric % increase traffic / % increase conversions /% increase ROI etc.

PS Sorry about the spelling its gone 12 and I really should be in bed :)

[DonDeVange]

Crash,

You're correct in noting that doing manual labor can be overwhelming when running a campaign as large as what you want to grow into. However, just as accounts often need some automation, your long-term success will also need some human input and effort into testing and strategic decisions. I have found that a combination of both provides the best long term, stable performance that most people want to see from a PPC campaign.

To answer your original question about where to find info there is a "Paid Search Ad Agency Buyer's Guide" and "SEO Buyer's Guide" that is published each year by Marketing Sherpa, who was just recently purchased by MarketingExperiments.com. The guides run for $199 each and are available at http://www.sherpastore.com/Buyers-Guide-Paid-Search-Agencies.html. My agency, which bills by the hour instead of by the media spent, is dedicated to ROI and account performance in terms of conversions and sales instead of CTR and CPC.

Let me know if you would like to discuss your account in greater detail, or if you would simply like some additional information on the tools that are out there. Feel free to email me at anytime.

[caugas]

Thanks for the initial reply...Hopefully, if I get a little more specific, that will help this thread as an informative tool (and a means to resolve my frustration):

Our company does almost 1.5MM in revenue per month. Our CPA's deals are going great, but we neglected search for far too long. As long as we can convert at an acceptable CPA, which has proven to be very feasible, our budget is nearly bottomless (the supply far outweighs the demand). We are looking to manage over 2,000 KWs right off the bat, spending as much as $40K per month on PPC. We realistically hope to scale this to 10K keywords and a $300K per month spend within a few short months. The sky is the limit, but time is of the essence.

I respect the points of the human benefit and high cost of the SEM firms, but I can't see doing this manually long term. I would be neck-deep in it all day, and to hire somebody to grind on SEM all day before the big profits are there doesn't jive with the company. So I am appealing/defering to my peers with more experience than myself...just humbly looking for some advice on the right SEM product or firm. Thanks again to the next replier...

Ok more info is good.

If you have a budget that big and time is of the essense, than bringing in a firm at a % of spend would probely be the right thing to do in this case.

If you private message me I know a few good firms (3 firms, but one is exceptional in professionalism and deals with some goliath partners). I have a personal contact at one of them who is very percise, quick, and professional.
She inpressed me in my conversions with her. If I make the introducing you could fast track. It not proper to do referals in public.

[marketraiseint]

Choosing A Search Engine Marketing Firm
Mailing lists and message boards -- the online water coolers of the web development and marketing industries -- are filled with stories of businesses whose web sites have "fallen off the map" of search engine success or never made it on the map in the first place. In many cases, the resulting "Why?" discussions lead to one of two conclusions: the web site was poorly optimized for search engine success, or it wasn't optimized at all.

As a business owner, you may identify with those stories. And you may know the importance of having your web site rank highly in search engines for the search words and phrases that are appropriate to your business. But you may not know how to make that happen yourself.

Thanks to the growth of search engine marketing (SEM), you don't need to. A professional SEM company can help put your web site back on the map of search engine success, or get it on the map for the very first time.

Choosing an SEM company is an important decision: the right choice can lead to tremendous initial growth in your company's online business and create the foundation for a satisfying business relationship that keeps this growth alive over the long-term.

Trust
When selecting an SEM company, you are first and foremost establishing a business relationship, and successful relationships are built on trust. You will be placing your online success in the SEM company's hands. Most of us can tell pretty quickly if someone deserves our trust. Follow your gut instincts, but also consider these questions:

Does the company answer your questions honestly and completely, or did it avoid certain topics and give fuzzy answers to others? The SEM company should have nothing to hide when it comes to describing how they optimize sites, how they manage ad campaigns, their track record, etc.

Does your SEM company have experience in the industry? If you're hiring them to handle search engine optimization on your web site, have someone experienced with creating web sites look underneath the hood of a couple sites the company has optimized, looking for any unusual coding that may be hidden from public view. If you're hiring the SEM company to handle your PPC campaign, have they managed campaigns successfully for clients of your size?

