Between now and December you can whet your appetite for our session by reading the session description from the SES Chicago agenda (also available below) or by reading our case study on the very same topic, bringing APUS’s PPC in-house.

Bringing PPC In-House
While a PPC campaign can be a more cost-effective operation if done in-house, the complexities of staffing and managing one can be a lot more challenging than it first appears. In this session, we’ll discuss how to get the right combination of people, tools and resources in place to empower the PPC function internally. Determining when it makes sense to in-source your PPC, developing an effective bid strategy, and selecting suitable ad tracking software are just some of the key factors to be discussed.

Moderator:
Paul Elliott, Partner – Search & Media / Analytics & Optimization, Rosetta

Speakers:
Nathan Linnell, Director of Analytics, Serengeti Communications
Hee So, Senior Internet Marketing Coordinator, American Public University System

How did you get into search marketing?

Back in 2000, I moved from a career in biotechnology / medical diagnostic marketing into Internet – at a small startup, WebSurveyor (I was person number 5!). My role was to “feed the beast” – meaning get leads for sales. Since I had very little budget, traditional means like direct mail and trade shows were right out. I stumbled upon (long before that was a trademark) an article about advertising through search engines on marcommwise.com. That day (with my own credit card in hand), I began my first campaign through GoTo, then added a CPM campaign with Google (back in the days before CPC). I was immediately addicted to checking registrations, analyzing return on investment, bid positioning, etc! I also got a new credit card that gave me travel points – since the success of the campaigns meant that I was increasing them daily. In the early days, I would turn keywords off that didn’t give a 200% return on investment… A lot has changed since then!

In that same gig, I was also responsible for managing the customer-facing website – and had found some interesting information at Search Engine Watch about how to program a site so that it would be found in natural search. I would toggle between articles and HomeSite, coding in every (valid) tip that I found. I was able to get and maintain positioning on very competitive keywords. Having a coding and marketing background made all the difference in successful SEO even back then. I stayed there for three years, as the company grew to about 40 people, became profitable.

Following WebSurveyor, I consulted on my own for about a year, then landed at Network Solutions in 2004, managing SEO, PPC and banner advertising. Early on, we used outsourcing and I managed agency relationships  for paid advertising and SEO. In early 2007, I transitioned all activities in-house, hiring two teams of professionals – one to manage paid advertising and one for natural search – a total of seven people.

The biggest challenge in transitioning was hiring the right people for the positions. I was really lucky to get a great group of people!

Also in 2007, our agency came into Network Solutions and presented about search engine optimization to the executives, then did a two-day training with key technical people. This was a turning point in the company, where there was broad acceptance of and interest in SEO and how it could build the business. From May of 2007 to when I left, we saw more than 100% increase in natural search traffic. That success was only possible because SEO became engrained in the organization’s DNA.

Back in February, I moved back to my real passion – an entrepreneurial environment – working at PRWeb.

I go by the online handle ebuzzmaster and have started a blog by that name.

What’s involved in doing in-house marketing at PRWeb?

PRWeb is the leading online news release service,  providing SEO optimized press releases to public relations and SEO agencies, as well as small business, non-profit and e-commerce vendors. The Marketing team I joined in February was brand new – and today, I am the only person working on online advertising, SEO and PPC. I get to review campaigns, report, manage bids and budgets every day.  On the SEO side, not only do I get to work on SEO to market our products, I get to help with SEO for our press release services! My next opportunities will include starting to work on social media efforts.

I have been able to define how we report on and measure success in PPC and in SEO – and have seen some nice growth in just the few months since I started.

How do you keep current with the industry? (tools, trends, etc)?

My favorite [geeky] combination for keeping up to date on current trends is my iPhone paired with Google Reader – it is the answer to waiting room (and DC traffic) boredom!  I’ve subscribed to a lot of different blogs and newsletters, so there is always something valuable to read. My favorites include Searchengineland.com, Searchenginewatch.com, TopRankBlog.com, Google Webmaster Blog and more. I scan through about 600 articles a week, reading through the ones that look particularly pertinent.

I also attend conferences when possible – SES NYC this March, and planning to attend SMX Advanced, SES San Jose, and possibly others this year. Since PRWeb exhibits, I often fill in at the booth, too, so I can catch up with other people as they are learning about PRWeb.
Networking – I keep up with networking contacts as much as time allows – answering as many questions as I can when asked so that I can ask questions of them when the need arises.

Participate / follow groups in Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook, and I’m looking forward to reading more information about in-house search marketing on this site.

What do you feel have been the biggest benefits of having the marketing  effort in-house?

There are several benefits to having marketing efforts in-house:

1. Ownership. People who work for the company have “skin in the game.” They know what they do every day has a direct impact on the success or failure of the company.
2. Speed. Since internal team members are far more engaged, they can work directly with internal stakeholders, make quicker changes and are empowered to make decisions without having to validate everything first.
3. Flexibility. Changing reporting, vendors, campaigns is much easier when you manage it internally.
4. Return on investment. This comes naturally from the previous two items – but the quicker you can respond and the more flexible you are, the better return you can get on the campaigns you run.

Do you have any agency horror stories?

I have a lot of horror stories working with outsourced development firms, site design companies and one SEO firm. However, to protect the not so innocent, I will not go into details. Suffice it to say, they didn’t get the importance of developing and designing with SEO in mind. One of my favorites was the series of five URL modifications over three months, none of which was actually right. Changing the values for query string parameters does not equal building clean URLs.

From my previous life in biotechnology – probably the biggest horror story was when an agency changed verbiage on a brochure we printed 10k copies of. Instead of “versus” they changed it to “verses” – and they changed “under-served” to “undeserved”… When talking about patients, music isn’t as much of an issue (verses) than saying they do not deserve treatment (undeserved). Devil is in the details!

