MediaTel

Amanda Davie,  founder and managing director of Reform, explains why the IPA Search Certificate will help combat tough external threats and protect the value of the client-agency model...

Keyword crunching, anorak-wearing, cloaking, black hats and technical wizardry. No, not the latest instalment in the Harry Potter series. This is Search marketing. Yet despite the dark and murky connotations that still surround this medium, in the first half of 2009 Search marketing accounted for 62.5% of UK online advertising spend - to the tune of £1.1 billion, according to the IAB and PricewaterhouseCoopers. So connotations aside, search has been working well for brands for over ten years now. It is an effective marketing medium and it is here to stay.

To further endorse Search's rightful place in the Marcoms toolbox, the IPA recently announced the launch of the UK industry's first search qualification, in a move towards professionalising the sector. Called the IPA Search Certificate, the course will be launched on the 29th April and will help agencies to gain the necessary skills required to manage search effectively for their clients, as well as encouraging continued positive growth in industry standards.

The launch of the IPA Search Certificate couldn't come at a better time for a marketing services industry that faces some tough challenges: firstly, some search agencies are still dealing with the fallout of Google's Best Practice Funding Programme of the mid-Noughties. In its own attempt to standardise agency practices, Google rewarded high spending agencies for expenditure growth (commonly known as the "kick back"). The problem was that some agencies relied too heavily upon this supplementary revenue stream, and since it dried up, these businesses have suffered mass job losses and, in worse case scenarios, some went into administration.

Then there is the growing threat to the agency of the third party technology provider: companies who will have clients believe that Search is not so much a marketing practice but an algorithm, and that the role of the agency is superfluous as long as you have a clever black box.

And finally, agencies are fighting the Search in-sourcing movement: some clients haven't seen sufficient value add from this new wave of agency-side dot.com entrepreneurs and inexperienced marketers to justify retaining them.  Traditional agency values of client servicing, integrated planning and strategic innovation have given way to excel spreadsheet macro building, data manipulation and 140-character copy writing. Growing pains in a still-immature industry? Perhaps. But in some cases these challenges are shaking the client-agency model to the core. So, in effect, with the launch its new Search qualification the IPA is stepping up is support of its members in their fight to win and to retain search business.

The IPA Search Certificate is aimed at those in their first two years of employment in Search. The course and examination will be available online covering 19 core modules including PPC campaign build and management, SEO compliance and how to integrate search with other media. The qualification has been developed in conjunction with Google, Microsoft and Yahoo! and will provide agency staff with an in-depth and balanced set of practical skills that will enable them to deliver market leading search for brands.

The Search Certificate has been developed on behalf of the IPA by independent search marketing firm Reform, and is available to IPA members. Interested candidates can enroll now by emailing Kate Bromage: kate@ipa.co.uk.