1. Rapid growth has made search far more complex and challenging.
The SE model has changed…forever. There was a time, not too long ago, when anybody could open an account, bid on a few keywords, and presto, you have a search marketing campaign. Those days are long gone. Search has become far too complex and competitive. What was once known as "pay per click" has evolved into a powerful medium that includes behavioral targeting, specialized vertical search, and local, mobile, and video search. Even the latest social marketing craze is working its way into search campaign conversations. The major SEs are now only offering what they call an opaque marketplace, which means you no longer simply bid a penny more than your competitor to gain a preferred position in the paid search listings. The opaque market takes into account bid price, yes, but also factors in things like click-thru-rate history and other elements that each SE keeps secret as their own private algorithm. Thus, without in-depth strategies developed over time (which top search marketing firms have created), marketers left to their own devices have become slaves to these algorithms, which can be huge roadblocks to achieving the cost efficiency and better ROI Search offers.

2. A unique mix of talent and skills are required.
Managing a search marketing campaign requires a very unique mix of talents. Again, in the old days of search, the US$ 100 million-plus marketer would hand off the search component of their media mix to a couple of fresh-out-of-college web guys up on the 12th floor. With all due respect to these guys, it is virtually impossible to find one or two people who have all the skills necessary to manage (or—more specifically—create, execute, and analyze) a successful search marketing campaign. How many web geeks (and I use that word fondly as I employ many) do you know who are adept at copywriting, building online brands, media, managing bids, analyzing marketing data, etc. in addition to designing compelling landing pages, e-coupons, etc.? A search marketing firm I am very familiar with is composed of this unique mix of talent I describe above. However, that winning mix consists of seven talented people. This diverse group is much better prepared to manage a successful campaign than an in-house department can. Many times the outsourcing fees paid are far less costly than the cost of running an in-house department. Senior marketing executives who first attempted to build a search marketing team in-house have complained that it is increasing more difficult to find and keep the talent they need. Should one be fortunate to be able assemble this diverse group of talented individuals, it will take him or her a minimum of nine to 12 months to recruit, train and develop a winning search team. Even then, he/she is faced with turnover. Creative types do not stay in the same job very long. By outsourcing, you rid yourself of all the above "issues," which is really a polite term for "aggravations." Again, it is far better to outsource to a talented group who does nothing but search everyday.

3. SEO alone will not get you there.
I cringe when I hear a senior marketing exec say that they are OK with focusing strictly on SEO (search-engine optimization). Somehow SEO has been given the completely false descriptive of being "free"…which it clearly is not. As CEO of a top search marketing firm, I constantly stress the benefit of SEO, but not as a standalone solution. As far as being free, the only way to get a real strong position in organic listings is to have a "good" SEO expert constantly update your site pages to stay in step with the algorithm rollercoaster the SEs are constantly changing. That day-by-day, week-by-week service is not free.

To properly explain the good/bad differences between SEO and paid search, I use a print media analogy. Organic search (created by proper SEO practices) is analogous to the editorial part of a newspaper. Yes, it is good promotion that the paper does not charge you for. However, its position on the page is not guaranteed, nor does that position remain the same day to day or week to week. Second, you don't write that editorial, the newspaper does. Since organic listings are culled by the SE's crawlers looking to find relevant content, what shows up in the search result is lifted from a specific page on your website. Sometimes it is relevant content for the searcher—many times it is not. If you are a marketer looking to sell your products and/or services, organic search is not a complete solution. Here is a popular example why not:

I am searching for your given product. I click on your organic listing. I find the product I want, but unfortunately, since that product information was crawled by the SE's crawler four months ago, you no longer have that product in stock. As the consumer I am left with two impressions. One, I was unable to find what I wanted, and two, I am not in any way impressed with your company, since I just spent 20 minutes on your site learning about a product that you no longer stock. Lesson? Organic search is not the answer for selling products and services; rather, what organic search is very good for is building an online brand. Get your name in front of as many eyeballs as you can in your given vertical or industry. Don't try to sell products that you were promoting months ago that may be out of season or out of stock.

To carry the newspaper analogy further, paid search is like the actual advertisement in the newspaper. You write it, you decide when and where to run it, you can change it on a whim, and you decide how long to run it and what you are willing to pay for it. Thus, a paid search listing is how you sell your products and services. Paid search, however, is not merely PPC on Google or Yahoo…it is composed of PPC, content match, contextual advertising, pay-per-call, geo-targeted search, etc. Again, search marketing has come a long way. It is not so easy, and is far more competitive than it used to be.

4. A third-party agency can more easily see through the corporate trees.
This disputes the in-house misconception that you have search handled.)

The last compelling reason you need to outsource your Search Marketing effort to a professional group is the fact that many top executives believe that in-house departments are doing it "right," when reality is that their group may be doing one or two good things, but are still missing huge opportunities in the search marketplace. I have sat in meetings with very large US advertisers, many of which have annual ad budgets exceeded US$ 300 million, and they look at me and say they feel they are doing a fairly "good" job with search marketing in-house.

What is funny (or not) about this opinion is the fact that a given company's search effort can be recognized fairly easily by someone, like me or my associates, who has been in the business for some time. What is your group of top-selling products? Do you show up where you should on Google, Yahoo, and MSN? Is your ad copy any good? What is your online branding strategy? (And so on.) Many times I have sat in meetings with copies of ad listings from that morning or the previous day. While it is not my intent to embarrass the senior marketing guy, I politely slide over a copy of a search listing to show him that, no, he are not where he needs to be.

In one case, the brand name of the product (a specific software product from a worldwide, well-known company) was being hijacked by a competitor. When you entered in the software program's name in Google, the number-one paid search listing was that of the competitor, with the title of the ad being "Alternative to xzy software product." Who in the world is watching that store? In fact, the in-house department was doing such a bad job managing their effort that a competitor was stealing their name and telling anyone who uses the search engine about a much better alternative to that name brand. Again, it was not my intent to embarrass, but when the lead marketing executive told me they really felt they had things handled in-house, I slid the above-mentioned listing I had copied from Google in front of him. After 30 seconds of silence, and when the redness in his face faded and the circumference of his pupils returned to normal, we continued our chat. That meeting took place about six months ago. That company is now a client.

A third-party search marketing firm, unshackled by big company bureaucracy and cross-department miscommunication, can better see the forest through the trees.

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Chris Pravato is the CEO of OnMedia, a full-service search marketing firm with offices in San Diego, Chicago, and New York.