Search Engine Marketing - Google Ad Revenue

Google is poised to outstrip the quarterly revenues of the UK's leading commercial TV channel, ITV1. The search giant recorded a total of $661m (£320m) in revenues from the UK between July and September.

See the full story on the Guardian

They own over 80% of the UK search market, the vast majority of journeys online start with search, search is also been proven to be essential to the job hunting process, it is also normally the most cost effective media (i say normally as you have to manage it).

So why why why are clients still not investing enough cash in search, why are the search propositions of most agencies lean and why do people still waste money doing new things when they are still not doing the basics?

New is fun but search actually works

Comments

[Sinead]

I totally agree, search is a digital strand that should underpin all recruitment solutions, it's one of the fundamentals. The CPC model run in tandem with some of the newer contextual Google products has the potential to be incredibly powerful and effective at achieving cut-through to target audiences.

[Alex]

"New is fun but search actually works" - would it be wrong of me to suggest that without changing the traditional agency / client charging model then "New" is a significant potential revenue stream (as people buy the dream as much / instead of the reality) where as search isn't.

Selling anything new / out of the traditional comfort zone to clients can take a significant amount of time and effort - so where the traditional charging structure exists and means revenue gains are likely to be minimal for this effort then there would likely be few agencies truly willing to give what is really best advice.

Discuss.

[Matt]

As Google makes more money so do the specialists and other agencies (of which there are more than people might think)who have embraced the new model. There isn't time for a debate here...it's change or die and right now.

I hope it was a rhetorical question Alex cause dinosaur debates like this aren't even worth having in my opinion! ;-)

[John Whitehurst]

actually i agree with alex on why the agencies have not taken to search ...

but the answer is simple - charge on a day rate or a management fee

i am still shocked that agencies live on rebates - it is a dead model that people are trying to hold on to ...

[John Whitehurst]

also ... you can make just as much out of search as you can with everything else you do

plus it works ...

[Matt]

It's a fairly simple choice

a) Debate, bemoan, navel gaze, complain about Google not following the old model and lose all your business whilst you were being introspective

or

b)Embrace the new model, win new business, invest time educating clients and make money while delivering great results

[john Whitehurst]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2007/nov/01/news.google

not sure what else needs to be said

[Dom Sumners]

It does show how things have moved on - 2-3 years ago this stuff would have provoked the sort of heated debate and diametrically opposed views seen on here (about other topics) recently. Now we argue over the validity of Virtual Recruitment Fairs, are Social Networks going to take over the world and the pros and cons of various tools of response measurement. and that has to be a good thing.

[John Whitehurst]

very true Dom ... but saying that - we might not debate the validity

but most clients are not getting a good search strategy or delivery from their agencies

i think that is the sad thing - the most important medium at this moment in time

and the majority of agencies and clients are not making the most out of it ... in fact agencies are trying to hold their clients back to keep their media rebates

[Paul Harrison, Carve Consulting]

Good point Dom - the fact that all debating & doing this stuff does show how this industry is really leading the way in the commercial adoption of 2.0.

John you're spot on re the poor quality of service many companies are getting. As we all know, generating huge increases in traffic is easy; the crucial thing is having suitable KPIs in place to measure ROI. As with you guys, we work with a number of direct organisations and consultancies, and it's amazing how many poorly constructed search /PPC campaigns are out there, with no qualitative measurement or apparent strategy other than to "drive traffic."

As per Linkedin debate around the same subject (http://www.linkedin.com/answers/hiring-human-resources/staffing-recruiting/HRH_SFF/119930-7167948?browseIdx=1&sik=1193929269348&goback=%2Eama) agencies should not think of search / PPC recruitment as limited to certain sectors either (IT etc): we've enjoyed demonstrable effectiveness for a huge range of clients / roles, from global targeting of town planners for the ODA to Yard Assistants for Wolseley’s Build Center. Employers should definitely think creatively - or get their agencies to think creatively - when generating keywords. Awards (Whitbread is currently marketed under "Best Companies to work for" following their Times Top 20 accreditation), competitor organisations, and locales (targeted through geo search functions) are examples of keyword areas that can be considered. But try getting an agency obsessed with rebates, kick-backs and the upcoming Christmas Media piss-ups exctied about the sourcing long tail....

[Matt Burney]

Very true Paul, the agency model is still languishing under the pretence that things won't change.

There are more and more SEM savvy people joining companies and trying, in whatever small way, to start using SEM effectively to recruit specific roles (it's certainly something I've discussed with several employers in the last 12 months). I've also spoken with a number of non traditional agencies who are working on SEO / SEM projects for fairly large employers based on the experience they have gained working with job boards (it's not going to take a rocket scientist to work out who I'm talking about there then!).
When you look at some of the tools created by data analysts at a lot of SEM agencies for creating huge numbers of search terms, forecasting budgets and returns and really giving the client a clear picture of ROI whilst working on a a decent managed fee you have to wonder how long before every agency has to have a rethink about a lot of client strategy and what it is they deliver.