Search Engine Marketing vs. Radio for Local Advertising

I have just completed a three-month study testing the effectiveness of SEO and Google Adwords against radio advertising in generating quote requests for a consumer insurance product.  The test was contained to a market area of one city and surrounding areas.

The local radio budget was $13,000/month, and the campaign ran for approximately three months on three stations selected by the company’s ad agency as being representative of the target demographic. To allow the radio a fair chance to establish frequency, I began tracking the search marketing comparison at the start of the second month of radio advertising and am reporting on exactly two months of radio results data ($26,000 invested over the two months – not counting the cost of producing the ad).

The Adwords budget for the same local market increased over the period of the study from approximately $400/month to approximately $750/month. And the total SEO budget was approximately $2,000/month.

(more…)