the forrester wave™: search marketing agencies, q1 2016 · maintain and improve search engine...

The Forrester Wave™: Search Marketing Agencies, Q1 2016The 10 Providers That Matter Most And How They Stack Up

by Collin ColburnMarch 23, 2016

For B2C Marketing ProFessionals

ForreSTer.coM

key takeaways360i Leads The PackForrester’s research uncovered a market in which 360i leads the pack. Catalyst, rise interactive, Merkle, iCrossing, acronym, and iProspect offer competitive options. Performics is a viable contender. Zog Digital and ethology lag behind.

Search Marketers Need Search Specialistssearch marketers need an agency that has search at its core in order to address top challenges and stay on top of trends. search agencies act as specialists and advise their marketer clients on top search marketing decisions.

organic Visibility, Paid Search, And corporate Vision Are Key DifferentiatorsWe included agencies that balance both organic visibility and paid search services and found that their approaches for both vary greatly. additionally, each agency’s vision defines its future state.

Why read this reportin our 23-criteria evaluation of search marketing agency providers, we identified the 10 most significant ones — 360i, acronym, Catalyst, ethology, iCrossing iProspect, Merkle, Performics, rise interactive, and Zog Digital — and researched, analyzed, and scored them. this report shows how each provider measures up and helps B2C marketing professionals make the right search agency choice.

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table of Contents

Every Search Marketer Needs A Search Marketing Agency

But Search Agencies Struggle To Fulfill Discovery Needs

Search Marketing Agencies Evaluation Overview

evaluated Vendors and inclusion Criteria

Vendor Profiles

leaders

strong Performers

Contenders

Challengers

Supplemental Material

notes & resources

Forrester conducted service evaluations in January 2016 and interviewed 10 agencies for this report: 360i, acronym, Catalyst, ethology, iCrossing, iProspect, Merkle, Performics, rise interactive, and Zog Digital.

related research Documents

Brief: What’s new With seo?

the Forrester Wave™: search Marketing agencies, Q4 2012


The Forrester Wave™: Search Marketing Agencies, Q1 2016The 10 Providers That Matter Most And How They Stack Up

by Collin Colburnwith shar VanBoskirk, Wei-ming egelman, and laura glazer

March 23, 2016

http://www.forrester.com/go?objectid=RES128465



http://www.forrester.com/go?objectid=BIO6164

http://www.forrester.com/go?objectid=BIO34


The Forrester Wave™: Search Marketing Agencies, Q1 2016March 23, 2016

© 2016 Forrester research, inc. Unauthorized copying or distributing is a violation of copyright law. [email protected] or +1 866-367-7378

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The 10 Providers That Matter Most And How They Stack Up

every search Marketer needs a search Marketing agency

the nature of search marketing has shifted from reaching customers through a singular channel (traditional search engines) to enabling discovery across all platforms, media, and outlets where consumers find. this makes it incredibly complex to ensure organic visibility and increased performance from cost-per-click media. search marketers look to an agency partner that is specialized in search and can help enable discovery of their brands, products, and content. specifically, marketers lean on their search agency for:

› resources. Many marketers simply do not have the number of skilled in-house staff needed to maintain and improve search engine optimization (seo) and paid search. in fact, we found many firms outsource all of their search marketing efforts (see Figure 1). in this evaluation, more than a quarter of client references have no staff for seo or paid search.1

› Technical Seo. Most marketing teams lack the technical chops to effectively optimize their sites for search engines and a user’s experience. We found that over two-thirds of client references used their search agency to accomplish tasks like crawling their sites for speed and index-ability, tracking organic web traffic, and link building (see Figure 2).

› More efficient paid search management. advertisers also turn to agency partners to improve the performance of paid search investments that are beginning to tap out on returns.2 in fact, at least 84% of client references told us that they rely on search agencies to craft their bid strategies, optimize paid search budgets and media performance, and even execute buys (see Figure 3).

› Biddable media support. search marketers look to other forms of media, in addition to search engines, to enhance visibility for their brand. a search agency is most commonly used to execute on performance-based media buys. of this study’s 64 client references that manage paid search, 48% told us that they use their search agencies to buy ads in non-search engine formats like display and social.




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FIGUre 1 More than a Quarter of Marketers outsource their search Marketing operations

FIGUre 2 More than two-thirds of Marketers Who Manage seo rely on agencies For technical seo

“How many internal staff work onpaid search initiatives?”*

“How many internal staff work onsearch engine optimization

(SEO) initiatives?”

