Why Vertical SEM Agencies Suck
Vertical search engine marketing agencies are truly clueless.
How can any agency effectively manage your search accounts if all they know is search? Paid Search, SEO, Affiliate Programs. AD Network Offers and other focused online media buys all work together in a synergy that simply cannot be ignored.
If an agency can’t look at your global online marketing initiatives in developing an optimization approach, then an advertiser should dump them immediately. Search no longer exists in a vacuum. PPC and SEO are blurring together in a muddled pool of quality score. Sophisticated affiliates are now an essential tool for maximizing valuable search result real estate. In fact, with out a pure understanding of the interplay between affiliate and search marketing, an affiliate program can quickly decimate an advertiser’s PPC initiatives. Additionally, display ads, contextual networks and behavioral targeting can feed directly off the successes of a professionally optimized search campaign. You simply MUST utilize the analytical data of each marketing channel to maximize the potential of each individually.
These are not opinions. I have seen these events play out countless times at Pepperjam. I have watched advertisers double their sales volume via search by focusing on marketing initiatives outside of search. Conversely, I have seen advertisers in just about every vertical space leaving massive dollars on the table by refusing to see the big picture. I have watched online marketing campaigns revolutionized because Pepperjam has multi division expertise that through cooperation achieve heights that would be otherwise unattainable.
At this point I truly cannot understand why any advertiser would choose to work with an agency that focuses on only one piece of the interwoven online marketing puzzle.
In your quest to find the right company to work with, remember that any agency boasting of a sole vertical expertise in search is flaunting the fact that they have no clue what the hell they are doing.
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June 6th, 2007 at 3:12 pm
Mike Jones,
This is something that I have been thinking about alot as of late. With experience and expertise in many different areas of the online marketing world I have seen first hand just how important it is that every part of your online campaign works together. If you can get the right mix of branding and media along with search and natural rankings your site is going to outperform, by leaps and bounds, anyone who hasn’t added these pieces of the puzzle to there marketing equation. I think that Online Advertising Agencies are going to start offering all of there services in a package deal because it is going to be that important.
Dean
June 6th, 2007 at 4:27 pm
Simply put, online advertisers who refuse to adapt and broaden their market strategies are just as foolish as these agencies who don’t feel the need to evolve. But hey if you’re not concerned with longevity of your business, by all means stick with the Vertical SEM. Survival of the Fittest, online natural selection will certainly weed out those unwilling to adapt.
Good post Michael.
Trevor
June 7th, 2007 at 6:04 pm
Mike since very few agencies are equipped to handle SEM, do you foresee some consolidation in the industry as more agencies start to build a staff like Pepperjam has?
David
June 11th, 2007 at 10:57 am
David,
The expertise required to truly maximize search demands a global understanding of online marketing as well as a full time dedication to the medium. I see a growing movement towards outsourcing happening rapidly over the next 2 years. Search is simply too valuable at this point to leave in the hands of amateurs.
January 7th, 2008 at 2:13 pm
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