PPC is just like any form of marketing, it’s not that easy to get right. And PPC is NOT like many other forms of marketing in that it is direct response marketing. It can be tough if you’re used to creating beautiful brochures.

Search marketing is a boon to small businesses because, if done well, it gets your message in front of people when they are looking for what you sell. It’s the “if done well” aspect that’s the tough part.

I’m not surprised by any of what you’re saying in this article, Jordan. In an industry where the ‘Godfather of Search’ has been in the game for less than 20 years there are going to be a lot of people and companies who make a lot of mistakes. New industries are rife with incompetence, lack of education or experience, and just plain a lot of people still figuring it out.

I think this is just a reality check for all of us. We need to remember that we still have a long way to go as far as transparency, communication, and building value for our clients.

There’s also something to be said for waiting for the industry to mature. We’re under a little bit more of a microscope in many ways because we’re so new to so many people. They’re paying closer attention and when they see something they don’t understand or that doesn’t look right, they’re going to be more likely to fly off the handle.

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I am very surprised by the dissastisfaction voiced by in-house teams in this survey. The shift to in-house search has been well underway for some time and some of the comments on this post highlight the reasons for that (the ability to push the things that need to happen internally to make search work, making sure that search is part of the whole and isn’t a “set it and forget it” thing, substantial time and attention to the program — which is increasingly antithetical to the business model of agencies, etc.)

I realize a lot of online marketers try to sell lesser packages to bring on clients and hopefully sell them an upgraded package later, but more often than not the customer gets miffed at what they see as substandard results when in fact they got what they paid for by trying to keep costs down. That’s no foundation by which to upsell someone.

In order to deliver results, SEM campaigns need to be all or nothing, not a part of the whole because it wasn’t in the budget.

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I think more folks should be doing their Internet marketing in house anyway to at least some degree. Especially with social media and SEO becoming more and more intertwined. While agencies can provide levels of expertise for search they cannot replace / recreate / become the voice of a company.

As always there are zealots on both sides of this fence that will always think the other is evil. We probably all need to just get over ourselves and concentrate on doing good business.

My 2 cents

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Or how much is related to clients not understanding the benefit/cost/process/etc?

There has got to be a disconnect here somewhere.

There’s way too much “Hey there’s a word… let’s buy it!” This stuff is not easy folks!

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