Maturity models categorize the level of sophistication an organization has achieved in a particular discipline, such as software development or IT networking. These models typically have four or five stages, ranging from "ad hoc" (we have no idea what we're doing) to "optimized" (we're humming along as a best-in-class, high-efficiency, profit-making machine).

The benefit of a well-defined maturity model is that it gives practitioners a common framework by which to assess their organization, benchmark it against others, and develop a plan for improvement. Often, there is not just one achievement associated with a particular level, but rather a series of capabilities across several dimensions.

Given the many different skills and processes that go into good search marketing, and the wide disparity in how adept organizations are at them, it seems that a maturity model for the search industry could be quite useful.

Therefore, I'd like to propose the following draft of a Search Marketing Maturity Model, primarily focused on paid search marketing, and solicit your feedback and suggestions.

Level 1: Ad Hoc

• No management structure or executive participation

• Sparse, intermittent management attention

• No official budget

• No performance metrics

• Web analytics = page views

• Very small keyword universe

• Beginner keyword management

• No coordinated landing page initiatives

• Organization is non-reactive to opportunities/threats

• Conversion rates in bottom quartile

Level 2: Engaged

• Executive awareness, but little formal management

• Monthly to weekly management attention

• Budget obtained through discretionary funds

• Performance metrics: clicks, CPC

• Web analytics = keywords, bounce rates

• Beginner to intermediate keyword/bid management (e.g., dayparting, geo-targeting)

• A small number of one-off landing pages

• Limited experimentation with landing page optimization testing

• Audience segmentation analyzed post-hoc, after conversion

• Organization is very slow to react to opportunities/threats

• Below-average conversion rates

Level 3: Structured

• Executive sponsorship, official management responsibility

• Weekly to daily management attention

• Committed line item(s), headcount in budget

• Performance metric: conversion rate

• Conversion funnel Web analytics

• Large keyword universe

• Keywords organized by products, campaigns

• Extracurricular tools to manage keywords

• Established process for creating, coordinating landing pages

• Landing pages matched to ads at campaign level

• Regular A/B testing of landing pages

• Organization still takes weeks to respond to opportunities/threats

• Competitive research part of search program

• Average conversion rates or better

Level 4: Managed

• Active executive participation, centralized search leadership

• Daily management attention

• Significant committed budget/headcount

• Performance metric: CPA (cost per action/conversion)

• Segmented Web analytics, multiple conversion funnels

• Very large keyword universe

• Keywords organized more finely (e.g., segment, sales cycle)

• Professional bid management, keyword research, landing page software

• Pre-click and post-click segmentation of respondents

• Landing pages matched to ads at ad group level

• Strategic (hypothesis-driven) landing page testing

• Two-way coordination between ads and landing pages

• Fast reaction speed (days) to opportunities/threats

• Competitive benchmarking

• Above-average conversion rates

Level 5: Optimized

• Strategic executive participation

• Centralized search leadership integrated with rest of organization

• Continuous management attention

• Significant committed budget/headcount, dynamically allocated

• Performance metric: ROI (overall return on investment)

• Integrated multichannel Web analytics

• Very large, dynamic keyword universe

• Keywords organized for Long Tail opportunities, ROI-optimized

• Professional and automated management tools

• Micro-segmentation of audiences

• Dynamic deployment of Long Tail landing pages

• Segmented, hypothesis-driven landing page testing

• Ads and landing pages highly synchronized

• Very fast reaction speed for opportunities/threats

• Best-in-class on all competitive benchmarks

• Top quartile conversion rates

This commentary is insightful. I recommend it to others.