Pixelrage.net

Here in the corporate world, I’ve begun to see a disturbing trend as the SEM (search engine marketing/pay-per-click advertising) account maintenance guy. SEM is very easily outsourced…to machines. It’s time to wake up to the realization that you don’t need to pay a human being to manage Google AdWords anymore.

Yes, SEM Can Be Outsourced…To A Box

I suppose the first taste of this came when my corporation hired a multimedia agency to redo our TV campaign and re-structure our in-house conversion management. One of the steps they recommended was to use systems like DART for Advertisers, and virtually make it so that there’s no need for me to sit here and babysit AdWords, Yahoo Search Marketing or MSN Ad Center anymore.

Aside from the whole outsourcing thing, have you noticed any trends with SEM platforms? AdWords alone has new features including Conversion Optimizer, which basically turns off your ability to set maximum CPCs for your keywords, and automates them based on an algorithm so that better ads are shown more often during better times of the day, where conversions are more likely to happen. Yes, it does work like a charm, too.

Let’s face it, SEM isn’t an 8 hour a day job. Unless you’re running a short term hyper-local campaign, you’re probably only doing major work once a month by checking up on keyword trends, pausing keywords that haven’t converted at all, or added new ones that have shown up on Google Keyword Tool or Google Insights for Search. Maybe you’ve thrown in a newly written ad or two. Beyond that, you were probably reading the news or playing Mafia Wars.

SEM Automation is Here To Stay

Even if you’re only slightly paranoid, you have probably seen this coming. SEM accounts by their very nature need little babysitting aside from keyword research. They set daily budget limits, so, it’s not like you have to be there to pause the account at 4:00 PM when you’ve spent enough money for the day. New conversion-based options and automated bidding tactics leave the grunt work up to the algorithms and settings, leaving you to be a totally replaceable employee.

The best resolve here is to build a case for your company’s need to ramp up social networking to build relationships, and mini-site building for the sake of getting more conversions. They’ll keep you busy, and nobody knows what the hell those things are besides you (it’s your chance to explain it and to raise some eyebrows in one of those upper management “yeah, we need this!” revelations).

Conclusively, a SEM/SEO/Social networker holds much more value than “the guy who runs those Google ads.” That task is quickly heading toward full automation – like it or not!