£5M! Wouldn’t that be nice!

Allocating £5M to Internet search is a luxury most of us can only dream about. Sky however, have obviously recognised just how important search is to their business hence allocating such a considerable amount of money. This significant budget allocation does reflect what is happening in the market as a whole; although most organisations don’t have £5M to allocate, they are specifically budgeting for Internet search. This includes Paid Search spend, Natural Search expertise and campaign management.

Search Strategy

However, and in my very humble opinion, Sky may have got it wrong. It would seem they have been driven down the route of looking at Internet Search from the technology and search engine perspective. I say this as they have appointed two separate agencies; one to manage their Paid Search (PPC) and the other to manager their Natural Search (SEO), which to many of you may seem the standard way of doing things…as this is the way the market has evolved.

Consumer opinion

As stated in the previous article, Internet Search is the medium most people use today in order to find things; your future customers will use it to find your business. Therefore, it makes sense to place the customer at the heart of your search strategy and start to understand, and maybe influence their behaviour. Ultimately, they don’t give two hoots about Paid or Natural Search – they may not even know the difference. They want to see relevant results associated to the search term they entered into the search engine, and then they will click on the result which they perceive as the best match.

So, in order to achieve the best results from search and attract your target audience in the most efficient manner, doesn’t it make sense to have an holistic approach and have your Internet Search strategy managed by a single agency? I will let you answer that one.

Getting the most out of your budget

Personally, I would tie a single search agency into the same business objectives as my own; link them to targeted results; integrate them into the Marketing Team and expect a proactive service.

With £5M allocated and such a strong Brand, I am sure Sky will see great results. The question is, could they achieve the same results (if not better) in a more cost effective manner?