September 28, 2004
Search Engine Marketing: Brains, Brawn or Finesse? - Pay Per Click Analyst |PPCA|
What does it take to run an effective Search Engine Optimization campaign? This article says you need Brains, Brawn and Finesse.
"The best results come from a combination of an agency's, consultant's or individual's search knowledge and their utilization of the right management tools. What type of knowledge and experience does it take in order to design and maintain a successful SE campaign? They must know the marketplace. By this I mean he/she has to be aware of all of the available search media and their nuances. You can buy search on MSN alone four different ways. Each will have its advantages and disadvantages. Not everyone has the experience to make these types of media placement decisions in an ongoing, ever-changing marketplace. In addition, an effective SEM team will also help determine and set an appropriate CPO/CPA or other success metric for their product or service as well as provide assistance in keyword expansion and listing and landing page creative. These are the types of decisions that only a professional can make and the quality of these decisions will be based on that professional's knowledge and experience.
But knowledge alone is not enough. An effective online campaign must be managed using the right tools to implement and maintain the most efficient campaign. What are the functions that a tool should deliver? The most important function is that of control. When you consider a search campaign that contains thousands of search terms, running across many engines, it's almost impossible to control without some sort of consolidated reporting system. An individual, department or agency can't be burdened by having to look at separate reports from Overture, Google, Findwhat, Looksmart, and other engines to determine how their campaign is going. The tool's reporting features should be both detailed and flexible--with an emphasis on the unique needs of a search marketing campaign. Some agencies prefer a tool with features like agency reporting, which combines reports for multiple clients into one, easy-to-read report which gives the agency the ability to quickly and easily assess how all their clients are doing in the space. That function alone can help identify opportunities with a very broad view that may be easily missed in an individual client reporting system."
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Posted by Darren at September 28, 2004 12:08 PM