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Can In-House SEM Managers or Paid Search Managers (current or past) shed some light on how they like to deal with Agency Fees for PPC and what you've seen to be the trend on how agencies base their fee (% of spend, %of gross revenue, flat monthly fee, etc.).  If by % of spend, can you give me a range of what % you pay to your agency or what % range you've seen on agency proposals?  Thanks!

In a previous life, I worked as a Sales Rep for an IT Outsourcer.  I had a conversation with the head of IT for a relatively large resource company regarding outsourcing.  His comments have always stuck wtih and I thought I would share them now.

There are only three reasons as to why someone should outsource.

1. They don't have, want to have, or need to have the skills in house.
2. They are doing the current activity so badly, that they have no choice but to outsource.
3. They are doing the current activity so well, that the only improvements that can be foreseen, is through economies of scale.

I am going to add a 4th reason - one which is more relevant to SMB/SMEs.

4.  You don't have the time to do it in house.

Reason number 4 is a very important to many SMB owners who are everything to that business.  If you don't have the time to focus (perhaps devote is a better word) on your online marketing needs and realise it is important, then outsourcing is a great option.

I also firmly beleive that OutSourcing is the wrong term - it should be "Smart Sourcing".  Sourcing the best vendor or combination of vendors that you are able to manage in order to get the job done and generate the results you need.

 

I think search engine marketing is fundamental for every business that sells to people who use search engines, which means everyone. In my opinion SEM is a standards kind of thing. When you build a website, you should make it search engine friendly. Your site should also have interesting content on it that draws links - that's linkbaiting. When your company has exciting news you should tell everyone who'll listen - offline and online. That's all SEM, but it's also a smart way to do business.

As for inhouse vs outsourcing. If possible, all your marketing efforts should be integrated. It just makes for better branding. SEM is most effective when it works with online marketing efforts. And online marketing efforts work best when they work with offline marketing efforts. Outsourcing all of that seems more complicated then it needs to be.

The ideal would be to have an inhouse marketing team with SEO capabilities. That isn't possible for most businesses though, because of cost and other factors.

I think a better question would be what percentage of your marketing budget should you dedicate to SEM? We all know we should do SEM, but it's hard to determine how much is necessary.