To Outsource, or Not to Outsource …

Indeed, that is the question

While the topic of search marketing has become much more mainstream and almost every day there is more evidence of the importance of including search in an overall marketing strategy, the practice itself isn’t new. There are companies that have been working in this arena for almost ten years.

Here’s just a sample of why it makes sense to outsource your projects.

Speed
When you outsource projects, there’s no time lost to building a team. You haven’t got a learning curve or a training cycle. Effective search marketing requires an investment of time regardless. Instead of pushing off projects for six months or more while you hire, partner. An established firm is ready to go. They know the questions to ask, they know how to do the research, and they know how to get results.

Resources
Experience has proven that to be really effective at search marketing, sometimes special tools are required. A lot of SEM firms have developed proprietary software that makes the campaigns more effective. In almost every case these are private solutions and if you want something similar, you’ll have to invest time, resources, and capital in developing this.

Experience
Beyond just the experience of proprietary tools, SEM firms have been watching and working with engines for a while. They are already aware of tactics that became obsolete years ago (some that have even become punishable). In an industry that moves as fast as search marketing, your new team might not be able to find information about these strategies since no one talks about them anymore.

Collective Intelligence
This really goes hand in hand with the experience of a firm. Keep in mind, when you hire a firm to handle accounts, while you might only talk to one account exec., that AE is backed by an entire team. There are years of experience gained by working with and optimizing for virtually any kind of site, with almost any technology in any industry. If you build a team for in-house, you may see a learning curve on every project for the next couple of years.

Budget
This may really be the best reason of all. If you partner with an outside provider, your clients pay the tab. You haven’t got employees and all the costs associated with them. You hire out the job, you only pay for the job. Sick time, vacation, insurance, the list goes on – none of that is your problem. Further, a good SEM firm is going to be actively learning. They are involved in conferences, seminars, lectures, etc., etc. Your team would need to do the same. Apart from footing the bill, that’s more time lost.