To hire a PPC management company or not to hire a PPC management company? That is definitely a good question. If you’re fretting over whether your business will benefit from getting an expert in PPC management onboard, we’re going to help you hash it out.
You’re probably already aware that there’s a lot that goes into a PPC campaign and sometimes a certain level of experience is necessary to make it go off with a bang. However, if your campaign’s complexity is at a minimum or if you have a team that can easily learn, grasp, and run the campaign; outside forces may not be of value to you.
Now, we’re not ones to shoot ourselves in the foot. We want business and our business is to provide quality and effective PPC management. However, we’re also benefactors of quality and effective PPC knowledge, so let us be of service, and you figure out if our team can play a more significant role in helping with your campaign.
Profitability
Yes, like so many things in life, it really starts with the money question. Will it be more cost-effective to hire from the outside, or does an in-house person/team fill the PPC management role?
Questions to ask yourself for in-house PPC management:
- Do I need to provide education to an existing person/team and how much will it cost? (Keep in mind that this isn’t just tuition expense, but also an employee’s time not performing their usual tasks and who that effects)
- Do I have the resources to manage the campaign or will I end up hurting my team by adding too much to an already heavy schedule? How will this affect the tasks they currently perform?
- Do I need to hire a new person for this job? Or even a new team? What will those costs be? (Again, remember that this isn’t just based on salary, but benefits, office space and supplies, time, etc. are all factors too)
- If I do hire a person/team for the role, will they have a position once the campaign is finished? How will I plan for their future if PPC isn’t part of it?
Questions to ask yourself for agency management:
- What is the agency’s fee and what is my PPC budget? What is my expected ROI?
- What does my risk profile tell me about the agency not meeting my ROI goals?
There are various matters to take into consideration when making this decision and only you will know what factors are important and what questions need to be asked. Once you figure out what’s most essential to your specific company, you’ll have more insight into whether working with in-house personnel or with an agency will be most cost-effective.
Knowledge
Know-how is important and running a PPC campaign takes some. It will be in your best interest to have a knowledgeable and experienced person/team handling your campaign. So, recognize the level of these two factors within your in-house team before making a decision on who should manage the campaign.
You can quickly and somewhat easily learn about bidding and keywords that will snag you some quality ROI, but knowing how to do it well is what will save you time and money—meaning, a certain level of knowledge will only be of benefit.
If you want to get outside help setting up the campaign in its infancy and then have your in-house team take over, it wouldn’t be a bad idea. Getting all the appropriate research to start off is critical to your success, so if you have any worries or questions, an expert will be your best bet. After they supply the rock, you build on top.
This isn’t to say you shouldn’t give it a go from start to finish if you think you have the resources and knowledge.
Complexity
Consider the size and complexity of the campaign you want to run. Are you local or international? Do you have just one campaign going, or several at a time? If your campaign is rather complex, your budget will need to move up in scale.
To have a campaign that pays off, you usually need all hands on deck—all departments working together to make it a success.
If you work with an agency, you not only have PPC experts working at your will, but also UX peeps, optimization peeps, content/SEO peeps, and peeps dedicated to re-marketing tactics. That’s a lot of peeps. These are important pieces of a fully functional and lucrative campaign, especially an intricate one.
ROI
Maybe you’re thinking that an agency will make the most sense at this point. But don’t forget about the agency fees.
Basically, you need to look at the dinero. How much do you stand to gain after agency fees?
What’s the minimum fee to manage the campaign? What’s your budget? Check your margins and see what you can afford and what will pay off. Can you use an expert for the critical building phase and then use your in-houser’s to manage from there? Will the experts take a percentage of what your campaign pulls in?
Once you know how you’d need to pay for the experts, you’ll have a better idea of how you should proceed with using them, or not using them.
Variables
You got a lot goin’ on and some stuff to think about when it comes to your PPC campaign. Knowing what questions to ask from the start will give you some vision and certainly contribute to your decision to go in-house or expert.
Truly understanding the amount of time, effort, and cost that goes into your campaign is where you start. If you’re dealing with an in-house team that already has a lot on its plate, an expert may be for you. But if your team does have the time, it could really pay off in the long run.
Make sure you’re realistic with your goals and we’re confident you’ll make a rational decision. We’re always here to help if run into any problems, so contact us whenever you need!
