Blog: Marketing Managers Looking to Outsource PPC Campaigns

Most marketing managers do not hire a PPC agency initially. They tend to try freelancers or try to do it themselves most of the time. 

As a marketing manager, your department applies one of these options:

1. Hire an in-house PPC specialist
2. Hire a PPC Agency
3. Hire a freelancer

AND the most popular reasons all over the internet for hiring PPC agencies are: 

• Keep up to date – As a marketing manager, you may not have the time to keep up with the changes to terms and conditions that require the subsequent changes in the ads. You may not have the team members to do this task as they may not have the expertise of the time. 
• Understanding Campaign Settings – Set it and forget it? Nope, This isn’t rotisserie chicken. Campaigns need to be adjusted regularly to target specific areas, keywords, etc. In addition, you need to understand whether you want multiple ad groups or different products or services. 
• Tracking and Analytics – This doesn’t mean just counting your sales; you have to be able to determine the source of these sales
• You get knowledge and experience. 

Digital marketing agencies are in the position of setting realistic expectations when it comes to paid advertising. Marketing dollars are, and at times campaigns may not go as planned. It’s a complicated process, with many agencies promising and underdelivering. 

Suppose you are a marketing manager considering outsourcing your PPC management. In that case, it’s essential to know a few key things about paid campaigns so you can better understand what to expect and increase your confidence in working with an agency. 

Are you a marketing manager looking to outsource your PPC management? Here are 5 things you should know. 

1. The Cost of PPC Campaigns Vary by Industry 

All industries are not created equal when it comes to advertising costs. PPC keywords are most expensive for industries that manage or deal with large amounts of money; an example of this are the insurance industry and money lending. 

Here are the 10 most expensive keywords:

1. Insurance
2. Loans
3. Mortgage
4. Attorney
5. Credit
6. Lawyer
7. Donate
8. Degree
9. Hosting
10. Claim

Another thing to keep in mind is that the click-through-rate (CTR), cost-per-click (CPC), and conversion rate can vary dramatically by the industry. For example, there is a considerable difference between cost-per-click for e-commerce ($1.16) versus legal ($6.75). There is triple CTR for the dating industry (6.05%) versus technology (2.09%)

Suppose your industry pays top dollar for PPC Keywords. In that case, you need to be even more conscious about the agency you choose to work with to follow PPC best practices, including building negative keywords and using A/B testing for ads and landing pages. 

2. Larger Budgets Mean Faster Optimizations

Performance data is important and to optimize ad budgets you need a certain amount of it. As you can imagine, it can take longer to collect the necessary data to optimize PPC campaigns effectively with a small budget. 

If you’re getting a notification indicating “limited by budget” from Google, it’s important to find the reason why. Again, keywords for big money industries can be super expensive, eating up your entire daily budget after just a handful of clicks. If these clicks do not lead to any conversions, you might want to consider cutting some of them or creating separate campaigns for high-value keywords versus less expensive ones. 

3. You Don’t Need All Kinds of Advertising Every Time. 

The type of campaign that is right for your organization at any given time depends on several factors, which include the product or service you offer, your buyer journey, etc. When it comes to paid advertising, both search network ads and display network ads are effective but differ in some aspects: 

• Search network ads are text-based ads that appear next to the search results when you search your products or services. These types of ads are great for capturing intent (e.g. “Toronto Plumber”). For search network ads to be effective, you need to know the intent behind the terms people use to search. 
• Display network ads appear on the Google Display Network (a group of more than 2 million websites, videos, and apps where your Google Ads can appear). The Google Display Network collectively reaches 90% of internet users. These types of ads are best for building brand awareness. 
• The Search Network with Display Selec t is a combination search and display network campaign. You must select Search Network and Display Select in Google Ads to pursue this strategy. 

4. Clicks Do Not Equal Conversions 

Clicks and conversions – the two are not the same. An ad acts as a link to a website or a landing page; however, clicking an ad link is not a conversion. A conversion happens on the page, whether it’s downloading an eBook, subscribing to a newsletter, or buying a product. 

If you find that you are getting lots of clicks but few or no conversions, you may need to tweak your ads. You may have to examine your target audience (creating a buyer persona is a great place to start). You can also look over your keywords again. Or build a better-defined conversion funnel. 

5. Expectations Must Be Reasonable 

PPC is often seen as the most expensive of all the marketing tactics. The reality is that you’re paying for every click, but you can measure where your investment is going. You can see the effectiveness of your PPC spend quickly as opposed to other efforts like SEO, Email Marketing and Social media efforts. SEO is a long-term process that requires ongoing effort. 

A great agency will set realistic goals and expectations but make no guarantees. No agency can guarantee the number of conversions or leads on the outset of a paid campaign. 

Why choose OrbitWeb for your PPC Management?

We are a team of PPC management strategists with years of experience. We know how to get you in front of your audience at the right time. 

If you’re looking at outsourcing your PPC efforts, we can help launch and manage your campaigns. Our PPC strategist will work with your marketing department to build targeted campaigns that optimize profitability. Our PPC management strategists offer a data-driven approach toward paid search advertising. We focus on the data that matters, and we monitor your campaign with the attention you deserve. 

Reach out to us today to find out how we can help your marketing efforts.