Our approach to search engine marketing (SEM) relies on the combination of organic search engine optimization (SEO) and paid search (PPC) to reach a level of budget Zen that few paid-search-only agencies can deliver.
The fact is that paid search marketing is highly effective when done well; however there are many factors which can stand in-between your company and a high ROI paid search campaign. To name a few:
- Click Fraud
- Business Model Compatibility
- Cost of Expert Management
- Increasing Cost per Click
- Buying Cycle Distractions
(paid search delivers the visitor, but company fails to rank well organically as potential visitor conducts searches for product reviews, or potential visitor searches again later in the day when they have time to make the purchase but dayparting or budget exhaustion leaves them unable to find the ad again, etc).
To get your attention, first I will say that we often find that an SEO campaign, after the 2-3 month investment period in the beginning, costs between just 15-20% to obtain the same type, volume, and quality of traffic as paid search (it’s from the same engines, and the same keywords after all) through effective link building. To put that in perspective, this means that what costs $100,000.00 per month through PPC can typically be achieved for a $15,000 to $20,000 per month spend on SEO, content development, and link building.
The dramatic difference in cost per visitor, which translates to an 80-85% reduction in cost per action/sale/lead, is the basis of our formula for SEM budget optimization. It really could not be simpler.
*The chart above also illustrates that for 12-month PPC and SEO campaigns, assuming they both end on the 12th month, to be compared to one another for ROI purposes, it must be acknowledged that in month 13 the SEO campaign is still driving a tremendous amount of traffic over the baseline whereas the PPC campaign delivers zero traffic. In fact due to the delays in link discovery and ranking calculations that occur, organic search traffic typically continues to experience a rise for 1-3 months following a pause in the campaign. With results like the above however, we rarely have an opportunity to measure this because pausing the SEO or Link Building just doesn’t make sense!
*The chart above provides an example of the SEM Budget Optimization that occurs with effective SEO and PPC campaigns being run simultaneously. Through a paradigm similar to dollar cost averaging it becomes clear that the best way to obtain search traffic and acheive maximum visibility for targeted keywords is the joint-approach. The far right column indicates the cost, if bought through PPC, of the organic traffic SEO would produce in this scenario.
Clients currently spending $50k, $100k, $250k, or more per month on paid search have an abundance of valuable search marketing performance data that we rely on to create a precision steered course to organic search engine ranking success.
So why aren’t more businesses taking advantage of this and slashing paid search budgets or just drastically increasing the traffic and revenue they generate through the combined efforts? Frankly, the same reason 4 out of 5 potential clients that are referred to us have been burned by one or more of their previous SEO vendors. Sadly, there are many more SEO companies than there are SEO experts and even fewer SEO companies that have mastered effective, organic link building that can level any competitive playing field and produce long-lasting results.
As I write this we are in preparation to launch a micro-site specifically catering to this unique opportunity we can provide to companies whose PPC budgets are in excess of $25,000 per month. Our custom web-app will enable users to model out the cost-savings and exponential traffic growth potential they can experience over time, which often is the most exciting part for anyone who has thought they needed to come to accept that they would have to expend their monthly search marketing budget for a relatively finite number of visitors each month, with no chance for significant growth.
In the meantime, contact us to learn more about this approach to SEM budget optimization.
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