Sponsored links: "Manchester" "PR" "Agency"

The sponsored link!

The passport to traffic. The get traffic short cut.

Well, as Simon Wharton of PushOn points out in his recent article, there is another way: organic search marketing (as featured on the How Do portal).

Simon does not discount Pay Per Click but includes it as part of a well balanced and beneficial online campaign. Even though Simon says that organic search marketing is 6 times more effective than PPC, he calculates that a marketing campaign that secures a combination of a top three placement with a top placed PPC will generate a 93% chance of gaining a click.

However, when putting the sacred search terms "Manchester" "PR" "Agency" in a search engine I was surprised at some of the results sponsored link wise.

Simon in his article claims that we look at results in a "F" shape pattern. We scan the organic search results and tend to concentrate on the top sponsored link of the ones listed the right hand side.

But what has struck me is that some of the agencies advertising are wasting resources whether they achieve a coveted top link or not. Even if Google is selecting and placing the sponsored links the results as outlined are the same.

The PPC has included agencies from as far a field as Sheffield (not so bad but why look further afield than necessary) to Maidenhead (bad) to Connecticut USA (mmmmm).

I am sure Graham Associates is very good, but just having a London office for the San Francisco agency is not really convincing for many North West based clients. Yet there they are.

The Manchester scene is not few in numbers and offers a range of company cultures, experience and skills. In some areas such as financial PR it has less to select from so I can understand a Manchester company looking further afield in this case.

Perhaps the lure and glamour of a London agency is attractive, but a Winchester or Leicester one? Not likely however good they are and with little in the way of reputation in the North West there are unlikely to be any local references.

The agencies that advertise if they do not get clicked on are losing very little. But surely more people will use organic search only if the PPC offers suppliers that in many cases are going to be of little interest, especially as there is probably a suitable agency within a half hour drive.

What is the value of the sponsored link currency?