Search engine marketers and the ad agencies who hire them still aren't getting along. According to a search engine marketing blog, traditional ad agencies continue to have a serious inferiority
complex when it comes to SEM, primarily because they don't understand it, and they know it eats away at their budget, making them angry and frustrated. However, as the blog points out, "At some point,
ad agencies will be forced to come to terms with the fact that they will have to accept and work with search engine marketers even if they have to bring them in-house." Even so, ad agencies remain
disdainful of their direct marketing, data-rich counterparts for several reasons--11 of them actually, according to the site. Many are overly simplistic--and some sound downright childish--but here's
the gist: The sheer breadth of ROI data for search feeds the traditional agency's inferiority complex; agencies also dislike the so-called "freelancer attitude" of search marketers, who perform their
jobs in jeans and T-shirts; due to the high demand and low supply of SEM, search marketers are so overworked that they sometimes appear blasé about new business and are seemingly able to hike up
prices at a whim; when working with agencies, search marketers are charged with depleting their budget, and everyone wants a bigger cut and no one wants to budge on discounts, kickbacks or project
control; and, of course, rising search budgets and higher prices for services threaten shrinking print and radio budgets, affecting ad managers' moods and reverberating throughout the agency. All this
leaves a lingering question: how do we learn how to get along?
Read the whole story at Stuntdubl Search Engine Marketing Consulting »