Most companies that contact us are in a hurry for pricing. The first thing they want to know is: How much is SEO or PPC going to cost?
Even though it annoys some of our prospects, we never quote firm pricing until we’ve done research.
Why? Because we’ve learned from experience it’s better to make you wait for a methodically researched proposal than enrage you later with an SEO or PPC campaign that accomplishes nothing and wastes your money — which is exactly what tends to happen when clients buy into canned campaigns with set pricing.
While it’s nice to lock down the number right away, it’s not possible to do this with Internet marketing — way too many variables. A $3,000 campaign might fit your budget just fine, but to accomplish results, to move the dial and produce serious ROI, you may need to spend $30,000. Then again, there are situations where you can move the dial by spending only $2,000.
Research Paves the Way for ROI
This is why we have to do research before discussing price. We need to determine …
- How much work needs to be done to move the dial? How many tasks? How many setup tasks? How many recurring tasks?
- What kind of work needs to be done — simple stuff that can be knocked out in a few hours a week? Or complicated stuff that will take many hours a week?
The answers to these questions determine the cost of an SEO or PPC campaign. And, no two client situations are exactly alike. Here are some of the crucial variables that make your marketing needs unique, and why it’s worth the wait for campaign pricing.
- Competitiveness. Are you in a very competitive niche with lots of well-funded competitors, a noncompetitive niche where you can run the table, or somewhere in between?
- Keyword targets. To generate enough sales leads to move the dial, do you need to target 100 keywords, 1,000 keywords, 10,000 keywords or 100,000 keywords?
- Conversion value. How much is a sales lead worth to your business? A company for which a lead represents $500,000 revenue needs far fewer conversions than one for which a lead represents $500.
- Campaign readiness. If your website content and structure are nowhere near SEO-ready, many hours of setup work may be necessary, including complicated development work, overhauled navigation and scores of new site pages. PPC can bypass many of these setup issues, but not all.
Canned campaigns with out-of-the box pricing options are great hooks. But here, we don’t think of you as a fish. Instead, we see you as an investor, looking to invest in marketing to generate sales leads or online revenue that produces a better than average return.
We hope you call us now to discuss your online marketing objectives. We’re eager to learn more and see if we can help you. Really help you.