Is there a Conflict between SEO and SEM at the Agency Level?

A client, an ad agency was conducting a $100k per month pay per click campaign for their client which they received a generous commission fee on a percentage basis. That fee collected over months and months was a substantial form of revenue for the agency. Any competing form of online promotion could disrupt that flow of revenue. When SEO was brought into the picture, the agency put a small, insignificant amount of investment into the project. I took the project on knowing that this probably was not a completely sincere intention, yet the agency had other clients where the revenue source wouldn't be affected. Lots of potential there for business, however I discovered that this situation can only lead to frustration.

Since SEO and the free ongoing traffic it generates will always be a threat, it is more likely to be degraded and hidden. An agency will protect their bread and butter. If the client can get their traffic and revenue for free, and avoid $3 to $12 per click and $1200 per conversion, they will rightfully cut the PPC spend. As ppc bid prices rise, the pressure to find alternatives will mount. And there is a lot of money going into adwords advertising. Every quarter, Google breaks new profit records. Businesses seem to be willing to pay the ante to play the game, but they're not aware of how organic campaigns can generate better results. That information needs to be dispersed to web site owners.

Ad agencies will have to adjust to this new sphere. Bringing SEO in-house will not be the panacea. Ad agencies need to work with specialist SEO consultants honestly and directly. There is a way for the agency to make money from SEO services. It comes from acknowledging the value of our work to their clients and getting the clients to realize the value in SEO.

Most SEO providers experience this conflict in their client relations, yet SEO consultants must remain clearly on the side of creating quality organic listings. The traffic is higher potentially and it is low cost. One of my clients spends more than $20k per month and another almost that amount, on PPC spending and at this point, it generates the same volume of traffic as the organic sources. It makes sense that an SEO would want to divert that revenue into organic campaigns and optimization projects. Most clients too, would rightfully want that if they knew. This particular agency had enormous client relationship problems because the client knew they weren't getting the best value. I'm not saying they were getting ripped off, since the PPC investment was working for them. Clearly, however, as their web site grew in the organic rankings, the PPC spend was threatened.