None. Weoutsource toan agencyor vendor

30%

1-3 people53%

None. Weoutsource toan agencyor vendor

26%

4 or morepeople23%

1-3 people51%

Note: Percentages may not total 100 because of rounding.

Source: Forrester’s Q1 2016 Search Marketing Agencies Forrester Wave™ Online Survey

Base: 61 marketerswho manage SEO

*Base: 64 marketerswho manage paid search

4 or morepeople18%

Crawling your site for technical issuesrelated to speed, coding, etc.

Recommending contentopportunities on site

Tracking and reportingorganic web traf�c

Conducting keyword research

Optimizing site content forpreferred keywords

Conducting competitive rank analysis

Link building

92%

90%

89%

85%

85%

75%

67%

“Thinking only about SEO and improving your organic visibility, what servicesdo you rely on your search marketing agency to perform?”

Note: Multiple responses accepted. Only showing top seven results.


Base: 61 marketers who manage SEO




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FIGUre 3 at least 84% of Client references turn to their agencies For efficient Paid search Management

But search agencies struggle to Fulfill Discovery needs

search marketing agencies provide lots of value for their clients in seo and paid search. But the agencies in this category can do better to support their clients with tools and frameworks to aid in customer discovery. search agencies should improve in the following areas:

› content strategy. the agencies in this evaluation talked a lot about the importance of relying on a single partner for high-quality content and search marketing support. and rightfully so, as promoting content in traditional and non-traditional search engines is harder than ever.3 But most search marketers don’t use their search agencies for content strategy: only 39% of reference clients told us they use their search marketing agency to create content. as one client reference told us, “our agency really needs to develop better skills in content marketing . . . and then we’ll use them for our content needs.”

› Understanding search’s impact on other media. search marketers have broadened their charter to include social networks, online directories, and other platforms. Because of this, marketers need to understand the synergies between media. But search agencies fall short in helping their clients with this. references gave their search agencies an average quality score of 3.9 out of 5 for the agency’s ability to correlate activity across multiple media — which ranked in the bottom quarter of all agency services. one client reference complained, “i spend way too much time trying to figure out how other media was impacted by a change we made in our search strategy.”

Optimizing paid search budget

Conducting keyword research

Tracking and reporting traf�cfrom paid search

Optimizing performance ofpaid search campaigns

Crafting bid strategy

Executing buys

92%

89%

89%

86%

84%

“Thinking only of paid search, what services do you rely on your paidsearch marketing agency for?”

Note: Multiple responses accepted. Only showing top six results.


Base: 64 marketers who manage paid search

94%




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› Identifying and prioritizing specific discovery outlets. there are myriad search engines, mobile apps, and comparison-shopping sites where consumers can find new products or brands. and search marketers need help figuring out which outlets will provide the greatest findability. as a client reference from a major retailer put it, “We can’t keep up with all the places where our customers research and buy.” But search agencies have been slow with tools to help identify where a marketer should invest budget or resources to improve visibility. only Catalyst even partially supports this need. its eshelf tool identifies search engines, media, and social networks where a marketer’s content or products appear.

search Marketing agencies evaluation overview

to assess the state of the search marketing agency market and see how the agencies stack up against each other, Forrester evaluated the strengths and weaknesses of top search marketing agencies. after examining past research, user need assessments, and vendor and expert interviews, we developed 23 evaluation criteria, which we grouped into three high-level buckets:

› current offering. each agency’s position on the vertical axis of the Forrester Wave graphic indicates the strength of its current market research approach, media, organic visibility, and paid search capabilities. these criteria also evaluate agency collaboration tools and processes, account management functions, reporting and analytics methods, and client satisfaction.

› Strategy. an agency’s position on the horizontal axis indicates Forrester’s assessment of its strategy and approach to the market. We compared the corporate strategies of the agencies based on their visions, road maps, and global employee retention rates.

› Market presence. to determine the size of each agency’s search marketing business, we evaluated its search marketing revenues, number of employees and clients, and geographic footprint.

evaluated Vendors And Inclusion criteria

Forrester included 10 agencies in the assessment: 360i, acronym, Catalyst, ethology, iCrossing, iProspect, Merkle, Performics, rise interactive, and Zog Digital. each of these agencies has (see Figure 4):

› Search marketing at its core. in order to showcase agencies that are search specialists, we screened only agencies that showed 20% of revenues coming from search services. this means that big digital agencies with relatively small search practices, like razorfish, were ineligible.

