In the
battle for marketing dollars, SEO and PPC (pay-per-click) are in constant
competition with one another. As Google changes its algorithms, companies find
themselves competing against moving goal posts.
SEO can be a slow process, and
businesses in competitive industries may never be able to hold onto the number
one rankings they desire. That’s why more money is funneled into PPC
advertising.
PPC advertising has the
potential to deliver targeted traffic, but it takes technical know-how to do it
properly. Even marketing veterans can make mistakes when they enter into a new
market, or start selling a new product with PPC. It takes an expert PPC analyst
to review every potential facet of your account, looking for ways to improve on
the copy and the landing page.
If you’re thinking of setting
up your own Google AdWords account, don’t. There’s a reason PPC professionals
charge a fee for management.
If you’re new to PPC, you may
be unaware that it will cost you less to hire an expert than it will to launch
a campaign on your own.
Here are 10 reasons why you should hire a PPC management expert.
1. Keyword Research Isn’t Easy
Keyword research is crucial to
your success, and it’s something PPC experts spend a lot of time on initially
and throughout the PPC process. If you pick the wrong keywords you can quickly
exhaust your budget and your campaign will have very poor returns.
There are free
keyword tools, such as Google’s Keyword Tool, that anyone can use, but the
better tools are usually the paid ones.
Paid tools would
give you a competitive advantage, but at a price. Some of these tools can cost
upward of $100 monthly in addition to your other expenses.
PPC experts don’t stop at one
of these tools, either. They use multiple data points to form a more complete
picture of the sales landscape.
2. Wrong Ad Copy Could Result in Low
Conversion
One of the greatest strengths a
PPC expert has is the ability to perform competitive research. PPC experts
understand how to find good copy, they study your competition, and they form
ads based on what they know works. That kind of copy isn’t something the
amateur can do overnight, especially when every word means something.
The right copy can elevate your
campaign’s click-through rate and net you more conversions. Do you really want
to take a chance on writing the wrong copy?
Bad copy that does not convey
the right message, and is only trying to get you more traffic, may result in
low conversion, meaning you just wasted lots of money.
3. Tracking Requires Technical Expertise
The foundation of any good PPC
program is its ability to track not only sales, but where those sales are
coming from. Good analysis can show you which placements and keywords are
likely to bring you the most conversions.
In addition, tagging your
campaigns allows you to see which ones are most effective. Tracking code
installation requires at least some basic HTML knowledge, so if you have no
such knowledge then you better leave this to the experts or you may have to pay
your webmaster to install it for you. If you would like to track your
leads/sales from phone calls, that would require additional set up and
expertise.
4. Do You Understand All the PPC
Terminology?
You may know what PPC stands
for, but do you know what all these mean: CPM, CPC, CPA? Give up?
What about the difference
between Impressions, Views, and Hits? Do you know what retargeting is?
Understanding these terms is
extremely important in the day-to-day management of your campaigns. Until
you’re familiar with all these (and several more terms not even mentioned
here), then you aren’t ready to manage your own paid search campaigns.
5. Campaign Settings Can Be Confusing
There are several potential
settings you must adjust in order to get optimum exposure for your campaigns.
For example, geographic settings can help you target a specific part of the
country.
Should you target locally,
statewide, nationally, or worldwide? Should you set up different ad groups for
each? Should you opt-in to partner/affiliate networks and if so should you bid
the same as the search network? If you choose the partner networks, should you
filter out some specific sites?
Without a clear understanding
of these settings, and how they may benefit you, you might be paying too much
for the same traffic that a similar marketer pays pennies on the dollar for.
Without expert advice or some experience, you would never know.
6. Do You Know What a Good Landing Page
Looks Like?
Relevance isn’t just an SEO
term, it’s important in PPC marketing, too. The less relevant your landing
page, the more money you’re spending on conversions. PPC experts understand not
only the principles of landing page design, but also how to test those
principles.
A/B testing is a tactic PPC
experts use to compare different landing pages and improve conversions. That
testing can mean the difference between a 1 percent and 5 percent conversion
rate. A good analyst will also have familiarity and access to third-party A/B
testing software.
7. Prior Experience With
Similar Clients
Often times a PPC expert may
have worked with other clients in your industry and have competitive knowledge
he can apply to your account, which would save you thousands of dollars. In
paid search it’s beneficial to hire a person or a company that has worked with
one or more of your competitors before.
Most paid search companies
probably won’t take on direct competitors as clients at the same time – if they
do, then that’s probably not a good idea – but if they have worked with your
competitors or similar companies previously, then that would be a plus.
8. Is There Click Fraud Going On?
If you’re a beginner, then you
probably wouldn’t know how to monitor for click fraud. You should expect that
there is always going to be click fraud. There may even be some auto-generated
clicks to your ads that have nothing to do with click fraud, but may be a bot
trying to spider your site for whatever reason.
You need to be able to watch
your stats and log files for suspicious activity and when you feel there is
click fraud going on, you can report to the search engine and request a refund.
Although search engines try to block click fraud, from time to time they will
do audits and may give you refunds months later, but this is not to your
benefit.
You need to take control of
this aspect. If you aren’t an analytical person or don’t have some technical
expertise in this area, then it’s best to leave it to the experts.
9. Keeping Up With the Latest Changes
All good online marketers stay
up to date with the latest trends by reading online news, journals, and/or
forums. They may also attend industry trade shows several times annually or
attend networking events, and will also have a few friends and peers they could
reach out to for expert advice or comparing notes on the latest trends.
If you don’t think you can do
all these things, then it is best to hire an expert.
10. Do You Really Have the Time?
If you’re a business owner,
you’re probably busy with hundreds of other tasks daily. Do you really have the
time to manage your own PPC account and give it the attention that it deserves?
Many marketers approach PPC
with the attitude that it’s less complicated, or somehow easier than SEO. The
reality is that PPC costs you money every time you use it.
With PPC rates skyrocketing,
most companies don’t even see returns right away and have to count on repeat
customers or referrals. So every little factor that can improve your ROI would
be beneficial to your bottom line.
