Hundred Dollar SEO

I want to offer some guidelines for choosing who runs your search marketing campaigns. When you reach the point that you are expanding your web venture you have to tackle an important question – should you hire someone in-house or hire an agency?

The main advantage of the in-house option is control. You know exactly who you are working with, you know how much time they have, the worker is directly accountable to you, and you can directly set the priority of every task. Additionally you can capitalize on other skill sets that the employee possesses and you can give them a very intensive education about your business vertical.

The agency option offer you more people working for you, this means that if your campaign manager leaves someone is still working on your accounts. Agencies often provide a higher level of competence for your money because they have multiple clients contributing to salary of their employees. They can afford to hire experienced people and subject matter experts. But this also means that you are not the only person in the agency’s time line and priority list. Quick large-scale changes may not always be possible.

Depending on where you live an experienced (not entry level, but also not management level) search marketer is going to expect a salary between 45 and 65 thousand dollars per year for full-time employment. Most pay-per-click companies charge roughly 15% of advertising spend or charge billable hours, most search optimization companies charge several thousand dollars up front and a few hundred to a few thousand per month in maintenance fees.

Your most important concern is the size of your campaigns, followed by total budget. If you are spending more than $30k per month on pay-per-click advertising you are probably spending upward of $50k per year on management. This is within the range that you can afford to higher an in-house manager who has experience. There is a caveat, if you are running a very large campaign, 10- 25 thousand keywords plus, it may be more work than one employee can do in a 40 hour week. If you are hiring an in-house SEO the decision is a bit simpler. If you are large enough to have a full time web developer you should be outsourcing. It is less expensive to hire a subject matter expert 10 hours per month than to pay an experienced full-time employee.

When it comes to search marketing you get what you pay for, the cheapest option is usually not going to fulfill your needs.

In-house Search Marketing

An in-house search marketer is a good option for companies running high spend campaigns, small to medium size companies who have more to gain from a person well versed in their industry than from a more experienced marketer, or large companies that run multiple brands on the web.

Agency Search Marketing

An agency is a good option for a companies with smaller advertising budgets, very large campaigns, or a single web property that does not support the need for a full-time employee.

Resources

Check salaries in your area at PayScale or Salary.com.

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