› experience supporting Seo and paid search. a comprehensive search marketing strategy should take into account both organic and paid tactics. We screened out agencies such as neo@ogilvy that provide only seo or paid search, but not a balance of both.




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› Dedication and momentum in search. Because agencies are expanding their offerings outside of their core business, we chose to include agencies that are dedicated to and winning new business in search. this means companies that did not win enough new business for seo and paid search in 2015 to account for 3% of the agency’s client base, like location3 Media, did not qualify.

› Large enterprise clients. each agency in this Forrester Wave evaluation has 70% of its client base derived from enterprise-class firms. smaller agencies like Wpromote were screened out because of this.

FIGUre 4 evaluated Vendors: Vendor information and selection Criteria

Vendor name

360i

Acronym

Catalyst

Ethology

iCrossing

iProspect

Merkle

Performics

Rise Interactive

Zog Digital

Evaluated in

Q1 2016

Q1 2016

Q1 2016

Q1 2016

Q1 2016

Q1 2016

Q1 2016

Q1 2016

Q1 2016

Q1 2016

Vendor selection criteria

At least 20% of the agency’s revenue must come from search marketing services.

At least 15% of the agency’s clients must work with the agency for both paid search and SEO.

At least 3% of the agency’s clients must be new (as of January 1, 2015) and work with the agency for both paid search and SEO.

At least 70% of the agency’s clients must be enterprise-sized.




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Vendor Profiles

this evaluation of the search marketing agency market is intended to be a starting point only. We encourage clients to view detailed product evaluations and adapt criteria weightings to fit their individual needs through the Forrester Wave vendor comparison tool (see Figure 5).

FIGUre 5 Forrester Wave™: search Marketing agencies, Q1 ’16

Challengers Contenders LeadersStrong

Performers

StrategyWeak Strong

Currentoffering

Weak

Strong

Go to Forrester.com to

download the Forrester

Wave tool for more

detailed product

evaluations, feature

comparisons, and

customizable rankings.

Market presence

Catalyst

360iRise InteractiveiProspect

iCrossingPerformics

Merkle

EthologyZog Digital

Acronym




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FIGUre 5 Forrester Wave™: search Marketing agencies, Q1 ’16 (Cont.)

Leaders

› 360i. Four-time leader in this study, new York City-based 360i repeats this time because of its support for user discovery across multiple search, social, mobile, and content platforms. specifically, the agency offers creative, social, programmatic, communications planning, and brand strategy services. and it owns a host of proprietary tools to automate content monitoring, retargeting list creations and real-time bid and creative adjustments based on external data sources like weather in outlets such as instagram, Pinterest, and Waze, among others. Domestic marketers — 360i only has one international office — who want to move past traditional paid search and seo will like this firm’s investment in envelope-pushing staff and innovation.

Strong Performers

› catalyst. groupM’s specialist search marketing agency, Catalyst, debuts in this study as a strong performer because of its leader-level organic visibility, paid search, and biddable media support. Client references like this agency’s use of tools to optimize content across traditional

CURRENT OFFERING Market research Media Organic visibility Paid search Collaboration Account management Reporting and analytics Client satisfaction Cost and pricing structure STRATEGY Corporate strategy and vision MARKET PRESENCE Search revenues Number of employees Client base Geographic traction

3.511.004.004.803.004.005.001.005.000.00

4.604.60

2.753.005.001.002.00

Forr

este

r’sW

eigh

ting

50%10%10%20%35%5%

10%5%5%0%

50%100%

0%25%25%25%25%

2.611.002.003.601.104.005.005.005.000.00

3.003.00

2.750.001.005.005.00

4.125.005.003.605.002.001.005.004.000.00

3.003.00

2.751.005.001.004.00

1.611.002.004.000.302.001.001.003.000.00

1.001.00

0.500.000.001.001.00

2.831.004.003.902.004.003.003.004.000.00

3.003.00

2.753.003.001.004.00

3.325.002.002.903.405.003.003.003.000.00

2.202.20

5.005.005.005.005.00

2.181.002.003.201.402.003.003.004.000.00

3.803.80

4.003.005.005.003.00

2.621.001.002.103.004.005.001.004.000.00

2.202.20

4.253.005.005.004.00

3.495.004.003.203.002.003.005.005.000.00

2.602.60

0.751.001.001.000.00

1.521.003.003.200.501.001.001.002.000.00

1.401.40

0.250.000.001.000.00

All scores are based on a scale of 0 (weak) to 5 (strong).

