So I’ve gone on the record before about why I think paid search is over rated, granted I don’t mean to say a solid SEO or SEM strategy is not important to your business it is. I feel that search alone gets too much credit. If you look at search marketing as your primary or even worse your only proven tactic to drive business online you are screwed.
For that same reason having a “search only” firm (specially paid search) is not a great idea. I pose only one question would a search agency ever recommend you spend less money on search? Today’s most sophisticated and most successful online marketers track and optimize not in silos but across all tactics such as paid and natural search, networks, affiliates verticals, portals, viral & social media to strike the right balance of demand harvesting and demand creation to truly drive your business.
Search agencies need to evolve from a single point solution or they will die.
Comments (1)
Hello Gaston, I feel that you are right in that other venues get less credit for leads and sales. However, I feel that should not mean the importance of Search is to be down played. Maybe "networks, affiliate verticals, portals, viral or social media" get the initial conscious or subconscious attention of the user, but if your Search AD does not appear when the user is ready to buy and makes the search query about that (banner/video/billboard etc) ad product he/she saw in another venue, all that other advertising may go to waste (other than branding purposes) and it will be your competitor that gets the sale, by making sure their Search AD appears when the user queries the product, reaping the fruits of your other marketing efforts.
It's true that an effective marketing strategy should not just involved Search. All other venues are as important and it should be seen as a collaborative group effort.
Posted by J | July 30, 2007 5:44 PM
Posted on July 30, 2007 17:44