Our traditional ecommerce company has used the same person for our Google Search PPC for the last 4+ years. He has done well...or at least we are satisfied with our ROI. We are moving into more product lines both physical and digital outside of our current products. We believe our current PPC guy to be very capable in both the 'art and science' of PPC for search. He is old school in lots of ways but does use many modern methods for analytics to fine tune our keyword list. Problem is...dealing with the guy is a bitch. I get off the phone with him and I feel like I just got beat up. The dude is abrasive as hell. We are looking for someone new...but jumping into bed with someone we don't know is very scary. Plus, we compare everyone we interview against our belief that this other guy does know his stuff...and the doubt that everyone who says 'I do Adwords' is really capable. We prefer a small company or individual to deal with. Maybe I have blinders on...cause surely there are others as/more capable then he is. Finding and putting our money on the line to be potentially wasted by someone is the rub. What are the most important criteria and questions you would want answered by someone before giving them your Adwords campaign management?
There are so many things... To me, it would be if the manager can write good ads that get clicked on and convert as well. Your current manager may indeed be doing this so it may not be easy for someone new. If you do switch, give the new guy a chance to get familiar with your campaign and products. Proper keyword use is important too. I guess in your case I would ask, given two ads, first with a 4.3% CTR and a 2.8% conversion rate, second with CTR of 5.2% and 2.1% conversion, which would you keep? We'll assume both have roughly same number of impressions in the thousands. They should answer the first one. Ask what they would do to increase CTR. Ask them to tell you what they know about quality score. Doesn't matter if you don't know yourself. If they seem to know and answer confidently, they should be better than someone who goes "um.." or sounds like he's BSing. The Adwords FAQ could help with asking questions and getting answers. How Google ranks ads would be a good question. So would the main components of QS. By the way, a fresh view of your campaign may be a good thing. After a long time such as four years with your manager, a person can get stale and not be as effective as they once were. A new person may come up with new ideas that improve your campaign.
Interesting, seeing as your starting some new stuff i would end to dance in this direction. 1, i would not change anything at all with your current guy and the work he does, i would leave that alone for now 2. interview people based on the advice given above by LWM and start a new person or even split test into two parts your new venture between a couple of new people. 3. give it a Little time to wash and then eliminate one of the two from you new trial period, the winner would then control all new stuff then if your happy with the new guy he could pick your original workload replacing ruff as guts if you wanted to do that or you may find ruff as guts just has a lacking in people skills but exceeds in adwords, but i am sure the right call will be there at the time. this method also reduces / removes any stress on you as to are you making the right call, in many ways it's just like running a test of ads in a campaign to see what one fires the best and where if any need tweaking.
Hi Darren, Leaving the known can be scary, even if the guy does beat you up. Here's what I'd recommend: 1. It sounds like you are happy with aspects of how your guy operates. Document what you like, the things he does you feel are valuable, processes he has introduced, etc. 2. Specifically address these areas with any candidates. Ask questions to elicit their work habits and strategies, and see how closely they align with the way your guy has done things in the past. (By the way, you are 100% correct to not trust any person that simply says they know AdWords. That won't get the job done, and I've interviewed plenty of people to know that 99% of them don't know enough to be managing anyone's campaigns other than their own!) 3. Get testimonials that specifically address campaign metrics/improvement. Do NOT take their word for it, and don't put a bunch of stock in the AdWords Qualified Individual thing. It's a nice to have, but it certainly doesn't mean they're good at any of this stuff. 4. Find someone that is nicer If this person ever interacts with clients, it's important they can explain things plainly, and more importantly, not make someone feel beat up!
Can I throw something else into the ring on the this discussion. You haven't mentioned cost being a factor. Is there much variance in the cost of the people you've looked at. We're about to receive a quote for our work and I haven't got a clue on what basis they'll quote me, so any thoughts would be appreciated. Stephen
Hi Stephen! Do you mean the cost examples for having a person/agency handle your PPC for you? Just wanted to clarify before I answer
Sorry to be pimping my services, but I do contract PPC work and your business sounds perfect for my type of background. http://forums.digitalpoint.com/showthread.php?t=1457665 All of the advice youve been given in this thread are good ways to weed out the type of person your looking for. I would be happy to have an initial conversation, and find out if we might be a fit. Regardless, all the best in your efforts. Fletch
Hi Stephen, No worries You'll usually see a price quoted as a set up fee, and then a management fee that's a percentage of what your media spend is. So for example, if you have a $3,000 a month spend and the provider's rate is 15% of your spend, they'd charge you $450 to manage it monthly. This usually happens on a sliding scale, so if your budget starts to get really high they'll knock a few % points off the management fees. The other way you see is charged is per keyword that they manage for you. Normally they'll have a set up fee as well, and then a per-keyword-managed charge. I'm not as much a fan of those, personally, and they're less common, but they're out there.
Sure thing, Stephen. Feel free to get in touch if I can help with your campaigns at all, or if you have any other questions. Good luck!