It was just a few years ago we were introducing our sometimes skeptical clients to the cost efficiencies of online search in their marketing mix. It didn’t take long for them to become converts, with conversion rates so much higher than press and radio advertising. It was as simple as buying category keywords prospects were searching for when researching a purchase decision. For one client in particular, a cosmedic company, a Google Adword campaign was delivering sales for under $30 when traditionally they were resigned to having to spend upward of $400 per sale using press ads. Like most things in the world today, things have changed very quickly.

Google Adwords not the cheap fix it once was

While our clients were at the front of the adoption curve, plenty of followers have made online adword campaigns much less cost effective. Google is in the unique position in Australia of having a controlling share of the search engine market. While in Asia players such as MSN offer advertisers alternative places to reach prospects, here 90% of all people who search online use Google. So if you are an advertiser, you are competing with every one of your competitors for the same limited listing in a limitless bidding war. If you want to be on the first page of results, the same words we bought for cents a few years ago can now cost dollars. Our client who used to be able to grab sales conversions for $30 and below would now have to regularly expect to pay $150 or more. Meanwhile, newspapers are doing deals, so the gap for many advertisers is closing again. Or is it? What are the advertisers at the front of the curve doing?

Natural search is the answer to gaining exposure online

At UNO we’ve been delivering our clients what is close to free leads for years now using Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) techniques. How does it work? A Google search page has three sections. Paid results appear across the top and down the right side of the screen. This is what advertisers bid against each other for. Yet research has shown 75% of all people who search on Google ignore the paid ads and click on the results in the third area, the natural or organic listing in the main body of the page.

So while the majority of companies are still competing in a bidding war for 25% of the prospects, smart advertisers are using SEO experts to help them achieve a higher listing in the main game, the natural search listings that you don’t have to keep paying for again and again. Done right, SEO for natural search pays long term dividends.