Does the SEM company pressure you with sales tactics designed to force a decision before you're ready to make one? Building a relationship isn't about closing the deal; it's about doing what's best for you, the client. You should be able to speak with the individuals who will be doing the actual work on your site, not just with a salesperson.

Which Services?
Search engine marketing includes a variety of methods that can increase a web site's visibility in search engines. Before choosing an SEM company, it's imperative to know which one(s) you need.

Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of making a web site search engine friendly. It typically involves making changes to the web site itself that are designed to help the site rank higher in the organic (i.e. - free) search results.

Some search engines offer pay-for-inclusion (PFI) services, which allow you to pay to have various pages/URLs of your site crawled by the search engine spider, often on a regular basis.

These are just a few of the SEM services a company might offer. Some issues to consider:

Do you need SEO or PPC? Both? Something else? Ask the companies you're considering for their recommendation. Ask them to separate the time and costs of each service when they give you a cost proposal for your project so you can make a more informed decision.

If you need PPC, will the company you're hiring do that part of the project themselves? PPC advertising is a specialty that not all SEO companies practice. The ones that don't can often recommend companies to handle that aspect of your project.

If PPC advertising is part of your project, how long will the campaign last? How much will it cost? Which search engines will you use? What types of tools does the company use for managing your bids? Is the company skilled at writing targeted ad copy?

How will the company identify the best keywords and phrases for your optimization project? Whether you need SEO, PPC, or both, identifying the most appropriate keywords and phrases to target will be a key factor in the overall success of your efforts. Make sure you have input into this process since you, ultimately, know your business and industry more than anyone. If you specialize in and want to promote your blue, graphite widgets, don't allow the SEM company to emphasize widgets in general (not enough focus) or red, titanium widgets specifically (wrong focus). The SEM company should be able to provide general statistics indicating how often your preferred keywords and phrases are actually searched for on various search engines.

Know Your Risk Comfort Level
There are many ways to optimize a web site for search engine success. Some methods are more aggressive than others, and many search engines and industry professionals frown on these tactics as being too risky at best, and unethical at worst. Many search engines go so far as to warn the public about these methods, perhaps none so strongly as Google on a page it wrote for business owners :

"Many SEOs provide useful services for website owners, from writing copy to giving advice on site architecture and helping to find relevant directories to which a site can be submitted. However, a few unethical SEOs who have given the industry a black eye through their overly aggressive marketing efforts and their attempts to unfairly manipulate search engine results."

As a business owner, you have to determine how much risk you're willing to take on. If you're willing to try risky methods such as cloaking, doorway pages, and keyword stuffing (among others), you should also be aware of the potential consequences (which include being penalized by search engines). Make sure you and your SEM company are in complete agreement over the methods to be used in your optimization project, and have it clearly defined in the contract.

Executing an SEO Plan
If organic search engine optimization is one of your needs, you'll want to have a clear idea of how the company you hire will execute the project. The company should develop a plan based on your needs and budget. As the client, you may not want to know -- and may not understand -- every little detail that the project entails.

Will the company execute the hands-on aspects of the optimization plan, or are they only providing directions for your webmaster? There's no right or wrong answer to this. Some firms are consultants only; others offer consulting and hands-on optimization. If you don't have a webmaster, and expect the company to do the actual optimization work, ask about their experience as programmers and make sure they are as skilled at the hands-on work as they are at consulting.

What changes need to be made to your web site to make it more search engine friendly? In other words, what does the SEO company consider the full scope of work to optimize your web site? The project may or may not include things such as:

changing the layout or design of your site
updating the site architecture -- the menus, navigation, etc.
rewriting and editing content -- the visible words on your web site
improving HTML tags -- the hidden pieces of information in the code of your web site
link building -- finding appropriate web sites and obtaining links from their site to yours (hint: avoid link farms and FFA sites at all costs; hint #2: the SEO company should not require a link from your site to theirs as part of the project)
search engine submission -- letting search engines know about your site (hint: avoid automated tools; hint #2: avoid any company promising to submit your site to hundreds of search engines; hint #3: search engine submission is essentially obsolete)
directory submissions -- letting web directories know about your site (hint: this is often more difficult than it sounds)
How soon will the company begin working on your project, and how long do they expect to take to complete it? It's unrealistic to expect your web site to make the top ten search results within a week after the project ends, so if you're aiming to increase holiday sales make sure you start (and the SEO company can finish) far enough ahead of time to allow the project to succeed. Which leads us right into...

