A key way to increase visibility online is to use pay-per-click (PPC) advertising. This is just as important as building an organic presence and it takes far less time to see results. The problem is that PPC is difficult. You need to know exactly what keywords to use (and which terms to exclude), what to include in your ad copy, how much to bid, where and when to run your ads, and more. To avoid mistakes, you have two main options: hire a PPC expert to work at your company or outsource PPC.
How Much Does PPC Cost?
The cost of PPC for your company will depend on how many ads you’re running and how many clicks you receive. The average cost per click (CPC) is between $1 and $2, although highly-competitive keywords for desirable search terms can cost more than $50 per click. Small businesses typically pay between $9,000 and $10,000 a month just on Google Ads.
If your clicks lead you to acquire customers with a high lifetime value, PPC can have a great return on investment. However, if they bring you unqualified traffic, they’re a huge waste of money. For this reason, it’s essential to know what you’re doing when you create PPC ads.
Handling PPC In House vs Outsourcing
With this in mind, you can start to think about whether you want to manage PPC in house or if you’d prefer to outsource the activity to an expert. To figure out the right option, you need to assess your unique situation.
Do You Already Have PPC Skills?
If one of your employees has knowledge of PPC, it may seem logical to continue managing the activity in house. It’s easy to create simple ads — and even see decent results — particularly if you’re marketing a single product or service in just one location.
However, if you’re serious about taking your PPC campaigns to the next level, you’ll need someone with specialized training. For instance, if you want to expand into new markets or significantly grow your brand awareness, you’ll need more than basic skills.
Alternatively, you could train an employee (such as someone with a marketing background). Bear in mind, though, that it could take several months for your employee to learn everything, which means a delay before you put your campaigns into action.
When Do You Want to Start Your PPC Campaigns?
It’s not just training a current employee that could delay your campaigns — even hiring a new employee can be time consuming. Outsourcing PPC is much faster, allowing you to start almost immediately. All the expert needs is information about your business and your goals for the ads.
Should You Just Hire a Marketing Team?
Another option is to hire a marketing team to carry out all your digital marketing tasks in house, not just PPC. Whereas this can be a good option for some companies, it’s still quite expensive. Before deciding to go this route, consider the pros and cons of outsourcing digital marketing. For instance, outsourcing will give you access to top talent for a lot less, although it will mean losing some control over your brand image.
How Much Can You Afford?
If your budget for PPC is less than $500 a month, it’s unlikely that you’ll be able to afford to outsource PPC. Decide if it would be worth increasing your budget (the higher ROI could make this worthwhile) or if you’d rather keep your effort small for now and outsource in the future when you have more funds available.
If you have a larger budget and want access to top talent, though, hiring a PPC expert may be out of your budget, whereas contracting a freelancer or agency could be affordable. This makes the decision an easy one.
Do You Have Time for PPC?
An in-house employee will need to be able to dedicate enough time to PPC campaigns. For simple campaigns, it’s necessary to check ad performance at least once a week (twice a week is better). For complex campaigns, daily monitoring is critical. This could be problematic — after all, you hired the employee for something else.
Are You Familiar with PPC Tools?
If you hire a professional, there’s no need to train your staff member to use PPC tools. In addition, whereas some tools are free, others have a cost to use — this is a hidden expense of managing PPC in house. Some such tools include WordStream Advisor, SEMrush, AdEspresso, and Unbounce.
Are You Falling Behind the Competition?
Are your competitors dominating paid search? Do you keep seeing their ads on social media? Have they had an increase in reviews or followers, whereas your numbers remain stagnant? These are all signs that you need to step up your effort. If you’re currently relying on an in-house employee for your PPC, it’s clearly not working well enough.
When to Use White Label PPC
What about if you are a digital marketing agency? You may still like to consider outsourcing PPC. In this case, you can use white label PPC.
White label PPC means you pay a third-party for your PPC and then brand the service as your own to sell to clients. As with any white label service, your clients are unaware that it’s not you carrying out the work, as you are the only one who has contact with your clients.
You can use the white label PPC to retain more of your clients — as, if you are unable to offer PPC, clients may leave you for a competitor who has a wider array of services. At the same time, it allows you to keep expenses low.
White label PPC also allows you to keep up with growing demand. As your business has grown, you may have acquired more clients — who are now asking more from you. By outsourcing PPC, you can prevent overworking your team and avoid the need to hire another employee.
How to Find the Right Person for the Job
If you do decide to outsource, the next step is to find the right person. No matter if you’re outsourcing PPC for your own business and acquiring white label PPC, you need to choose between a freelancer and an agency. Plus, you need to ensure you choose someone qualified for the job. There are a few factors to bear in mind to ensure you make the right decision for your business.
Scalability Needs
If you want to run just a couple of PPC ads at a time (and this is unlikely to change in the foreseeable future), it may be unnecessary to use an agency. An independent freelancer who is able to dedicate enough time to your campaigns could be the perfect option. Freelancers tend to be inexpensive and will provide a personal approach.
However, if you want to run more complex campaigns or you may need to scale up your effort soon, it could be better to use an agency from the start. Whatever your requirements, someone will be available to manage your campaigns.
Certification
Top freelancers have a Google Ads certification. Agencies should also be part of the Google Partners program. PPC professionals who lack these qualifications will likely offer you a low-quality service.
Experience
Ideally, you’ll find someone with experience in your industry. Each sector faces different challenges, meaning that working with a professional who knows how PPC works for your type of business will be a huge advantage.
How to Be Successful When You Outsource PPC
Beyond hiring the right person, there are a few things you need to do to ensure your campaigns are effective.
Figure Out Your Campaign Goals
Before you start any campaigns, decide the reason for running ads. Are you building brand awareness, generating leads, or pushing for a sale? Without clear goals, it will be impossible for you to use ads effectively — even with the help of an expert.
Decide Where to Run Ads
You most likely want to run ads on Google, but there are other platforms to consider as well. Facebook is another popular choice, but there are several others, including Bing Ads, Bidvertiser, and AdRoll. Each has a distinct purpose and will show your ads in different places. A PPC expert can give you advice on the best choices, but it’s a good idea to research beforehand as well.
Set Out Communication Guidelines
PPC is an ongoing task. Whenever you have a live campaign, you’ll need someone monitoring it and making changes to improve performance. In addition, you’ll want to know how your campaigns are progressing and what exactly the PPC professional is doing. Decide how you’ll communicate from the start, including how you’ll strategize new campaigns to match your business goals and how the PPC expert will provide you with reports on current campaigns.
Although some businesses may decide to keep PPC in house (either using the skills of an employee they already have or hiring someone new), most will find that outsourcing PPC is the best option. This allows you to stay within your budget at the same time as receiving a top-quality service to become more competitive.
You can outsource PPC to MYVA360. Not only will you receive digital marketing support from our extended team, you’ll also gain a dedicated virtual assistant to handle all your monotonous tasks — related to PPC and business activities in general. Schedule a consultation to talk about what you want to achieve by when you outsource PPC to us.
