Convince me I need a professional PPC service provider
-
Very new to SEO and somewhat new to PPC but I have managed a few campaigns before for an old website. I am very good with numbers, calculating ratios, conversions, etc. I have a strong analytical and business mind and the theory behind PPC makes sense to me.
I know my target audience very well. I am an expert in the that field but I am not an expert in PPC. I am just starting out with a very small website advertising myself as a professional consultant in my field. The thought of spending extra money on a PPC guru when that money could go into my site or pay for visitors is a little scary.
Do you think I can learn and teach myself all the tricks of PPC or is this an area where it really makes sense to hire an expert to do the work for me? My budget would be small at first ($500 or less per month) so every little dollar helps.
Thanks.
-
Yes, I'm the same way. If I am passionate about something then I will usually do it myself. Although, it may not always be the best way to go about it, because sometimes it ends up pushing the higher priority things I should be attentive to behind.
Unfortunately for us passion doesn't always = priority
-
I agree.
I pay to have a lot of jobs done and do a lot of jobs that I could easily pay someone else to do who is already on my staff.
Part of the decision has to do with which jobs I enjoy.
We sell a product that I am fascinated with. All of my employees know how to prepare that product for sale and they do that work part of the time. They do an excellent job. It's honestly boring work. However, I spend more time on that task than they do - because I enjoy doing that job.
-
EGOL's point is valid
Pashmina's point is valid
At the end of the day, one or the other is only valid after knowing your full situation. What do I mean by that?
Nobody can give you the right answer because we don't have all the information needed to make an accurate decision.
We don't know how much time you have to teach yourself, spend on setting up your campaigns and, monitoring your campaigns.
Don't forget that quote "Time Is Money"
It's like asking if you should hire a lawyer, handyman, painter, mechanic, movers and etc...
A lot of things that these professionals can do, you maybe able to do better for yourself but:
You need to determine how much time you have to put aside on it, how quickly you need it done and etc..
In other words based on everything that people have answered, only you can make the final decision.
-
While I agree with EGOL, that no one will be able to do it as well as you given your depth of knowledge on your business and audience, I still think it makes sense to hire an expert.
(I'm over generalizing in a preachy dramatic way to make a point, so take it for what it is.) Smart capable people; we all have the same problem. We think: "Well, no one else can do it better than I can, so I'll just do it myself." But if we don't learn to accept support, and play to our strengths, we can only go so far in our ambitions to build something big.
One of the best decisions I made at 26, was to outsource my house cleaning. Seriously. It's a blessing. And now I just embrace it in every aspect of life, and business. Hiring others to do services, has given me space and capacity to build a better, and bigger business. I can build my own website, do my own taxes, and etc. I can probably build a really good website. But I don't want to be a good web designer. I want to be a PPC expert, and continue to develop that strength more deeply. So I outsource my website and taxes to a professional.
In that same vein, you need a professional PPC manager. Let it be their focus to maximize your campaign's effectiveness, and stay on top of the ever-changing PPC landscape. And you focus on being more you. I bet if we look at the numbers, then just one more extra conversion/sale/client per month would more than pay for the expertise, (not to mention the time you would save).
-
I'm with Egol, you seem to be clued up, and no one is going to care as much as yourself. so start learning.
i would look into your SEO as a more long term solution PPC does not work for every one.
-
I'll second EGOL's recommendation on several fronts.
Even if you decide to turn it over to a PPC pro in the future I'd recommend managing your PPC campaigns at the beginning. If you decide to turn the management of the campaign over to an agency later, you will be much better equipped to make that decision.
Definitely read Brian Gedde's Advanced Google Adwords. Brian Geddes provides tremendous insights and very clear instructions and methodologies. I had been managing my own campaigns for years and changed everything after reading this book.
The only caveat is time. It can be time consuming to manage, especially at first, or if you aren't seeing the results you expect. Honing in on your best results may include trying different ads, A/B testing, geo-targeting and as you already mentioned, a good bit of data analysis. If you have a handful of pages or products that may not take too long. And you're going to burn through some Adwords dollars during this phase.
Good luck - it's a great tool and it's brought plenty of business my way.
-
Thanks Egol. I don't mind paying people if they can provide a valuable service but I am often let down by the so-called "experts" in various fields. I think PPC consultants make sense if you have a large site with hundreds of products but I only have one site and am just selling one thing (myself). Cheers.
-
After reading your question... I came to the conclusion that you are the type of person who should bet on himself. You know your biz, know your audience, embrace numbers, know how to calculate and enjoy it, maybe you enjoy a little competition.
If that is the case and if you can spare a few days up front for learning and a few hours per month at first (which may decrease over time), then I encourage you to consider doing the PPC yourself.
Not trying to bash the PPC pros... but for doing the PPC for your business, I would put my money on you. You have the analytical skills and the biz knowledge plus you are the one with skin in the game.
I suggest that you do what I did....
