Should you outsource SEA to an agency or do it yourself?

The more you know as a company, the more you can grow. But how do you know when it’s time to outsource your marketing efforts or put together an internal team for this? This is a question that many companies ask themselves at one point or another. Digital marketing is extremely important nowadays and no longer something you do a little on the side. So the question arises should you outsource your SEA or do it yourself? That’s what we’ll find out in this blog.

SEA stands for ‘Search Engine Advertisement’ and is immediately visible at the top of the search results. Therefore, search engine ads provide instant results in terms of website traffic. With SEO, this can take a while. Getting a high ranking in Google’s organic search results pages (SEO) can take several months, while search engine advertisements (SEA) therefore offer immediate results.

SEA delivers instant results, but the result only exists as long as you pay for the ads. In the case of SEO, website traffic is generated organically. This means that traffic from search engine queries is free and does not require a fee per click like search engine advertising does. However, developing organic visibility takes time and effort (money). Most likely, you will need to outsource the SEO work to a specialist who can help you rank higher and improve your organic online presence. In many cases, SEO and SEA work best when integrated together and strategically aligned to cover both short and long term goals.

Two important questions in marketing strategy

There are two main questions that come to mind when looking at your marketing strategy: first, how aggressive are your marketing goals, and second, if they are quite aggressive, are there enough internal marketing resources to support that level of growth?

There is no right or wrong answer when it comes to outsourcing marketing efforts. It all depends on the needs of the company and the goals it wants to achieve. Many modern startups also start with hard work on growth hacking (this is a part of marketing, purely aimed at rapid growth), which is not uncommon and can yield amazing results.

But sometimes, when the company is pursuing aggressive goals, the internal team may not be capable enough or the right internal talent may not be available. The thing is, if you’re a B2B company struggling to meet your goals or simply falling behind on your marketing efforts, it’s probably best to outsource your marketing.

Several signs that should move you to outsource the marketing

You play roulette with your budget, no matter how small or big: if you spend money on arbitrary marketing tactics without a long-term goal or real marketing stats to track, then it’s time to find an expert who specializes in marketing and understands what it means to align sales and marketing.

The content is out of date: There are a number of scenarios where this can happen: the old content (possibly 5-10 years old) is still getting some online traffic but has never been optimized for ‘today’ or the content is barely getting any traffic because it is not compliant to the current searches of the target audience.

Provide good texts

There are no professional writers or copywriters among your staff: the website says one thing, while the newsletter says something else. And don’t even get us started on social media. Sure, you’ll need to tailor your message to each platform, but if your brand message isn’t aligned (and no one can really say what your brand is or what it stands for), you may need to look for a professional writer. Find someone skilled enough to create SEO-optimized content and also align with the marketing strategy.

Your company’s growth is slow and not just seasonal: almost all businesses experience seasonal ups and downs, but if your business is experiencing setbacks, it’s time to outsource the expertise you so desperately need.

There’s rapid growth and you don’t know what to do next: It’s not uncommon for B2B companies to see huge demand, and you may not have expected it so quickly or at all. To steer the business in the right direction and reinvest all that cash flow into channels that will work, you need someone with expert level marketing experience.