Choosing A PPC Management Model

Hello. Did you know a massive 95% of Google’s revenue came from its advertising platforms? So if you’re thinking of getting started in Google AdWords or you’ve got an AdWords account already, you need to make sure that you’re not wasting money giving Google free money and you’re getting a good return from your account.

Today I thought we’d look at a few PPC management models so we can look at ways to improve your account further and get you a better return on it.

The first one here is an option. It’s no management at all. Google has a system called Google AdWords Express where you can quickly set up a small campaign yourself. But it is literally just set and run, so there won’t be any management involved in this option, and you’re likely to pay more for lower quality traffic than you would if you had a well-managed, optimised account. So not recommended, but it is an option.

The second one here is in-house or self-managed. In-house, if you’re a medium or large company where you can allocate resources from an existing marketing department, for example, or if you want to hire somebody specifically to manage your PPC account, then that’s an option, too. Self-managed if you’re a smaller business or a sole trader that’s done a bit of reading into Google AdWords management and wants to have a go yourself. The advantages of this obviously are less cost in terms of paying somebody to manage your account, and you can spend a lot of time on it if you’re a larger company as well. It’s good for a really large AdWords account.

However, when you’re using this option, you need to look out for a couple of things. The first one is to make sure that the person that you’re allocating to manage the account, or if you’re hiring somebody, has the relevant AdWords experience and ideally they are Google Partners qualified. This shows that they’ve understood the Google AdWords system, how to optimise an account, and are less likely to waste money, because the money you save through hiring somebody in-house could easily be lost through poor management of your account and wasting AdWords spend. Bear those factors in mind when you are hiring somebody in-house or if you’re allocating resources. It is a good option for medium and large businesses.

The third option here is fixed fee agency management. This is quite a popular option. The benefits of this to a business is that you can easily plan your monthly outgoings because there’s going to be a fixed fee agreed, maybe through a contract or it may vary month to month. You know exactly what that management is going to cost you each month. So it’s good for accounting and keeping your outgoings to a minimum.

The benefits of a fixed fee agency is you and the agency are both working towards the same goals. You want efficiency, so you want to pay as little as possible for the traffic and conversions that you’re getting. You also want to grow the account as well. With a fixed fee agency, there’s likely to be lots of transparency. You’re going to be sharing the same ideals, the same goals, and you’re going to be working towards a much better account because it improves the image of the agency managing it and it benefits your business as well.

Then the fourth and fifth options here are pretty similar. The fourth one here is performance based agency fees. This is a good option if you wanted to use an agency but you want zero risk, you don’t want to pay anything upfront for that management. A performance based agency will only take their fees when they reach the agreed goals or any other performance based metric that you set them. It’s good if you only want to pay when you get a sale, for example. It’s beneficial in that way.

However, there is quite a big thing to look out for with this. That agency may be targeting keywords, such as your brand name, which tend to convert a lot higher than they would for general keywords. So that makes their performance stats look a lot better, and obviously you’ll be paying for that brand traffic which you may have got organically already. They may not be focusing too much on expanding the account through targeting new keywords and growing the account to help grow your business as well. So look out for those issues with that one.

Then again with spend based, similar to performance, but the agency is only going to get paid when you accrue click costs through the AdWords system. This is good if you’re using AdWords to build your brand. You’ll only be paying the agency when they send traffic to your site. However, again, make sure that they’re targeting relevant keywords, because they could be choosing keywords that aren’t so relevant that are bringing in the traffic that you’re going to be paying them a fee for, but then when that traffic gets to your site, it may not be worthwhile.

In summary, no management, we don’t recommend that option. In-house is good for medium and large businesses. If you’re a sole trader or a small business, you may want to have a go at managing it yourself. A fixed fee agency is good for most people looking to work towards the same goals, and they can plan their budgets in terms of who’s managing the account. Then performance based and spend based, ideal if you want zero risk and you want to use an agency, but you must make sure that you keep an eye on what they’re targeting and exactly where those goals and metrics are coming from.

That about wraps it up. If you want some more PPC tips, feel free to follow me on Twitter. My handle is @DeanMarsden22. Or you can check out the Koozai blog, and of course we’ve got the Koozai TV channel as well.