360i

Acr

onym

Cat

alys

t

Eth

olog

y

iCro

ssin

g

iPro

spec

t

Mer

kle

Per

form

ics

Ris

e In

tera

ctiv

e

Zog

Dig

ital




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and non-traditional search engines. and Catalyst earns perfect scores for its paid media tools, optimization strategy, quality, and results. Catalyst falls short of being a leader because of its small account management team and only average vision for the future of search marketing. this firm is an easy “yes” for marketers who already rely on groupM for media management, but we’d recommend it for operationally-minded marketers (Catalyst shows a penchant for consumer goods manufacturers) who want one partner to manage both seo and paid search.

› rise Interactive. rise interactive places as a strong Performer in its first search marketing agency Forrester Wave evaluation because of its unique treatment of search marketing investments like a financial portfolio. specifically, the Chicago-based firm models the media mix, budget allocation, client and agency staff utilization, and interplay between paid search and seo that will yield optimal return. Client references give rise high marks in market research, organic visibility, paid search tools, and reporting. the optimization-driven approach of this firm doesn’t suit everyone, however. Companies that need more holistic support will find that rise’s account management, international experience, and efforts to manage collaboration fall short of competitors’.

› Merkle. though it’s a brand you might know better for its database marketing and customer engagement strategy services, Merkle has a search marketing and performance media agency formed through the acquisitions of impaqt and rkg. this strong Performer informs client strategy with its proprietary Datasource tool that compiles data from many different sources, allowing it to have behavioral data on 95% of Us households. and client references give high marks to Merkle’s organic visibility and multichannel reporting capabilities. this agency does fall below average in this study for paid search, primarily due to low scores for its optimization strategy and work quality. even so, data-savvy pioneers will like Merkle’s analytics chops and its aim to improve brand discoverability on intelligent agents like Cortana, googlenow, and siri.

› icrossing. Veteran digital and search marketing agency iCrossing makes a resource-rich partner for large direct response marketers who need support primarily for acquisition efforts. true to its seo legacy, iCrossing earns great marks for organic visibility. and its best scores come from the quality and results of its paid search ads. iCrossing also boasts rich customer insights capabilities based on user data from its parent Hearst and a proprietary machine learning tool built to predict search behavior. Worth noting however, is that iCrossing isn’t the innovator we found it to be in previous evaluations. its road map includes initiatives already implemented by competitors. and its vision to be a “marketing agency for the modern world” lacks uniqueness and executional specificity.

› Acronym. acronym brings a consulting-partner model rather than an agency-feel to this evaluation. note that this firm offers staff augmentation — for the right price — to clients who need additional headcount, expertise, or help getting a fast start. Client references love this hands-on approach to total-business transformation. acronym ties for the highest customer satisfaction scores in the study, in part due to accessible account management, executive involvement in account strategy, and its emphasis on mapping and influencing critical moments in a customer’s decision.




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But marketers who want a more straightforward search marketing partner will be frustrated by acronym’s diffusive tendencies. it demonstrates limited experience bidding in media outside of paid search and programmatic display, and its paid search optimization strategy and quality of work for paid search earn low scores.

› iProspect. search marketing stalwart iProspect now also includes stylings from Covario, an agency it acquired in 2014, to beef up its West Coast operations and seo offering. this is a stronger version of iProspect; its market research, organic visibility methods, paid search tools, and work quality for seo and paid search earn top marks. large multinational marketers will value iProspect’s strong collaboration processes and broad geographic footprint. But count on some ongoing growing pains with this firm — its corporate road map is looser and employee retention rate lower than others’.

contenders

› Performics. While we like that this firm has consistently focused on “driving performance by creating dynamic, personalized, and optimized experiences across owned, earned, and paid digital touchpoints” over the years, Performics did not demonstrate the boldness we expected of it based on past evaluations.4 this, as well as low scores for seo results, paid search work quality, and reporting and flexibility, place Performics as a Contender this year. Conservative multinationals looking for reliability will value this firm’s global staying power — current clients and employees do: Performics boasts top scores for account management and its global employee retention rate.

challengers

› Zog Digital. the smallest agency we evaluated, Zog Digital, debuts in this study as a Challenger primarily because its scale and experience don’t measure up to incumbents. it owns no specific tools or processes to manage collaboration, has fewer account management resources than competitors, and owns one of the lowest net Promoter scores in this evaluation.5 But the firm has some fundamentals down: quality scores for organic visibility work and results are tops. Consider Zog Digital if you are new to search or seek an alternative to those more established players to get a fresh approach or working style, for example.

