Search Marketing Meltdown

This morning I read an article from marketingcharts.com and one of the key findings reminded me how similar search engine marketing is to the stock market - bear with me. But first, here’s the finding that I will reference.

Compared with 2007, paid search is getting a bigger proportion of online lead generation budgets even though natural search is perceived to be better value for money, according to company marketers. Paid search now gets a third of this budget (33%) compared with 28% in 2007. Meanwhile, SEO (search engine optimization) now gets only 15% of the budget, compared with 18% last year.

Results! Results! Results! In the age of instant noodles, fast food drive thrus, and instant boob enlargements, society is very consistent about making sure they get the things they want - regardless of price and they get it now.

SEO vs. PPC

It is widely known that the one key difference between search engine optimization (SEO) versus Pay-per-Click (PPC) is instant feedback and ROI. From major businesses to smaller outfits, marketers are beginning to feel the pinch of the downward economy and reduced consumer spending. So in an effort to increase revenue to meet fiscal goals, more money is poured into this measurable advertising called PPC. And less effort is given to building a quality site with SEO strategies. Looks like Google has won the battle with their PPC model - not so quick.

Marketers are like Stock Traders

Bullcrap you say? Let’s take a few minutes to look at this. When the market receives a hint of bad news, traders panic, like goats ass on hot coal, and sell their stocks without thinking twice. With the intention to minimize losses, stock traders in all their wisdom justify their hastiness with stock equations, the infamous 8% rule, and MBA economics. When in fact, they should follow a time-tested principle and hold on to their stocks and weather the storm. Isn’t that what differentiates the billionaires from the millionaires?

With marketing, when revenues are low, companies redirect budgets to PPC in hopes to buy more traffic to generate higher revenue to meet company goals. It doesn’t really work that way. But the same applies - panic sets in, goals start to look unattainable, and more PPC money is spent. The only happy person here are the Google owners Sergey and Larry. Sergey will be grinning to the bank while Larry pages through his stack of cash.

Killed Softly by PPC

Budgets are finite. No company on earth has unlimited funds for any type of campaigns. So why not reserve cash to wait the storm out. And focus on other initiatives that require less money with greater future impact on your business? That just sounds more reasonable - a concept so simple that companies are not willing to implement.

So instead of spending more directly on PPC engines, why not consider investing in:

• more A/B testing
• Multivariate testing
• Content optimization
• increase conversion with current traffic
• streamline process
• etc…you get the idea.

I think you get the idea. I’m not against PPC and definitely not biased towards SEO, since I have knowledge and experience in both areas of search. But being realistic, I’ve seen many companies throw money on the wrong thing at the wrong time - only to look back and say “we shoulda, coulda, woulda!”

Bottom line, be patient in your search marketing strategy. And be flexible whenever possible to accommodate the crazy economy disaster that our government “single-handedly” created for us