Search engine marketing can be costly, get the most out of your efforts.

Among web marketers, it is the big debate: SEM versus SEO. Sound like just a bunch of letters to you?

If you owned a web site, you wouldn’t think so. SEO stands for search engine optimization, a process that seeks to boost a site’s traffic by helping it rise within a search engine’s organic, or un-paid, search results. It is often seen as the Holy Grail for internet marketers, as people tend to click those links over their paid counterparts. However, the conversion rate–that is, the number of shoppers that turn from browsers to buyers–tends to be lower in organic search listings.

Search engine marketing, popularly referred to as pay-per-click, on the other hand, is a form of internet marketing that promotes websites on search engine result pages through paid placement (In search engines, these links appear on the right side of the screen or they’re highlighted at the top of organic search results.) The conversion rate from these paid links is 2.03 percent versus 1.26 percent from organic links, according a 2009 study from Engine Ready, an internet marketing company in San Diego. What’s more, those clicking over from sponsored links also tend to spend more. According to the study, those who clicked through a paid link spent on average $11 more, or $117.06 versus $106.64, than those who traveled to sites via un-paid links.

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You spend a little money and buy some drugs, and they make you feel good.  Then the effect wears off.  You spend more money for more drugs, and feel good again.  Then the effect wears off again.  You find more money and buy yet more drugs.  Pretty soon, you are out of money, and feel horrible, and have no drugs to make you feel better.  Big problem.

The same thing can happen to even the best marketers.  You start buying some Google AdWords PPC.  It generates some leads.  Then the sales team uses up all the leads.  Then you buy some more.  Then sales asks for more leads again.  So, you ask your boss for more budget.  You buy more leads.  Sales uses all the leads and wants more…  What’s wrong with this picture?

The problem with this situation is that you are not building any sustainable marketing assets for your business.  All you are doing is buying leads from Google that go bad very quickly.  There is no leverage in your marketing model.  To double in size, you need to double your marketing spend (if not even more).  Nothing you are doing helps you generate more leads next month, or the month after, with less effort.  You will always be working just as hard and spending just as much money, just to stay afloat.

But, what about another strategy?  What about search engine optimization, blogging and social media? Well, if you spend time/money to publish a few blog articles, they will start to rank in organic (free!) search results in Google.  And you don’t need to pay for that.  So, next month you have the 10 articles you wrote last month, plus 10 more you will write this month.  The month after that you will have 20 articles from the prior two months, plus 10 more you write that month.  Get the picture?  Blogging and SEO are asset-centric marketing programs.  You are building an asset that has a payout each and every month over time.

Social media is an asset-centric marketing strategy as well.  As you build a following in Facebook, LinkedIn or Twitter, you build on top of what you have already done.  As you attract more friends and followers to you and your company, the size of the audience you can reach increases each month.  The benefit you get increases over time.

Certainly not all drugs are completely bad.  Caffeine.  Alcohol?  Prescription drugs?  When taken in moderation and managed properly, they can be part of your overall life.  But only when balanced with other things.  The same is true of Google AdWords PPC.  I’ve used them.  But I also leverage asset-centric marketing programs as much as possible.