SEO & SEM – Finding a Balance

The Pasch Consulting Group believes in the strong ROI of organic search marketing and the great “annuity” it offers for direct sales leads and visitor traffic. I’ve been an advocate for Internet marketing microsites and SEO for many years but many business owners are still in the dark about SEO.

A professionally managed SEO campaign has great long term benefits and tremendous ROI but the adoption of SEO as part of a standard marketing plan is slow.  The Pasch Consulting Group offers business owners online resources, case studies and a free consultation to communicate the benefits of Search Engine Optimization (SEO).  The companies that want to compete on the Internet will be well rewarded for making the call.

Finding Balance

However, effective Internet lead generation and sales strategies are not just about SEO.  Google Adwords is an important marketing tool when used properly. Businesses should not avoid Adwords because of a perception that Google Adwords is expensive or that it has a lower ROI than SEO.

If you sell a service or a product that has a good margin, Google Adwords can turn out to be one of your most affordable advertising options. Like many things in life, it is how the tool is used that makes it good or bad.

Consumer behavior dictates much of why PPC needs to be a part of a marketing budget.   For this example, let’s see what a consumer may type into Google when looking for a Volvo S40 in New Jersey.

Car Shopping Example

When you look at data from Google searches, consumers are typing in search phrases WITHOUT a geo-locator.  (state, county or town).  They are typing in very short phrases like:

• “Volvo”
• “Volvo S40″
• “Volvo S40 Prices”
• “Volvo S40 Reviews”

Since these are national phrases, the third party lead collection sites like www.edmunds.com, Yahoo Autos and www.motortrend.com  come up on Google page one.  These third party lead collectors are optimized for every year make and model, unlike most car dealer websites.  They also have tremendous traffic which further supports their rankings.

Every day these third party lead collectors capture local Volvo leads and sell them to Volvo dealers.  The only practical short term way to get in front of consumers for broad phrases, without any geo-targets, is PPC.  So, you can decide to buy leads or you can attempt to capture the local leads yourself.

It would take a significant investment in time and money to show on organically on Google page one for the search phrase “Volvo S40″.  There are no local Volvo dealers shown in the first two pages (20 listings) of Google for that phrase.  You will see all the major lead collector sites on those first two pages.

There are exceptions.  Pasch Consulting Group was able to get national Google Page One ranking for “Infiniti G37 Convertible”  and “Infiniti G37″ searches, but it would be very hard to get on Google page one for “Infiniti G35″ or “Infiniti dealer”.

Google Adwords has a geo-based “advertising radius” control.   If you decide to buy broad words, you can limit the radius to a practical driving area for potential buyers.  If I only want to target Somerset County residents, because my Volvo dealership is in that county, I can advertise to local car shoppers typing in the phrase “Volvo S40″ or “2009 S40 Prices”.   

Not A One Size Fits All Solution

This is not to say that PPC works for all businesses and marketing strategies.  Business owners have to evaluate the costs and ROI for all lead sources; SEO and SEM. They need to compare the conversion rates for “broad search” leads versus long-tail searches like “Somerset County Volvo dealer”.   If both methods are profitable and sell cars, both should be continued. 

The effectiveness of Google Adwords is often related to the amount of margin in a sale or purchase.  Companies that are selling low margin goods may not be able to afford Google Adwords.  Companies that have high margin services can find great value in Adwords spending.  The key is to have the campaign setup properly.

Business owners need both SEO and SEM to effectively compete on the Internet to catch the eye of local car shoppers.  The Pasch Consulting Group has effective strategies to help car companies implement competitive SEO campaigns as well as structure effective Google Adwords campaigns.