First, start practicing a bit with PPC..... then read Advanced Google AdWords by Brad Geddes... then attend one of his Adwords Seminars. http://certifiedknowledge.org/adwords-seminars/
If you do that your competitors will be in trouble.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
100+ PPC Landing Pages Linking To Main URL... Hurting My SEO?
I started another thread around this question but don't think I was articulate enough. So, I have over 100 various landing pages that I use for targeted PPC. I don't really have any interest in these pages amassing their own SEO value; I simply use them for my PPC accounts. However, they all link back to my home page. Is this considered a link farm? And, if so, is the best option to simply add a nofollow attribute to all the links pointing to my home page? Would there be any reason to keep the links as follow? I don't think they're giving my site any SEO value but I'm concerned that they could be harming it instead. Any expert advice would be much appreciated.
Paid Search Marketing | | jfishe19880 -
PPC Long tail keywords
I was wondering feedback and input on creating long tail keywords associated with a question. With addition a landing page that addresses that problem with a few products. Using PPC to bid on long tail keywords, I would set a campaign for long tail keywords and have multiple ad groups with a close knit and similar sentences like "Top 10 highest rated summer dresses" and "Popular dresses for the summer weather." My landing page would address the question with a list of products like a buzz feed article format. 1. As it is on a subdomain blog with an add to cart feature, would interlink building be helpful in exchanging link juice. 2. Bidding on a long tail keyword is cheaper, but will they result in higher conversions since its hyper-specific question? And since it is a long tail keyword sentence. 2-3 smaller keywords between the sentence would also pick up on to Google search?
Paid Search Marketing | | petmkt0 -
How long does it ramp up a PPC campaign?
I was speaking to a SEO the other day. He is going to be working on an ecommerce site soon. I was suggesting that he might want to augment his SEO efforts with PPC in order to be able to show some results in the near term, as it would most likely take some time for his SEO work to be showing results. His response was that while he hasn't utilized them as much, he's found that it can take 3-6 months to get a PPC campaign to really make money. I'm just curious if you guys feel that this is an accurate statement?
Paid Search Marketing | | brettgus0 -
What to do against competitor PPC sabotage?
This morning a competitor of ours decided to go on a PPC rampage against us. Basically our budgeting money was spent within the first hour of going live on bing. Its pretty obvious whats going on as we had a tremendous amount of clicks all from the exact same keyword within a short period of time. Obviously first step was to contact bing and they are going to refund me a credit once they go through their process, but they didnt really give me confidence about the future. It seems they may not be able to prevent this from continually happening.. ? The attacker used some sort of IP spoofing as the clicks were all from different IP's which is probably why it snuck pasted Bing. Wondering what have you guys done in the past to prevent this or combat it? Thankfully it didnt happen on google
Paid Search Marketing | | DemiGR0 -
I need monthly SEO help!
Hello, I'm new here, but a HUGE fan of SEOmoz and their working principles. I need someone who would have the same regard for SEOmoz and a healthy respect for safe SEO principles to help me with my monthly clients. Is this the place to post about my need or should I take it to the jobs area? Thanks in advance for your guidance.
Paid Search Marketing | | kbates1 -
PPC Management Software Recommendations?
What is your favorite PPC Mgmt software? I was looking over my options and wanted to see if anyone has any recommendations? I've always done this manually but would like to find software that can allow my bids to put me (for example) in the third place position on Microsoft adCenter. Thanks,
Paid Search Marketing | | celife
Chris0 -
Starting Fresh with a New PPC Account
I've inherited an Adwords account with a few years' worth of history. The account has changed hands a lot though and there's a lot of clutter and confusing account architecture (confusing and redundant campaigns, thousands of inactive long-long-tail keywords for every match type, etc.). I have a new architecture/strategy in mind but I'm unsure if I should start a new account from scratch, pause 90% of things and start some new campaigns, or delete a bunch of stuff permanently and start some new campaigns. My fear with the pausing option is that I'll have to wade through a bunch of clutter in my daily management and reporting - I like to keep things clean. My fear with deleting is losing data - I'd like to be able to always look back at how things were. And my fear with the new account from scratch method is losing whatever account/campaign quality score or historical value the account has built over time and the logistics of having to stop the old account to create a new account. Can you even have 2 accounts with the same domain or would I have to delete the old account before launching the new? For all my past PPC accounts, I started them more or less from scratch so this is new to me. Any advice/insights would be most appreciated. Thanks! Jeff
Paid Search Marketing | | jeff.gibson0 -
Have you seen a correlation in between running a PPC campaing and increased SEO ranking for a new site (< 3 months old)?
I have read many conflicting articles on this topic. I understand that running a PPC campaign at a launch phase of a site can get a lot of insights such as exact traffic patterns etc. But the question is: is there a correlation or not with increased rankings position for new site as search engine are forced to crawled that given landing page to give your ad a score? Thanks in advance for your answers and opinion
Paid Search Marketing | | OlivierChateau0