Setting up an in house search department – Part 1

Setting up a search team was how I got into the search industry.
In my career I have set up client side in-house PPC teams as well as working as a consultant for agencies and clients on how to set up and manage in-house PPC/search teams. Some of the key factors to consider when setting up a client side PPC team are as follows:

Performance

In theory, a well run in-house team should out perform most agencies. Why? Because they should have the advantage of direct communication and greater product/service knowledge. No matter how good agencies are they are unlikely to know the business as well as someone who is there on a daily basis.
However, the issue with an in-house team is the level of PPC- expertise which an agency is able to provide.

Cost

Running an in-house team is generally viewed as a more cost effective solution to that of outsourcing. This applies to in-house teams and not just PPC/search related teams.
In fact, this may be true in a few cases, however, it is important to consider the cost implications of recruitment and employment!

Recruitment

Having set a team size the total (or estimated) annual spend on the team can be based between 3% and 10% of that spend, due to the usual recruitment influencers.
Every team needs doers and drivers. So once you have a team it is a case of trying to find a balance in personalities – not an easy task at all.

Employment

In theory, based on a salary of £30,000 p.a. a company will actually have to pay £41,000 p.a. when taking into consideration National Insurance contributions, recruitment cost, training cost, bonuses, perks etc.

Setting up a team that actually can out perform an agency is not easy; hence is why the in-house option may not work for everyone and therefore agencies like ours exist.

Part 2 of this blog will look at Training and Integration.

Written by Luke Quilter