Having done in-house marketing at a few companies, what are some of the lessons that you’ve learned, and what are some of the commonalities that you’ve seen within in-house teams?

1. Understand the big picture: It’s easy when managing the day-to-day tactics to lose focus on what you’re trying to accomplish. If it is lead generation, then set specific objectives, and be “brutal” in assuring that you reach them. Sometimes that means cutting off ad campaigns that seem like they should work, but do not.
2. Measure daily: Yes, it takes time, but keeping an eye on the numbers yourself (as either a director OR a “do-er” assures that you are not getting far off track before you correct your course.
3. Pay attention to analytics / users: Although it may not be your responsibility to manage user experience on the broader basis, understanding how the visitors YOU drive behave on a website gives you a leg up on recommending (or changing) website flows, registration forms, etc., etc., etc.
4. Use a second set of eyes: Since a small change can mean a campaign or optimizations working or not working,  set up a process by which an objective team member spot-checks major efforts.
5. Be a team – and be a team player: SEO and PPC can be a huge driver of revenue and success – and there will be other people in the organization that want to understand how it works. It is in the knowledge-sharing and inter- and intra-team efforts that you can really succeed long-term.

What’s been your biggest success?

Probably my biggest success was helping to architect the sea-change at Network Solutions to understand the value of search engine optimization, and to make it an integral part of the products, websites, and analyses processes.

What advice would you give to someone looking to start up their own in-house marketing effort?

• Get buy-in first. Get buy-in from as many groups as you can – ESPECIALLY web development, design, finance, purchasing and senior management. Getting buy-in usually requires a lot of education, which is very important with web development to understand how and why the SEO team is making what may seem like major changes to their website.
• Do not expect to save considerable amounts of money over the costs of working with an agency.
• Getting the right people is everything – and it can be expensive. However, don’t discount applicants who have had only a couple years’ hands on in SEO or PPC, especially if they have experience with marketing communications, web design, and/or web development. Look for people with a broad and accurate vocabulary: SEO and PPC rely on really knowing words!
• Make certain you have at least one person who you can trust who is really good with numbers. Analytics is the backbone of successful online marketing.
• Plan for administrative time. The biggest surprise for me was the amount of time that was taken up in running down insertion orders, working with budgeting, reviewing multiple invoices and working with the legal group.
• Stay up-to-date on business objectives and on changes in the industry.

1. You are steadily building internal capabilities in a number of areas (search, social media, PR). What’s behind that decision and what are your long term plans for balancing in-house with outsourced services?

We are expanding our in-house capabilities to align with continually increasing growth objectives. Five years ago when we first engaged Serengeti as a partner, we were a young, start-up company and were working toward establishing a successful marketing strategy. Since then, we have matured significantly as an organization and have invested in a deeper and broader team of in-house talent to oversee, manage and execute our growth initiatives. Even so, we maintain relationships with a team of partners who are experts in various aspects of marketing and who can infuse new perspectives and industry ideas as well as efficiently complement in-house skills and capacity. Looking to the future, I expect us to continue to deepen our in-house competencies while maintaining and expanding key partnerships that we view as critical to our success.

2. Describe your in-house PPC program, how it is organized, etc.

Our PPC program is essentially managed by one individual. As context, we run thousands of keyword campaigns on Google, Yahoo and MSN, and the PPC program generates a significant portion of our leads. In other words, the success of this program is critical to our growth objectives. On a quarterly basis, Serengeti provides a detailed audit for us, along with recommendations for optimizing leads and efficiencies.

3. Why did you take PPC in-house?

We wanted to focus Serengeti on new initiatives (social engagement/viral opportunities, analytics, etc.) and recognized that having in-house talent with an “institutional ear to the ground” would give us a greater ability to incorporate organizational news/positioning and leverage other marketing initiatives within this critical channel.

4. What were/are the biggest issues/challenges of taking PPC in-house; how did you overcome?

As previously mentioned, the PPC program is critical to us. Our biggest concern was that the effectiveness of the current program would be compromised during the transition process. Fortunately, our worst fear was not realized; in fact, the transition was extremely smooth.

5. What were/are the biggest benefits of taking PPC in-house?

For one, adjustments are able to be done more quickly, because we can make them directly and our team is exclusively dedicated to our brand. We also experienced some cost savings by doing this in-house, both directly and in opportunity cost. Finally, as mentioned before, the ability for dedicated, in-house personnel to directly leverage institutional knowledge helped us more quickly expand and deepen our PPC program.

6. How do you stay current with industry trends, etc.

Attending conferences/webinars; reading industry news (e.g.,tools.SEO.book.com, SEOpros.org). Look for tips on the search engines, and good SEM vendors will share trends and article/new application ideas with you on a regular basis.

7. Is ROI of PPC improving?

Yes, but that’s a tricky question since our PPC program is more mature now. We have exploited many of the high-yield efficiencies, but we are still uncovering incremental efficiencies all the time. Ultimately – and more importantly for us, we’re maintaining our ROI while generating a steady increase in leads by utilizing new PPC channels and expanding current aspects of the program.

8. What kind of training/skills updates do you use to keep your staff current?

We give our staff open communication channels with our partners to brainstorm and exchange ideas; we offer opportunities to attend local and national industry conferences and skills training seminars; and we give them access to cross-train with in-house staff in other areas of the organization.

9. What advice would you give to a company that is considering taking PPC (or any other marketing channel) in-house?

1. Weigh carefully the short-term and long-term benefits of your current setup versus making any change.
2. Obtain buy- in from management/partners and think carefully about your time horizon and other operational or market conditions that could or should impact your transition/timing.
3. If you decide to make a change, establish a thoughtful transition plan with your vendor and work together to establish success milestones and clear expectations and benchmarks for measuring results.