aimClear Search Marketing Blog

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In yesterday’s post, guest blogger and CEO of BlitzLocal.com, Dennis Yu, tackled some important concepts of the local ad firm- specifically the fact that it is sure to kick the bucket in 2010 if industry professionals don’t take proactive steps as soon as possible. Part two of this story will address changes the future has in store for local ad agency fiscal models and a closer look at the crucial dynamics of this evolution.

How will the financial model of local adapt over time?

Firms can take a 50% margin until the market gets smart. Consider the current VC-funded, growth-oriented approach of a pretend composite company… we’ll call it SuperLocal, Inc. Read the rest of this entry »

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By design, in-house and advertising agency clients can successfully take over day to day account basics after working with us to pilot, heal or massively improve missing, average or terribly broken PPC. Agencies & businesses just need reliable support (and intensive training) to fix existing accounts themselves. We’ve witnessed success in as little as 4 intensive weeks. That said, the full heat press is certainly not for wimps. Read the rest of this entry »

photo credit: Diego Cupolo

In these risky financial times, some marketing executives who purchase SEO, PPC and Social services are exploring alternative business models for engaging and incenting vendors. One attractive option for mitigating financial risk and maximizing return, has always been pay-per-performance. So how does performance pricing fit in today’s brave new world of online marketing vendor services?

This SES San Jose panel, Performance Pricing Models: What Every CMO Must Know!” evaluated successful SEM campaign case studies contracted by this pricing model. Speakers also offered a thorough overview of the concept, applicability to various channels, key benefits, caveats and crucial success factors. Read the rest of this entry »

aimClear is approached by traditional advertising agencies, often with rich history and too-often in stagnation or slight decline, seeking advice for growing online reputation as experts. Whether marketing regionally or nationally, it’s seriously powerful stuff to be perceived as an expert. Read the rest of this entry »

Like most SEM shops, our business is an amalgamation of flat rate products and hourly work. It’s generally been our focus to procure longer contracts, usually 6 month to 1-year agreements.

We thought it prudent to evolve our model in preemptive reaction to these brutal economic times.  Little did we know the unexpected gems of perspective we discovered. Read the rest of this entry »

Moderator Greg Jarboe (President & Co-founder, SEO-PR) opened the session by asking the audience “Who on our panel is the Lion, the Tiger or the Bear…oh my?”  All Wizard of Oz references aside, there appears to be no clearly defined Yellow brick road to success in these tight economic times. Read the rest of this entry »

In our search marketing agency, the toughest standard operating procedure protocol we’ve defined and implemented is the “Goals & Scope Document” we attach to each client’s contract.We’ve found it critical to empower each aimClear employee to self-determine, within reason, if an incoming job request is included in a given client’s scope, will be done as a favor, or needs a new job ticket. We’ve fostered an environment where our people seek executive collaboration to make these calls only when necessary. Without defining such procedures, owning a search marketing agency can be a an unpaid scope creep money pit. Read the rest of this entry »

Most small SEMs give their clients’ credit card and billing information to search engines which can actually cause palpable accounting hurdles as an agency scales. This common practice also raises interesting questions as to who “owns” the account when a client leaves someday.

Though seldom discussed, failing to engage clients in preemptive dialog has the potential to cause accounting, intellectual property ownership, and even legal nightmares. If not proactively addressed and contractually codified, the account-ownership issue can come back to bite you. Read the rest of this entry »

We’ve received gratifying feedback in public and private to recent articles discussing the associated challenges of scaling search marketing from solo practice to agency. No doubt each day in our wonderful office presents fascinating, if not daunting, crossroads which have the potential to make or break the business. We’re having so much fun.

We’ve made some mistakes and done other things pretty well right. The fact that Rand Fishkin has been willing to unselfishly share what he’s learned about SEM agency structures certainly helped us shape our business model. Andy Beal has offered extremely practical information. In retrospect, Danny Sullivan & Chris Sherman’s SEM business track @ Search Engine Strategies 2006 mattered a lot.

Technology investments, hiring decisions, analytics philosophy, PPC management, accounting, training, marketing, transparency, social media strategies, networking, community relations, and many other issues require attention, vision and a cast-iron stomach. Read the rest of this entry »

There are two common reasons for a practicing SEM to get OUT of search immediately:  1) You’re a semi-effective Web 1.0 “provider” who is not studying, and have no stomach left for screaming corners where one of the the only givens is unpredictability. Stay in search and you’ll hurt your company or clients. 2) It’s time to cash out of your agency or business while search is relatively easy to understand. Read the rest of this entry »