Search engine marketing is the least consistently used term in the industry. For some firms it means paid search only. For others it includes earned search work. A few include paid social under the same heading. That ambiguity is convenient in a proposal and expensive in a contract, so the first job is to pin it down.
Ask what is included, in writing
Paid search, shopping campaigns, earned search work, technical site work, content, paid social, analytics. A proposal that reads as comprehensive can be a paid search account with a monthly report attached. Require a list of what is and is not included before comparing prices, or the comparison is meaningless.
Paid and earned need separate budgets and measures
Paid buys visibility that stops when the budget does. Earned accumulates and takes months. Reported together they obscure each other, because paid results flatter the early months and earned results arrive after most people stopped looking. Insist on separate reporting even where one firm does both.
Who does each part
Firms strong at paid search are not automatically strong at earned work, and vice versa. Ask who on the team does each, what else they carry, and whether either is subcontracted. This is where a full service claim most often turns out to be one capability and a partner.
What the fee buys weekly
For paid, search terms review, budget and objective adjustments, creative testing and tracking checks. For earned, implementation rather than recommendation, content production and technical fixes. Ask what changed last month on a comparable account, for both halves.
Questions people ask about sem agencies
Is SEM the same as PPC?
Often used that way, and some firms include earned search. The contract's scope is what matters, not the label.
Should one agency do both paid and earned?
It helps coordination if they genuinely staff both. Ask who does each and check the weaker side's staffing rather than the case studies.
How should the two be reported?
Separately, with their own budgets and measures. Blended reporting hides which half is working and for how long.