Google Marketing, what should your search strategy and plans include?

I always struggle to explain what I do to people that aren’t in marketing or IT. I usually get the “Search Marketing? What on earth is that? Do you search for marketers?”

I think the most concise response is that we help companies market their products or services in Google. I suppose Google Marketing is probably more accurate in the UK due to the search engines’ vast market share. We help client’s with their Google search marketing plans.

Most people get that fairly quickly with the odd few saying “oh the ads on the right?” Well no, we help our clients in both areas with some pretty amazing return on investment.

There are two main places to market your products and services within Google, The paid listings (top and right) are referred to as PPC because you Pay Per Click. The results on the left are natural listings often referred to organic listings.

This post covers a few basic pros and cons of each area of Google Marketing which may help you make up your mind which you should place more emphasis on.

SEO – the longer term big opportunity

Google admits that 80% of all clicks come from the organic listings, this is very relevant to the smart marketer because 80% of all search expenditure is on PPC! Any Google marketing strategy should have a key focus on the long term benefits of SEO.

Pros:

1. More click volume
2. More trust – Visitors trust the Google organic listings and that trust gets transferred to your site
3. Higher Conversion Rate than PPC – More trust = more sales
4. It gets stronger over time so the effect is cumulative and traffic generation an upward curve
5. Cost per visit is typically a tenth of the paid cost (cost per visit calculated as cost of overall SEO campaign/ number of non brand visits)
6. Highly measurable
7. Creates a barrier to entry for future competitors

Cons:

1. It’s not immediate – it’s a journey with a good agency
2. Opportunity cost of choosing the wrong agency is high as you lose time and never get that back
3. No Guarantees

Paid search – For immediate gains

Pros:

1. You have complete control and any strategy changes are instant
2. Highly measurable
3. Guaranteed

Cons:

1. More expensive per click
2. Lower conversion rates
3. Highly competitive
4. No Barrier to entry created

So which is better? Well the answer is both, Google marketing delivers fantastic return on investment whichever method you use. The combination of both methods unlocks fantastic ROI.

The key is to choose a great SEO agency, measure both monthly and shift budget appropriately every quarter, in that way you’ll get the best out of your Google marketing budget.

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