How to Choose a Search Marketing Company
Our freelance search model does not work for everyone but here are some points to consider when deciding on how to improve your paid search marketing.
There are four main options which are; Managing your own accounts, freelancer, agency, or full–time hire. We go through the pros and cons of each.
Manage Your Own Search Marketing
Many small companies have a minimum marketing budget and it is easier to just manage their own search marketing. As competition increases and search marketing becomes more complicated, many that do it themselves are finding it harder and harder to be in the top position. This is a good option for small companies with limited budgets.
A simple formula: You're rate x 15 hours per month. – If your a doctor making $300/hr X 15 hours = your paying $4,500/month of your time.
Benefits:
- No consulting cost
- Quickly make changes
Negatives:
- Requires 2.5 hours per week
- Should be very familiar with how to manage search marketing – takes time
- Must continuously keep up with search engine changes
- Traditionally a search expert can significantly decrease your acquisition cost based on experience and expert knowledge
Budget per month: < $2,000
Hire Freelance Search Marketing Specialist
A freelance search marketing expert provides the experience of an ad agency or full–time search marketing employee without the cost. Efficiently managing search marketing takes an expert these days to remain competitive and a freelance search marketer can do this.
Benefits:
- Full access to a search specialist any time
- Traditionally cost 40% less than an agency or internal hire
- No contracts or set–up fee
- Don't have to commit to a new hire or annual contract
- Flexibility to adjust budgets without additional cost
Negatives:
- Not a solution for large complicated search marketing programs
- Not worth cost for budgets below $2,000
Budget per month: $2,000 – $125,000
Search Marketing Ad Agency
Search ad agencies are a good solution for large firms that have complicated search marketing campaigns and large budgets.
Benefits:
- Access to multiple search specialists
- Good at managing very large complicated search marketing campaigns
- Can be easier if they manage all your marketing
Negatives:
- Agencies charge high fees as they have to cover large overhead costs
- After signing up, you are basically assigned to a search specialist – resembling the freelance search expert model but with a higher cost
- Have high setup fees
- Require minimum monthly budgets
- Can be difficult to sell to upper management with the high investment requirement in this economy
- Require annual contracts traditionally
Budget per month: > $25,000
Hire A Fulltime Search Marketing Specialist
Hiring a full–time search expert is a good option for large firms with very large search marketing budget.
Benefits:
- Responsible for all search marketing
- Easy access to person in office
- Don't worry about fees or commissions
Negatives:
- Average cost can be $85,000 when you add benefits – depending on experience
- Not scalable. If you need to decrease your search marketing budget you can't just pay your search expert less.
- A search specialist with good experience is expensive
- Need to spend about 1.5M per per year to be more cost efficient than an ad agency or freelancer.
A simple formula: $1,500,000 search budget X 6% =$90,000