Internalize your SEM. Such a rewarding choice?

For some time now, we have seen more and more companies insourcing their SEM for different reasons. Insourcing can have its upsides, but doing business with an agency definitely has its upsides  so we wanted to look into the matter and highlight the benefits of both options.

WHY WOULD A BUSINESS LEADER WANT TO INTERNALIZE THEIR SEM, AN IMPORTANT PART OF THEIR DIGITAL MARKETING?

BENEFITS OF INSOURCING

1. More dedicated time and less cost

For the entrepreneur, it is obviously often a question of money. And we understand it! Doing business with a media agency is a significant source of costs and, in order to save money, it seems logical to take over your search internally.

According to the agreement you have with your agency, the specialist assigned to your account has a number of hours dedicated to your account. The larger your investment, the more time the specialist will spend working on your account. For example, for a monthly budget of $15,000, your agency charges you X percentage in management fees, and the specialist assigned to your account spends X number of hours managing your campaigns – all while counting on transparency. with which we report to you the hours spent…

With such an investment, it is unlikely that you will have a specialist totally dedicated to your account. Having an in-house SEM specialist can therefore save you a lot of money and increase the time spent managing and optimizing your account.

2. More control 

Having an “In-house” specialist will allow you to have more control over your actions and allow greater flexibility. Communication with an agency can be costly if it is poorly organized or if the stakeholders are physically far away. Proximity can facilitate exchanges and allow better alignment between all your stakeholders. In addition, having an in-house specialist provides better control over the final rendering and allows for easier modifications. The treatment of emergencies is also more optimal knowing that physical proximity allows more adaptability.

3. More transparency

Unless you have access to your account, the monthly or quarterly reports you receive from an agency are often the only window into your investments. Is this report exhaustive, transparent? Is your agency hiding things from you?

By internalizing, it is indeed possible that you have faster access to certain data. That said, more and more agencies are offering direct access to real-time platforms and  dashboards  .

But beware, a specialist who has expert status internally could easily distort the results if he is not  challenged . Provide here the intervention of a consultant on an ad hoc basis. There are so many ways to achieve your goals in SEM that you have to validate certain actions taken, both by your agency and by an employee.

While these three reasons may lead a business owner to believe that insourcing is a great idea, it's important to look at both sides of the coin.

AGENCY BENEFITS

As we have seen, internalization has its positive sides. On the other hand, working with an agency can considerably increase the media performance of your company.

1. Always on the lookout for the latest trends

The fact of working in an agency on several accounts allows us, as specialists, to test new products and always be informed about new strategies. In addition, rubbing shoulders with other Search specialists on a daily basis allows us to discuss practice and develop our knowledge every day. The agency will also have greater knowledge of different verticals and the data available to validate certain hypotheses quickly. Suppliers will tend to dedicate more time to agencies, knowing that the portfolio is often fuller than that of a direct client, which means that most of the time, an agency will have privileged access to certain information and even certain products.

2. Multidisciplinary team at hand

Adviso is the perfect example of a multidisciplinary agency that can greatly optimize your performance on the web.

The SEM expert associated with your account often needs to analyze segments that are not necessarily within their purview. Take for example the performance of landing pages, the loading time of your pages, or even organic referencing. It is not the mandate of the SEM specialist to optimize these sections of your web marketing, but these different points can alter the performance of Search campaigns, in particular the  Quality Score .

The agency specialist has access to these UX, analytical, social or SEO experts and can easily offer you their complementary services.

Improving the different components of your web marketing can not only increase the performance of your Search campaigns, but increase your web performance from all sources of channels combined.

3. Complete dedication to SEM

The industry is constantly and rapidly changing. In this reality, it is likely that from one moment to another, your employee dedicated to SEM will be asked to create campaigns on Facebook, GDN, touch on SEO... Quickly, he will tend towards a role of generalist if we do not don't pay attention. Maintaining an excellent level of SEM skills requires almost complete dedication to this channel. With  the amount of new features, changes to interfaces and the like, a generalist will quickly be overwhelmed by events if his attention is divided on several fronts.

4. Access to advanced technologies

Agencies will always have greater purchasing power than an independent business and this offers several advantages. Take for example, platforms like Marin Software, Kenshoo, DBM or DCM. These technological platforms require minimum investments to have access to them and as an agency client, you can access these technologies without having to pay the minimum fees.

Agencies like Adviso also offer technological support that you might not have access to as a business. Adviso has a #datascience team of 4 people entirely dedicated to research and development, which allows all the agency's specialists to be more effective and efficient.

The technological advancements that this team develops are an important and not insignificant competitive advantage when the time comes to choose to internalize your Search.  

NOW THAT THE ADVANTAGES OF BOTH OPTIONS ARE CLEAR, IF YOU DECIDE TO GO AHEAD WITH INSOURCING, THE MOST DIFFICULT TASK IS YET TO COME: FINDING THE RIGHT SPECIALIST!

In the industry, many people present themselves as experts, but, to be honest with you, few people are as good as they think they are! Your specialist will have to have good qualities if you want to carry out your internalization successfully. Working on one account all week can be demotivating, so you'll need to find someone from:

• Curious
• Motivated
• Autonomous
• Self-taught
• Multidisciplinary
• Who knows your vertical

Paradoxically, these qualities are also faults! A good SEM specialist is a bit obsessive and controlling and, if you think about it, that's their job!

Good SEM specialists often have difficult personalities that HR or more rigid organizations struggle to deal with, often creating dissatisfaction on both sides. To succeed, the company will therefore have to learn to work with this type of personality, and offer competitive advantages such as telecommuting, a competitive salary, a development plan and the possibility of participating in external training activities, etc. ..

In short, the road to internalization can be long and perilous. If you choose this option,  the good news is that we can help you , as much for recruitment as for training and support.