Marketers believe strongly in paid search (SEM) because it is controllable, can yield much faster results than than organic and can be extremely effective on mobile. However, many SMBs appear to be having poor experiences with paid search.

According to a new study, 40% of SMBs said that their use of AdWords didn't directly yield any new business leads. An additional 33% said AdWords produced very few leads. These disappointing results are likely the product of poorly managed or ineffective self-managed campaigns.

SEM providers need to assume that many SMBs have had bad experiences with paid search. Thus they need to do a great deal of educational “repair work” to rehabilitate SEM for their audience. If media companies and local sellers aren’t confident that they can deliver (indeed, over-deliver) great ROI for the SMB advertiser they need to just say no to PPC for local businesses.