£23 Billion was spent on ads in the UK in 2020 and that figure is expected to grow by 15% this year.

And yet, marketing master Dave Trott famously wrote that 89% of advertising is not noticed or remembered.

There are well over 4000 billboards in the UK and it’s rare to see one without an ad.

£614 Million was spent on radio advertising in the UK in 2020.

In 2020, cinema advertising spending amounted to £54.7 million which was a huge drop due to Covid19

In 2021 cinema ad spend is forecast to see a growth of 266.8 per cent.

The fact is, businesses will spend billions on advertising routes that are likely to be ignored, cost a fortune and have little to zero analytical data of any use.

And then there is SEO.

A method of brand marketing that is both packed with performance data, supports every other type of marketing activity and places your site in front of your target audience…when they are searching for expertise or answers to questions that a traditional salesperson would normally answer.

• Shifting your marketing budget into content and SEO isn’t a sensible thing to do.
• Its the logical thing to do
• Large business with big budgets ignore SEO and content marketing all the time
• And yet, we know of its power
• Despite this most SEO costs less than hiring a full time member of staff

Why? Because no one ever got fired for putting a billboard campaign up.

The boss will love it that her business is being displayed so openly and prominently.

The boss wouldn’t ask what sales came from the billboard, or how many of their ideal prospects saw it and read it. However this is always asked of SEO and we have the data.

The thing is.

SEO success and performance are both over analysed and criminally underfunded.

Especially when compared with other advertising methods.

The sad thing is that performance data is what hurts SEO campaigns because they focus on short term results and ranking gains.

The obsession with acquiring links and page 1 rankings forces many SEO agencies to create content that doesn’t help the target customers and indeed engage in tactics that could risk your site.

If you reframe SEO from being about rankings to instead being about building the most useful website in your industry for your target customers. Let’s talk SEO prices.

SEO becomes a long term game.

And long term games make sense.

Long term games require proper investment.

I appreciate this mindset is a tough pill to swallow for marketing managers and business owners who live in a results-driven high ROI world.

But it’s logical.

And if it helps, don’t look at this as being an investment in SEO.

Look at this as creating the best website for your customers.

One that educates, inspires and answers their questions.

SEO turns your website into your best salesperson.

Billboards and other ads will never do that in the same way.

Invest in SEO and build a website that can’t be ignored.

How the SEO process works