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Paid Search Marketing Press Release Misleads Search Advertisers

A recent paid search press release from SEM firm IProspect is quite misleading.
The piece trys to convey that PPC management is a most difficult task.

Here's the press release and some of our comments follow:

Paid Search: Who Really Is On First?
by Robert Murray

I WAS SPEAKING WITH SOMEONE the other day regarding managing a paid search campaign and I was shocked to hear him refer to managing a paid search campaign as "easy."

"Easy?" I said.

He replied, "How hard can it be? I go to the Google or Yahoo! Web site, create an account, plunk down a credit card, select 100 keywords or so and change bids when necessary."

I asked, "Really? And, how have your results been so far with this strategy?"

He responded, "We are getting some profitable conversions, just not as many as we would like."

It amazes me that there are people out there who still believe the myth that paid search is simple. It's not. In fact, it's downright complex -- and getting more so every day. If the rules aren't changing, the players are. If the players aren't changing, the playing field is. If the field isn't changing, the tools are. So who really is on First?

From keeping up with the major players and their rules, to accommodating expanding keyword volumes, to understanding the role of technology, paid search is a complex game with one constant: Things are changing all the time.

So what's a marketer to do to stay in the game? Here's what you need to consider:

Playing Field The playing field is ever-evolving. There are currently three major auction platforms (Google, Yahoo!, and AskJeeves(?...represents little more than 1% of search activity) with MSN (covered by Yahoo right now - down to 2 choices not 4) launching soon. While they are all keyword auctions at the core, each one has different nuances (and provides free tols to monitor their nuances). Understanding how your bid strategy must differ by auction platform is a key part of solving the ever-growing complexity of paid search.

Keyword Volume Expansion As keyword prices continue to rise, marketers are continually forced to expand their keyword set in search of cheaper conversions. (Yahoo has rolled to the broad-based keyword match so extending out to additional keyords on Yahoo is simply a larger spend for little return). The average paid search campaign is around 1,500 keywords and growing (any company active on 1,500 keywords or more had better make sure to assign multiple staff of budgets will be shredded in only a few months). As the number of keywords managed grows, the complexity of managing the overall ROI of the campaign grows as well. This has become too unruly to do manually. How will you know what price to bid on a particular keyword Monday afternoon when you are managing thousands of keywords with shifting bid landscapes? (follow the sponsor price trends for each keyword in your bid management tool).

Role of Technology Further still, there's the role of technology and its impact on the outcome of the campaign. The expanding playing field and growing keyword volumes necessitates technological intervention - manual management just won't cut it anymore. The right technology can provide you with a competitive advantage over others in the auction place; especially if your competitors are using inferior technology or worse -- doing it manually.

A Tool here. A Tool There. A Tool Everywhere.

As the popularity and growth of the paid search arena has expanded, so has the number of new firms entering the bid management space. It seems like every day someone is introducing a new bid management tool or making bold claims that they have developed a system like no other, when they have yet managed a single paid search campaign.

Final Score Clearly, the game of paid search is complex and changing daily. For marketers, understanding the components of paid search and the changes taking place is critical to staying in the game and remaining competitive in this arena.

Robert J. Murray is president of search engine marketing firm iProspect.

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PPC difficult? this is the message from a PPC firm?
ROI unruly ?

PPC is absolutely money in the bank when done properly and the prospect interviewed in this piece is a perfect example of someone who is doing PPC right, improvements could always be made of course, but keeping PPC inside and working with the management tools provided only a little more will lead to improvements.

Identify the most difficult keywords that your site has the toughest time being found on in the organic results and advertise your site on these keywords in Pay Per Click.

How difficult of a task is that? You set up a custom advertising message for each of these keywords or sets, compile a couple of unique custom landing pages (as to not interfere with organic optimization efforts) set your budget and campaign parameters in the provided tools from Google and Yahoo and manage the account.

In this scnario, Do You need a custom PPC bid management tool needed? probably not.

Do you need an SEM vendor? probably not, especially if your needs lie with a small set of limited keyword targets.

Do you need to become an active PPC advertiser on hundreds of keywords?
in most cases, probably not, considering that for most mid-size and smaller companies a small set of keyword targets (many times no more than 20) are the most valuable and offer the highest conversion rates.

And if your prospective SEM vendor seems to be over complicating matters or possibly has mixed motivations in terms of targeting hundreds of keywords/phrases, or infers that PPC campaign management is a most difficult task, then forget outsourcing PPC and keep paid search efforts inside.

It's much young teen alone at the mall with the parents credit card the Abercrombie sales clerks will find plenty of outfits on sale tonight only...other people's money...its always fun and exciting spending other people's money.

Besides, with organic search engine optimization being the most effective form of online advertising and 7 out of 10 google searchers (78% of all keyword search activity) prefer the organic results, what company can afford the expensive keyword billboard that Pay Per Click many times becomes.

Most companies after reviewing their server log files are realizing that they can no longer afford to outsource PPC management and must assign internal staff to ensure that the company's best interests are being recognized.

Companies now also realize that organic search engine optimization is where a proven outside seo firm is needed. Outsource organic search to aquire the intricate technical skill sets involved and pull-in paid search management to control costs, increase conversions, and maximize marketing budgets.