Technology Isn't Changing Advertising Costs

Marketing and advertising have traditionally been areas where companies paid big bucks for results, and the biggest and most successful agencies grew rich by knowing how to capture the attention of the public. Although digital marketing much less expensive to do well, because it falls under the marketing umbrella it can be surprisingly difficult to find affordable SEO services when you need them.

Marketing and advertising are essentially about getting people's promotion. If you want to get the attention of a kid in a playground, you first find out his name (marketing) and then you shout it as loud as you can (advertising) until he responds. Marketers have traditionally gathered information from the market, and advertisers have used that information to figure out how to grab that market's attention.

Fundamentally, grabbing the market's interest was about sensation. Getting a celebrity who is already popular within a certain demographic to endorse a product, for example, is a proven method of getting members of that demographic interested. Aping elements of entertainment that is popular among that demographic - including movies, television shows, and music - is also effective. And good comedy speaks to everybody.

But creating effective advertising content is anything but cheap. Good comedy writers command high salaries. Popular music costs a pretty penny to license, and celebrity endorsements require cutting the kind of check that sports and entertainment celebrities are used to seeing. The production values of popular film and TV content tend to be high, meaning that mimicking that style in a campaign will cost a lot of money.

Gathering information about the market isn't cheap either. Good market research studies require a huge investment of time and energy to create. In order to be meaningful, they have to represent a comprehensive look at a large enough number of people to be statistically valid. That number can reach into the thousands, and getting respondents to participate and answer the questions can require incentives, which also cost money.

Identifying, contacting, and researching a market isn't the end of the road. Neither is using that information to create a compelling campaign. Even after all those costs the ads still have to get out to people, requiring media buys in TV, radio, print, and outdoor markets that can quickly add millions of dollars in expense to the total cost of an advertising campaign.

Effective search engine optimization operates on a completely different paradigm. It's more about data, creating systems behind the scenes that make a company's Website more visible to search engines, improving ranking results. Even after seeing advertising, a huge percentage of the population begins a buying process with an Internet search, so the winners on search engine rankings are likely to be the winners in sales as well, regardless of other advertising.

And while running an effective, ongoing search engine optimization service doesn't have to cost a lot of money, the relationships between major marketing and advertising agencies and their clients are defined by large amounts of money. It doesn't do those agencies any good to provide affordable SEO services because their clients will pay far more than the services need to cost..

I'm a social media marketing expert specializing in affordable SEO services. For more resources and information, check out AudienceBloom.