The Search Marketing Advisor Newsletter Article: October 2005, Volume 4, Issue 10
Search Marketer Behavior: Action Items from the Trends
by Bill Muller, Vice President of Marketing, iProspect
Within the last 6 weeks there has been a lot of press given to the findings of three research studies that we recently published on the behavior of search engine marketers:
iProspect's Search Marketer Performance Study
iProspect's Outsourced SEO Metrics & ROI Study
iProspect's Natural SEO Outsourcing Study
The studies were conducted in partnership with JupiterResearch and can be found in their entirety here.
Though most of the coverage focused on search engine marketing (SEM) industry trends that the studies uncovered, very few reporters focused on what search marketers should be doing as a result. And since the Search Marketing Advisor is all about actionable advice, let’s look at some of the key findings of these studies, and see what actions marketers should be taking.
Search Marketer Performance Study
This study finds that 81% of search marketers have the evaluation of their personal job performance tied to the metrics of their search engine marketing campaigns — especially rankings and traffic. However, the study shows that only about 40% of search marketers have the evaluation of their personal performance tied to actual business result metrics — such as sales, return on advertising spend (ROAS) and return on investment (ROI).
The study poses a number of reasons why such a small percentage of marketers have their performance tied to actual monetary results, but a key factor is that some companies are simply not yet linking the results of SEM efforts to their eventual monetary/business results (more about this in the next study detailed below). And if companies aren’t connecting these two, then they certainly can’t link the evaluation of search marketers’ performance to business results.
Action Item: As SEM becomes a more mature marketing channel within your organization, it — and you — are going to eventually be held to the same ROI standards as other marketing/advertising channels and their practitioners (if you aren’t already). Now is the time to get out in front of this and find a way to tie SEM efforts to business results. Once you do, and you determine the magnitude of business results to which you are contributing, push to have some percentage of your personal evaluation based on the business results which you produce. Speaking as one marketer to another, sometimes you have to be your own loudest cheerleader.
Outsourced SEO Metrics & ROI Study
This study finds that 35% of search marketers who outsource the management of their natural search engine optimization (SEO) campaigns report that it returns higher ROI than their paid search campaigns, compared with just 11% who report that the paid search campaigns return higher ROI.
Shockingly, the study also discovers that 45% of marketers who participate in both SEO and paid search advertising report that they cannot determine which of the two channels generates the higher ROI. Again, the study offers a number of reasons for this absence of knowledge, but key among them is inadequate performance measurement practices — especially in linking SEM results to actual monetary results. There’s a common saying in search engine marketing — if you can’t measure it, you can’t improve it. And if you can’t link natural and paid search results to ROI, then you can’t make adjustments to campaigns to take advantage of what’s working and what’s not.
Action Item: First, since three times more marketers report better ROI from SEO than paid search, if you’re participating in paid search but are not doing SEO, strongly consider doing so and use some of your paid search budget to fund it if necessary. Next, work with your SEM firm and/or your Web analytics platform provider to identify best practices for linking search engine visitors to their eventual conversions, and those conversions to their eventual monetary results. Then champion the implementation of processes within your organization to put these best practices into place. As mentioned previously, if it isn’t already, SEM is going to eventually be held to an ROI standard in order to receive continued human and financial resources.
Natural SEO Outsourcing Study
The last of the three studies finds that 64% of search marketers who outsource their natural SEO campaigns encounter obstacles that prohibit them from implementing the recommendations of their SEM vendor. Reasons include lack of internal human resources and lack of outsourcing budget for implementing website changes. In addition 48% of marketers who outsource the management of their SEO report that they underestimated the amount of resources required to implement their vendor’s recommendations.
There are two larger behind-the-scenes factors contributing to these findings. The first is search engine marketing firms’ inability to forecast with scientific accuracy the resulting ROI on a recommendation-by-recommendation basis (thereby bringing into question the need to implement specific recommendations). The second is a lack of organizational commitment to SEM (that allows IT departments, for example, to veto the implementation of these recommended changes).
Action Item: First, prior to engaging with an SEM firm, ask them how many hours are typically required by their average client to implement the type of changes that they are going to be recommending you make. Then, when checking their client references, ask their clients how accurate these estimates were in their case. Finally, armed with this information as to what resources are going to be required, gain a written commitment on the part of the most senior management possible – who is responsible for the areas from which your organization’s human, or outsourcing, resources will come – to the implementation of the changes recommended by your SEM firm.
We realize that not all search marketers face the challenges that this recent research uncovered, but for those that do, hopefully some of this actionable advice will be helpful. Stay tuned for more useful search engine marketing research in coming months.
