SEM Firms: How Do I Know Which Is Right For Me?

Writing by Brick Marketing on Monday, 14 of April , 2008 at 9:10 am

Search Marketing Standard recently had a helpful article on what to look for in a search marketing firm when you are ready to start running your pay per click campaigns. There are some good pointers here and I just want to highlight a few snippets:

Do you spend $500 a month on search or do you spend $500,000? How much do you plan to spend in the future? This is a crucial starting point before you begin looking for outside help.

True. Some search marketing firms won’t even talk to you if you don’t have a sizable budget. By sizable, I mean up in the thousands of dollars. Every company is different and sets its own limits but if you have a small budget it doesn’t mean that you are left out in the cold. Some of us do like small companies with smaller budgets and we can get you results.

PowerPoint is a wonderful tool isn’t it? Any agency can create a PowerPoint that makes it seem like they have the most advanced technology and proprietary methods for getting your business optimized on AdWords and YSM. My advice is to avoid the PowerPoints all together.

Well, you’ve got to receive your presentation in some manner. If you live in Miami, Florida and you’re interviewing an SEM firm located in Vancouver, B.C. then you’re going to have to have visuals. But this point is well taken. Don’t rely on pretty pictures to tell the story. Ask for references and examine the company a little more in-depth before taking them on.

There are four basic agency/consulting pricing models in SEM: percentage of spend, hourly rate, fixed monthly fee, and performance-based fee.

Each of these pricing models has its advantages. If you are a small company with a small budget then you might be better off with a performance-based or percentage of spend basis. A larger company with a large budget might go for the hourly fee payment method. But be careful. Some SEM professionals who charge by the hour may not be as savvy as the ones who charge using these other methods.

Not all SEM agencies and consultants are the same. Some only want to deal with your keywords and bids. Others will work on ad text but not landing pages.

This is a very important one. Be sure to ask all the right questions before hiring your SEM firm. What will they do for you? How much information will they share with you? Etc. You can’t ask too many questions.

There are plenty more questions for you to ask any potential SEM firm before doing business with them. I encourage to read the entire article by David Rodnitzky here.

Category: Search Marketing

• Add this post to Del.icio.us - Digg

No comments yet.