Experience with outsourcing PPC campaign?

[zackster]

Anyone here have experience getting an outside firm to run the PPC campaign for your website? Can you describe your experiences for the communal benefit?

Zack

[placebo]

Hi Zack!

I can tell you about it but from my point of view (PPC company). What would you like to know?

You can check what me and my small firm do at PPC Pay per Click Campaign Management with Online Marketing Agency

Usually, first we have a detailed discussion with client to make all requirements clear. After that we do research, write a short plan and prepare everything to start campaign. If client accept our vision we start with work on account or we make changes if necessary.

Some people ask only for maintenance of an account and some want optimization of their PPC campaign but anyway, our process contains 4 stages : Creating keywords and ad groups, Writing ads and biding, Reporting, Refining ads and keywords (optimization).

I have so much to tell about it but don't want to be to descriptive here or look like some seller so if you need any more info feel free to ask.

Cheers

[zackster]

Hi placebo,

Thanks for posting. My main concern is that I spend a lot of money on the ad campaign but don't get any paid conversions for my service.

What kind of assurance can you offer me?

Zack

[placebo]

There can be two things wrong here.

1. You are targeting wrong audience. In other words your keywords don't match the service you provide and that is most common mistake in PPC, It is the quality of the traffic that matters, not the quantity or number of times it drives traffic to your site. So we can offer you optimization and testing of your campaign

2. Your landing pages are not good enough, missing call to action, hard to understand or navigate, etc. Some small changes on landing pages can turn whole campaigns upside down but of course it needs some time to do that, depending on number of visits.

So in cases like this we offer PPC revision and edit on fixed price and it is not big at all imo since we work outside U.S. and in comparison with other providers we are placed as "cheap". In assurance part (for management) we can offer pricing on percentage of goods sold/conversions made and i believe it is very fair way of paying for this type of service where both client and provider can be satisfied.

You can contact us by company's email or via skype (spesMedia) and we will check your ppc accounts, do a research, create strategy and present it to you. If you accept it then we do all changes and after that is "the management" part that i've talked about and paying on conversions made.

What do you say?

[Vanessa]

Some things to consider as someone who manages PPC campaigns and has a team to do this for others...

An outsourced campaign needs to have at least 500/mo ad spend.

You as the vendor should have complete tracking in place from keyword to sale made. This way you know which part of your funnel you need to work on.

If you are having a problem converting clicks to paid buyers, there are various places where things can go a miss. The steps from keyword, to ad, to bidding, to landing page call to action, to conversion from interest to sale. Each part of those things can be tracked and improved.
Figure out what your total cost per lead is and work to improve that number.

In terms of assurances, best to look for consistent communication and outline of goals and work to be done over specific periods of time.

If you are not tracking at the keyword to completed action level, you will have mixed results and not be sure which improvement worked. You also have to look at what happens after they get to the landing page. This kind of conversion depends on what you're asking for in your landing page call to action: email sign up, free trial, cheap trail, full purchase. You should test to see which one not only converts from the landing page but to total revenue brought in. That's not necessarily optimizing the PPC campaign (in or outsourced) but optimizing your conversion funnel.