› ethology. Boutique agency ethology’s limited scale and structure land it as a Challenger in this year’s evaluation. it hasn’t yet inked formal methodologies for how to prioritize discovery outlets or optimize paid search budgets for different marketer types. and it struggles to clearly and consistently articulate its strategic vision. However, based on the financial and emotional commitment of this firm’s leadership, we hope ethology will evolve from consultants who do anything a client asks into an agency that owns competencies to deliver on deliberately determined service areas. in the meantime, tap it for content marketing support. eighty-five percent of client references use ethology for content creation.




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supplemental Material

online resource

the online version of Figure 5 is an excel-based vendor comparison tool that provides detailed product evaluations and customizable rankings.

Data Sources Used In This Forrester Wave

Forrester used a combination of three data sources to assess the strengths and weaknesses of each solution. We evaluated the vendors participating in this Forrester Wave, in part, using materials that they provided to us by March 14, 2016.

› Vendor surveys. Forrester surveyed vendors on their capabilities as they relate to the evaluation criteria. once we analyzed the completed vendor surveys, we conducted vendor calls where necessary to gather details of vendor qualifications.

› customer reference calls and surveys. to validate product and vendor qualifications, Forrester also conducted reference calls with three of each vendor’s current customers, and administered online reference surveys to seven to nine of each vendor’s current customers.

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The Forrester Wave Methodology

We conduct primary research to develop a list of vendors that meet our criteria to be evaluated in this market. From that initial pool of vendors, we then narrow our final list. We choose these vendors based on: 1) product fit; 2) customer success; and 3) Forrester client demand. We eliminate vendors that have limited customer references and products that don’t fit the scope of our evaluation.

after examining past research, user need assessments, and vendor and expert interviews, we develop the initial evaluation criteria. to evaluate the vendors and their products against our set of criteria, we gather details of product qualifications through a combination of lab evaluations, questionnaires, demos, and/or discussions with client references. We send evaluations to the vendors for their review, and we adjust the evaluations to provide the most accurate view of vendor offerings and strategies.

We set default weightings to reflect our analysis of the needs of large user companies — and/or other scenarios as outlined in the Forrester Wave evaluation — and then score the vendors based on a clearly defined scale. We intend these default weightings to serve only as a starting point and encourage readers to adapt the weightings to fit their individual needs through the excel-based tool. the final scores generate the graphical depiction of the market based on current offering, strategy, and market presence. Forrester intends to update vendor evaluations regularly as product capabilities and vendor strategies evolve. For more information on the methodology that every Forrester Wave follows, go to http://www.forrester.com/marketing/policies/forrester-wave-methodology.html.

Integrity Policy

We conduct all our research, including Forrester Wave evaluations, in accordance with our integrity Policy. For more information, go to http://www.forrester.com/marketing/policies/integrity-policy.html.

Survey Methodology

Forrester’s fielded its Q1 2016 search Marketing agencies Forrester Wave™ online survey to 77 search marketers who are client references of search marketing agencies participating in this Forrester Wave. Forrester fielded the survey during Q1 2016. exact sample sizes are provided on a question-by-question basis. this data is not guaranteed to be representative of the population, and, unless otherwise noted, statistical data is intended to be used for descriptive and not inferential purposes. While nonrandom, the survey is still a valuable tool for understanding where users are today and where the industry is headed.

endnotes1 twenty-six percent of client references told us they have no staff for seo, and 30% said they use their agency to do

everything for paid search. source: Forrester’s Q1 2016 search Marketing agencies Forrester Wave™ online survey.

2 For more information on Forrester’s forecast of digital marketing trends for the next few years, see the “Us Digital Marketing Forecast, 2014 to 2019” Forrester report.






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3 the more content assets a marketer creates, the better chance it has of being found in today’s seo world. see the “Brief: What’s new With seo?” Forrester report.

4 source: executive briefing held with Performics during Q1 2016.

5 net Promoter and nPs are registered service marks, and net Promoter score is a service mark, of Bain & Company, inc., satmetrix systems, inc., and Fred reichheld.


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