PPC campaigns: Outsource?

Posted on February 12, 2007 by Dave J.

First it was the appearance of the SEO consultants, now the PPC consultants are coming.

I just learned of this specialty last week. Up till now, I assumed that Search-Engine-Optimization services were the appropriate (and only) place to turn over management of your Pay-Per-Click programs. It makes sense, tho. PPC is tightly focused on three things:

  1. Keyword/placement selection
  2. Ad content
  3. Landing page

which don’t have anything to do with SEO except keywords.

One key difference in how you work with PPC consultants is money. No matter how much control they promise you, they are still spending your money. “SEO Clare” (co-worker of “SEO Ruby”) is looking out for those venturing into this outsourcing with a PPC Customer’s Bill of Rights:

  1. The right to comprehensive reporting
  2. The right to ask questions
  3. The right to participation
  4. The right to ongoing support
  5. The right to responsiveness

In other words, this is a relationship, not a simple ‘outsourcing’ or purchase. But I hope anyone going this route has enough sense to be nervous about giving up control. Ruby just helps put that nervousness in a check list.

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  • Anonymous

    Although this forum thread on “Which Pricing Model Is Best For PPC Campaign Management?” is from 9/9/05, it is still interesting to potential PPC Outsourcers.http://forums.searchenginewatch.com/showthread.php?t=7741

  • Anonymous

    Although this forum thread on “Which Pricing Model Is Best For PPC Campaign Management?” is from 9/9/05, it is still interesting to potential PPC Outsourcers.http://forums.searchenginewatch.com/showthread.php?t=7741

  • Dave J.

    Thanks for the links. Will post on the Google thing next.

  • Dave J.

    Thanks for the links. Will post on the Google thing next.

  • Jon Miller

    Like you, I’m very concerned about giving up control to a PPC agency. I saw one B2B marketer who was spending 40% of his overall PPC budget on his search agency, yet they were still bidding on words that were not converting. And it took weeks to get a new campaign launched, instead of his competitor, who could launch a new search campaigns in one day.I think many marketers would rather manage search in-house, but there have traditionally been two barriers:1. The lack of affordable tools to automate key elements of the PPC process. People shouldn’t manage bids or spend time hunting for new keywords — that is the perfect thing for software to do. But there hasn’t been a tool that was easy for marketers to buy and start using. This is especially true for B2B marketers, since most of the existing tools out there focus on larger B2C companies.2. The search agencies have created a perception that it’s really hard to do yourself. This is just a scare tactic. With the right tools to find and manage keywords and automate bidding, anyone can optimize their PPC campaigns.(Note: Admittedly, I am a little biased on this point. My company, Marketo, is soon launching a new product to help B2B marketers automate and optimize their PPC search marketing campaigns, including keyword management, bid optimization, and landing page optimization.)

  • Jon Miller

    Like you, I’m very concerned about giving up control to a PPC agency. I saw one B2B marketer who was spending 40% of his overall PPC budget on his search agency, yet they were still bidding on words that were not converting. And it took weeks to get a new campaign launched, instead of his competitor, who could launch a new search campaigns in one day.I think many marketers would rather manage search in-house, but there have traditionally been two barriers:1. The lack of affordable tools to automate key elements of the PPC process. People shouldn’t manage bids or spend time hunting for new keywords — that is the perfect thing for software to do. But there hasn’t been a tool that was easy for marketers to buy and start using. This is especially true for B2B marketers, since most of the existing tools out there focus on larger B2C companies.2. The search agencies have created a perception that it’s really hard to do yourself. This is just a scare tactic. With the right tools to find and manage keywords and automate bidding, anyone can optimize their PPC campaigns.(Note: Admittedly, I am a little biased on this point. My company, Marketo, is soon launching a new product to help B2B marketers automate and optimize their PPC search marketing campaigns, including keyword management, bid optimization, and landing page optimization.)

  • SEO ruby

    PPC is intriguing to me because you can look at it in a couple different ways:1- It’s easy! Sign up and your ad can be there instantly.2- It’s complicated! Make sure you have the right ad, the right terms, and monitor conversion, click through, cost per click etc… My take on PPC is that if you have a marketing background of sort, you should be able to manage your own PPC to be pretty effective. However, if you own your own business and you only have 10 minutes a month to think about PPC, you should consider outsourcing.

  • SEO ruby

    PPC is intriguing to me because you can look at it in a couple different ways:1- It’s easy! Sign up and your ad can be there instantly.2- It’s complicated! Make sure you have the right ad, the right terms, and monitor conversion, click through, cost per click etc… My take on PPC is that if you have a marketing background of sort, you should be able to manage your own PPC to be pretty effective. However, if you own your own business and you only have 10 minutes a month to think about PPC, you should consider outsourcing.

  • Anonymous

    Thanks for posting on the “Google thing”.Here are two links to info I like concerning paid online advertising:White Paper – http://cdn.theladders.net/static/doc/douzet_modeling_ppc_paradigm.pdfCPA vs. PPC Approach -http://www.turn.com/corp/how/how-it-works.jspI never used “TURN”, but the founders have good backgrounds.http://www.turn.com/corp/about/management.jsp

  • Anonymous

    Thanks for posting on the “Google thing”.Here are two links to info I like concerning paid online advertising:White Paper – http://cdn.theladders.net/static/doc/douzet_modeling_ppc_paradigm.pdfCPA vs. PPC Approach -http://www.turn.com/corp/how/how-it-works.jspI never used “TURN”, but the founders have good backgrounds.http://www.turn.com/corp/about/management.jsp

  • Anonymous

    Whether you outsource or keep “in house” avoid the “17 Most Common PPC Mistakes Web Marketers Make”.http://www.seomoz.org/blog/17-most-common-ppc-mistakes-web-marketers-make

  • Anonymous

    Whether you outsource or keep “in house” avoid the “17 Most Common PPC Mistakes Web Marketers Make”.http://www.seomoz.org/blog/17-most-common-ppc-mistakes-web-marketers-make

  • Dave J.

    Thanks for the link. I’m printing this one out, cuz 17 is too many to work over at one time. At this pace you should start your own blog.

  • Dave J.

    Thanks for the link. I’m printing this one out, cuz 17 is too many to work over at one time. At this pace you should start your own blog.