Measuring Success
It's up to you to determine the goals and definition of success for your SEM project. Perhaps it's nothing more than an increase in traffic to your site. Expansion of your mailing list subscriber base? Doubling last year's online sales in the holiday season? During the initial meetings with the companies you're considering, you'll need to articulate your ultimate goals and whether they're short-term, long-term, or both.

It will, however, be the SEM's job to help you calculate success with information and statistics about the project. Things to consider:

Does the company make promises to acquire you as a customer? Building trust involves setting realistic expectations. No SEM company can promise long-term top rankings in the organic search results of any search engine because search engines are constantly changing how they index and rank web sites. (In the short-term, however, PPC advertising might include a guarantee of visibility on the first page of search results if you're bidding/paying enough to be seen there.)

Thanks to all the SEMPO members who helped in one way or another with the development of this article.
Best Regards,
shuvayu chakraborty

[Crash]

Actually, we have tried to outsource in the past. The decision to have search brought fully in house was made long before I was hired. The original question should have read something more like "What would be the best bid management tool/software to run an in-house PPC search operation?" We aren't looking to hire a firm to whom we would hand over the keys to the car; we are looking to get the car(software) and do the driving ourselves....or something ;)

Can anybody recommend the company that has the best PPC bid management product? Thanks again.

[shorebreak]

Hi Crash,

[my SEW handle is 'shorebreak', but I assume that's what you meant when u said 'stonebreaker'. I'm the guy who got into it w/KLee and is still awaiting a detailed response]

I'll try and answer your most recent, clarified question, while keeping in mind the 2-10K keywords & $40-$300K/mo spend range you expect to be at.

First off, having spent most of the last 8 years in the search space, I feel confident telling you what no other SEM will dare say - there are no really good self-service keyword management systems, ours included.

Here are the knocks on the self-service offerings out there:

AtlasOnePoint - it's rules-based, meaning it can only optimize keywords individually and is incapable of considering all the choices for how best to allocate spend *across* a keyword set. Moreover, it still forces you to continually monitor performance and change rules to reflect changing keyword environments.

Inceptor (now part of a big IYP) - it's rules-based, so same limitations apply. Plus, they were acquired by a firm that doesn't give a rats ass about the needs of high-end PPC advertisers such as yourself.

Performics (aka DART Search) - rules-based, and parent company Doubleclick will try to force DART down your throat at the same time. If you want to leverage an existing web analytics investment, you're toast with them.

Efficient Frontier Express (my firm's self-service product) - it effectively brings to bear EF's portfolio algorithm and therefore can get more volume and/or ROI out of a keyword set than anything else out there. That said, however, it's not the end-all-be-all administrative interface and doesn't obviate the need for manual intervention at the SE accounts for things like ad copy and campaign structure changes.

SearchRev - they would have you believe they have a self-service platform that does *everything* anyone could ever need. What that means in reality is they have a bunch of people in Silicon Valley and India doing tons of stuff by hand and with [get this] Yahoo's free bid mgmt tool which sucks.

If you're gonna be spending $100K+/mo you're going to need services to go along with whatever technology you use. Data analysis, ROI modeling and frequent curveballs from the search engines will kill you if you try to go it alone.

Sticky me if you'd like to talk more.

[katyo]

Crash,

I'm very new to this industry and personally do not do SEM but I happen to work at a firm. (I write articles, blogs etc. for them) I understand that being a small business entails less money to work with, so to combat that, why not work with a small SEM firm? I work with (literally) 5 other people and we handle all sorts of accounts from really small (2 people) on up to Fortune 1000. If you would like more information you can visit our website, (you can find it on my profile) although it's not so flashy. I'm not meaning this to sound like an ad, just trying to help you!!